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George Bernard Lorraine Records, ca. 1925-1976. Accession 31042, Business records collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.
Gift of Douglas LeGrand, McClean, Virginia, 15 November 1978.
George Bernard Lorraine (12 January 1887- 7 January 1976), son of Charles Lorraine (1853-1939) and Martha Bohannan Lorraine (1852-1930), was a real estate broker and agent in Richmond and later Heathsville, Northumberland County, Virginia. He specialized in the sale of large private estates in Tidewater and eastern Virginia; although, he also did business in other Virginia locales and out-of-state. He was married to Estelle LeGrand Lorraine (1896-1978), and the pair had two children, John Knowles Lorraine and Margaret Lorraine Bleser. He died in Tappahannock Hospital in Essex and was interred in St. Stephens Episcopal Church Cemetery in Heathsville.
The records, ca. 1925-1976, of George Bernard Lorraine, real estate broker and agent in the City of Richmond and Northumberland County, Virginia, consist of advertising, real estate agreements, blueprints, checks, clippings, correspondence (letters), house keys, maps, notes, obituaries, pamphlets, periodicals, photographs, plats, postcards, receipts, and surveys. They generally relate to Lorraine's real estate business, an enterprise encompassing a broad array of purchases and sales for land, businesses, houses, farms, and private estates both in Virginia and out-of-state. A significant number of these properties date their construction to the 19th, 18th and even 17th centuries. Notable properties Lorraine brokered include: Christ's Cross (Criss Cross), Dewberry, Edgewood, Keswick, Kingsmill Plantation, Locksley Hall, Mitchie Tavern, Powhite, Scotchtown, Wilton, and many Virginia Landmarks Register, National Register of Historic Properties, Historic American Building Survey, and Historic Virginia Building Survey properties.
The collection is organized into the following series and sub-series: Series I: Real estate records (Sub-series A: Virginia real estate (bulk), Sub-series B: Out-of-state real estate); Series II: Oversize (Sub- series A: Virginia real estate maps and plats (bulk), Sub-series B: Out-of-state real estate maps and plats, Sub-series C: Miscellaneous and unidentified property maps and plats); Series III: Miscellaneous business correspondence and records; Series IV: Publications; Series V: File cards.
Arranged into Virginia and out-of-state sub-series, this series contains advertising, clippings, correspondence, deeds, maps, notes, obituaries, photographs, plats, postcards, property descriptions, surveys, and real estate agreements pertaining to properties George B. Lorraine brokered, purchased, advertised, or sold. The Virginia sub-series consists of real estate listings arranged alphabetically by county or township. The out-of-state sub-series is arranged alphabetically by state. Within both the Virginia and out-of-state sub-series, properties are arranged alphabetically first according to name. Properties without names follow second and are arranged alphabetically by property owner's surname. For most counties and states, there also exists miscellaneous letter and miscellaneous real estate listings files. The file arrangement for Series I remains consistent with the order established by the brokerage.
Material within this series highlights the buying and selling process undertaken by Lorraine and his real estate brokerage for each property. The correspondence principally consists of letters exchanged between Lorraine's brokerage and other brokers and realtors, prospective buyers, estate administrators, property owners, real estate attorneys, and government officials. Real estate agreements between Lorraine's brokerage, owners, and buyers detail well-defined property descriptions and often accompany the correspondence, as does a profuse amount of property descriptions written for purposes of promotion and distribution to prospective buyers and advertisers. An extensive array of photographs includes exterior, interior, and aerial views of a respective plat's buildings and the adjoining landscape. Copies of these photographs often were distributed to prospective buyers and also occasionally reappear in advertisements written by Lorraine for distribution to prospective buyers, magazines and newspapers. The large bulk of advertisements does not contain images and exists in the form of newspaper clippings from the classifieds. For some of the more famed and recognized properties, clippings held in these files help to establish the history of an estate or a past owner of an estate. There are also obituaries that often denote the death of an estate owner. Smaller maps and plats also are included in these files, while larger maps and plats have been removed and placed in the oversize collection. These maps and plats often denote acreage, architectural measurements, boundaries and bordering property owners, crop and building placement, natural resources, survey information, and geographical location. Also of mention are handwritten notes detailing various business activities including phone conversations, contract negotiations, and advertising drafts. Deeds also appear for a small number of properties in this series.
Arranged into Virginia real estate maps and plats (Sub-series A), out-of-state real estate maps and plats (Sub-series B), and miscellaneous and unidentified real estate maps and plats (Sub-series C). Sub-series A and Sub-series B principally contain larger items that were removed from Series I, Sub-series A and Sub-series B. Oversized items with corresponding files in Series I have been noted within each folder and catalogued in this aid under identical headings. Consequently, this series' sub-series are arranged congruently with Series I.
Sub-series A and B mainly contain maps and blueprints depicting plats purchased, bought, and sold by George B. Lorraine. Of note are United States geological and topographical survey maps and Virginia primary and secondary highway maps denoting locations of properties, survey maps, and blueprints depicting architectural features, crop placement, and landscape features. While maps and plats comprise the bulk of these sub-series, other oversize material may be included in each folder. This smaller amount of material includes advertisements, deeds, floor plans, and aerial photographs.
Sub-series C is unidentified real estate maps and plats and miscellaneous oversize material consisting of United States Army Corps of Engineers geological survey maps, Virginia highway maps, tourist road maps, a genealogical chart for the Fitzhugh-Grymes family of King George County, Virginia, a Stan Fenelle drawing of Secretariat, and a Louisa County Soil Survey. United States Army Corps of Engineers maps and Virginia highway maps may contain property locations and descriptions of unidentified properties.
This series contains correspondence exchanged between Lorraine Real Estate and other brokers and realtors, property owners and buyers, advertisers, attorneys, businesses, organizations, and national, state and city government officials concerning unidentified properties and non-real estate related matters. There are also employee and fiscal records, specifically advertising correspondence and receipts, bank checks, deposits, and statements, 1962-1963, employee sales and commission records, 1963, employee tax records, 1962-1964, interoffice correspondence, 1957, 1974, and correspondence, 1942-1950, with F. Virginius Watkins, Lorraine's real estate attorney. Also contains promotional correspondence and pamphlets, receipts, house keys, a scrapbook of unidentified property photographs arranged by property value, and a list of millionaires in selected states compiled by R. L. Polks and Company in 1940.
Consists of government and organizational publications, periodicals, tourist pamphlets and guidebooks, Mary Wingfield Scott's Richmond Times-Dispatch articles, 1940-1942, on historic buildings, clippings of "Old Dominion Oddities by Allen" published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and a speech, 6 June 1931, by Claude G. Bowers at the unveiling of the bust of John Tyler in the State Capital in Richmond. Some of the periodicals contain advertisements for George Lorraine's brokerage.
This part of the collection holds file cards pertaining to certain real estate properties. Arranged alphabetically by property name, or in some cases location or owner's surname, these cards include information concerning the Historical Virginia Building Survey, estates owned by New Yorkers in the United States South, Virginia churches, and reference sources for individual properties. This series also includes some postcards of Virginia properties.