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Collection is open to research.
Virginia Power retains all patent rights, copyrights, property rights, literary rights, and publication rights to the records. Permission to publish must be obtained from Virginia Power.
Virginia Electric and Power Company, Records, 1849-ca. 1995. Accession 37345, Business Records Collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.
Gift of the Virginia Electric and Power Company, Richmond, Virginia in May 2000.
Much of the collection was originally arranged by the company according to an ambiguous lettering and numbering system that could not be deciphered by the processing archivist. The collection subsequently was rearranged according to current archival standards but the numbers for the original files were retained and are written on each folder. Ute Schechter, a former archivist at The Library of Virginia, was the original processor of this collection.
The Virginia Electric and Power Company, now known as Dominion Virginia Power, comprises approximately 250 subsidiary companies which were purchased or merged into the company over its 220 year existence. For the purposes of this description, Virginia Electric and Power Company will be shortened to its acronym and pseudonym "VEPCO." The company became known as the Virginia Electric and Power Company in 1925 when its two principal subsidiaries, the Spotsylvania Power Company of Fredericksburg and the Virginia Railway and Power Company, merged. To facilitate description, "VEPCO" will be used to describe the company both before and after this merger.
In 1787, the Virginia General Assembly established the Appomattox Trustees, a corporation whose original purpose was clearing, improving and extending the navigation along the Appomattox River so that rum and tobacco might be hauled into the Virginia highlands from the Tidewater and Hampton Roads. Since the founding of this corporation, more than 250 subsidiary companies founded for various and sundry enterprises as water power, real estate, horse shoe manufacturing, ice making, coal mining, laundry, railway and trolley service, ferry service and street lighting have joined the corporate ancestry of VEPCO. Like the Appomattox Trustees the earliest subsidiaries of VEPCO generally organized to focus on the development of canals and water power in Virginia. By the mid-19th century, however, the arrival of passenger railways and electricity, especially in urban areas, had displaced water travel and power as the focus of VEPCO subsidiary companies. Many VEPCO subsidiaries flourished during the late 19th and early 20th century after the appearance of urban electrical streetcars.
On 29 June 1909, the Virginia Railway and Power Company was incorporated to acquire three of the largest rail companies in Richmond. This was the corporate birthday and the real beginning of the Virginia Electric and Power Company. During the 1910's the company operated streetcars in four cities under complex and inflexible franchises. After World War I streetcar fares failed to adjust to meet increased cost demand. In the early 1920's city, state and national government and courts were asked to take charge of the crisis. Ultimately the Virginia State Corporation Commission took jurisdiction over public transportation and electrical companies, but failed to address the fare issue. As a result by the mid-1920's, streetcar and electrical companies had shifted their business pendulum to focus principally on the distribution of electrical power. For the next three quarters of a century, this power company continued to consolidate smaller companies and increase the size of its power grid throughout Virginia and Northern North Carolina.
Records, 1849-ca. 1995, of the Virginia Electric and Power Company (VEPCO) consisting of advertisements including posters and broadsides, correspondence, journals, ledgers, legal files, memorabilia, minute books, photographs, plats, publications including booklets and pamphlets, scrapbooks, for the company and its subsidiary companies.
Arranged alphabetically and chronologically with folder contents in reverse chronological order. Organized into the following ten series: Series I. General Counsel/Vice President Files (Subseries A. Correspondence, Subseries B. Legal Files, Subseries C. Financial Files, Subseries D. Personnel Files, Subseries E. Annual Reports, Subseries F. Jamestown Exposition Files), Series II. Treasurer's Files (Subseries A. Customer Accounts, Subseries B. Dividend and Stock Accounts), Series III. VEPCO Relief Association Files, Series IV. Publications, Series V. Right-of-Way Plats, Series VI. Photographs, Series VII. Advertisements, Series VIII. Scrapbooks, Series IX. Memorabilia, Series X. Minute books and ledgers.
Virginia Electric and Power Company, Collection of miscellaneous brochures, ca. 1950 (LVA Accession 38155). Also see library collection for various printed items.
These are the files kept by the General Counsel, who also was a vice president of the company. The majority of this series contains legal files, but there is also material in this series from other departments and pertaining to other matters that required executive decisions. The General Counsel's papers remain together as they were filed by the company; however, the folders have been alphabetically rearranged according to subject.
Alphabetically and then chronologically with folder contents arranged in reverse chronological order. This maintains the original organization incorporated by the company.
Principally consists of the general business correspondence of the General Counsel and Vice President E. Randolph Williams. This business correspondence dates from 1921-1925 and generally does not refer to specific legal cases as is the case with the legal files in Subseries B. These correspondence files concern various business and legal matters brought to the attention of the general counsel by interoffice staff, other business persons and governmental officials. At the end of this series is a folder containing correspondence, 1914-1919, in reference to articles that appeared in
Alphabetically and then chronologically with folder contents arranged in reverse chronological order according to the system used by the company.
Contains correspondence and legal and case files including legal briefs, generally exchanged between the General Counsel, VEPCO attorneys and claims agents in the Legal Department, VEPCO executives, opposing counsels and litigants, other businesses and business persons, and government and court officials. Many of the cases concern personal injury, fatal error, and property lawsuits caused by accidents on or with streetcars. Other files pertain to streetcar operation and fares. There are also legal documents including deeds and contracts concerning the purchase and transfer of property right-of-ways, property disputes, and the development of infrastructure in Richmond and Norfolk including street paving, streetcar lines and railways, water and gas lines, and power grids. Other legal files including most notably the dense case of Charles Hall Davis concern lawsuits in reference to stock and dividend disputes. A small amount of files also concerns deferred classification for war military service by VEPCO employees. At the end of this subseries are case summaries and lists, 1921-1923, arranged chronologically by the company.
