Elisabeth Scott Bocock papers

Elisabeth Scott Bocock (1901-1985) was born in Richmond to Mr. and Mrs. Frederic Scott in 1901. A few years later the Scotts built a home at 909 West Franklin Street, a house Mrs. Bocock was to share with the Junior League's Senior Center and later with Virginia Commonwealth University, which used the front of the house first as dormitory space and then for administrative offices.Mrs. Bocock attended Jennie Ellett's School in Richmond and graduated from St. Timothy's School in Catonsville, Maryland. In 1928 she married John Holmes Bocock, a Richmond lawyer. Shortly after his death in 1958, Mrs. Bocock began coursework at the Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women. Over the next ten years she attended several other schools, including Mary Baldwin College and the University of Virginia, before receiving a liberal arts degree from Virginia Commonwealth University. During her lifetime she was recognized by VCU, the Junior League, and the Federated Arts Council for her commitment to the city, its people, and its culture. Mrs. Bocock herself lent her energies and talents to a variety of causes. She was a founder of the Richmond Symphony, the William Byrd Branch of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, the Historic Richmond Foundation, the Early Virginia Vehicular Museum, the Hand Workshop, and Richmond-on-the-James. Most prominent were her efforts to preserve Richmond's architecture and historic character. Through her volunteering, her financial contributions, and the individual restorations which she herself undertook, she was largely responsible for setting in motion the city's agenda for historic preservation. In keeping with her interest in Richmond's past, she collected some 60 horse-drawn carriages which comprised a lendable Vehicular Museum until she gave them to Maymont Foundation in 1977. At her death in 1985 she was busy promoting the downtown revival of a distinctively Richmond vehicle, the electric trolley.