Alphabetically by case name or legal subject and then chronologically with folder contents arranged in reverse chronological order.
Consists of correspondence, reports, and other legal documents concerning the Legal Department's expenses and its attempt to establish electricity rates in Richmond; correspondence and weekly and monthly reports of the Light and Power Department; monthly reports of the Transportaion Department and the Motor Transit Corporation; charts of authorized expenditures; and a copy of a
Boxes 28-29 are alphabetical by folder title and then chronologically with folder contents arranged in reverse chronological order. Box 30 contains oversize items and is also alphabetical by folder title and then chronologically with folder contents in reverse chronological order.
Principally comprises the General Counsel's personnel files, 1904-1919, concerning law deparment staff and their appointments and promotions, terminations, performance, and salary. There is also a payroll ledger, 1903-1909, a payroll chart, 1887, and copies of the law departments' organizational structure, 1911, and order for business, 1911.
Box 30 contains oversize items and is alphabetical by folder title and then in reverse chronological order. Box 31 is also alphabetical by folder title and then in reverse chronological order.
Consists of annual reports, 1912-1923, of the company; annual reports, 1909-1921, of injuries and damages sustained by the transportation and light power departments; annual report, 1935, for the light and power department; and an annual report, 1931, for the Petersburg Power Station and substations.
Alphabetical by folder title and then chronologically.
The Norfolk and Portsmouth Traction Company, a subsidiary of VEPCO, agreed to supply power to the grounds of the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition in Hampton Roads from 26 April to November 1907. This subseries contains the correspondence and legal files concerning the General Counsel and his staff's participation in the discussions prior to and following the agreement. Also contains court documents concerning lawsuits following the exposition filed between the Jamestown Exposition Company and the towns of Norfolk and Portsmouth.
Alphabetical by folder title and chronologically with folder contents in reverse chronological order.
Contains the correspondence and financial files of the company treasurer and his staff.
Alphabetically and then in reverse chronological order.
Includes invoices, 1919-1920, for weekly and/or monthly electric current principally issued to Norfolk and Richmond area businesses and industry; and correspondence, 1922-1925, exchanged between the treasurer's office and power customers concerning past due notices, service interruption, and bill disputes.
Alphabetical by folder title with folder contents in reverse chronological order.
Includes correspondence, 1910-1912, concerning stock transfers and exchanges; correspondence, 1911, with businesses, banks, accountants, lawyers, trust companies, and stock exchanges pertaining to listing VEPCO stock on stock exchanges in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston; and correspondence, 1913-1917, with stockholders concerning dividends payable on common and preferred stock.
Alphabetical by folder title with folder contents in reverse chronological order.
Principally consists of certificates of attending physicians denoting service rendered to members of the Virginia Railway and Power Company Relief Association for injury or illness. Certificates contain information including member's name and job position, physician's name, and illness or injury.
Alphabetically by member's name.
These are pamphlets, articles, and booklets primarily concerning public utility and jitney rates, jitney and public transportation legislation, VEPCO department yearly summaries submitted for awards, and VEPCO newsletters.
Alphabetically.
Comprises items published by and concerning VEPCO or the Virginia Public Service Company or Virginia Railway and Power Company, two subsidiaries. There is also a North Anna Nuclear Power Plant calendar, 1990, and an organizational chart noting the date of incorporation and merger of all VEPCO subsidiaries.
Alphabetically and then chronologically.
Comprises publications of the American Electrical Railway Association.
Alphabetically.
Contains publications not published by VEPCO, their subsidiaries or the American Electrical Railway Association.
Alphabetically.
These are blueprints for plats of right-of-way property belonging to the Richmond and Chesapeake Railway, a VEPCO subsidiary. Arranged by adjacent property holder's surname. There is also a bound volume of court documents, 1928, pertaining to VEPCO right-of-ways.
Alphabetically.
Principally contains photographs of executives in the late 1980's and 1990's, the Twelfth Street Power Station in Richmond and other electric plants and substations, power lines and other electrical structures. There are also photographs of VEPCO staff functions from the 1920's-1950's and Richmond street photographs showing electrical and trolley lines.
Alphabetically.
Chiefly contains publicity broadsides created by VEPCO and VEPCO's advertising contractor Cargill, Wilson and Acree for publication as posters and in newspapers, magazines, and other printed material. These advertisements generally promote the expanded use of electrical household appliances, the purchase of electrically operated homes, and the conversion to electrical agricultural equipment by farmers.
Chronologically.
High-rise banner
Volumes of clippings from Virginia newspapers concerning VEPCO and its subsidiary companies.
Alphabetically.
Contains insulators, embossers for VEPCO subsidiaries, and an award medal issued in 1966 to VEPCO by the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge.
Arranged by material type. (FRAGILE HANDLE WITH CARE)
These are account books, cash journals, board of directors' and stockholders' minute books, by-laws, stock ledgers, receivers' registers, and other general ledgers for VEPCO and its subsidiaries. Numbers in parentheses are an anitquated and undeciphered numbering system employed by VEPCO.
Arranged alphabetically and then chronologically.