Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Virginia State Capitol is the seat of government for the Commonwealth of Virginia, located in Richmond, the state capital. It was designed by Thomas Jefferson and Charles-Louis Clérisseau and modeled on the Maison Carrée, an ancient Roman temple in Nîmes, France. Construction was completed in 1788.
The Virginia General Assembly, which meets in the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, is the oldest elected legislative body in North America. It traces its origins to the House of Burgesses, which first convened on the 30th of July 1619 at the Jamestown Church.
On the 27th of April 1870, during a Supreme Court of Appeals hearing, the gallery gave way and fell onto the courtroom floor, causing the entire floor to collapse forty feet into the House of Delegates chamber below. Sixty-two people were killed and 251 injured. The dead included a grandson of Patrick Henry and three members of the General Assembly.
Yes. Abraham Lincoln toured the Virginia State Capitol during his visit to Richmond approximately a week before his assassination in Washington. The building was then serving as the seat of the Confederate States of America, which had occupied it from 1861 to 1865.
The Virginia General Assembly approved $83.1 million for the renovation in 2003, but the final cost rose to approximately $104 million. Work ran from 2004 to the 1st of May 2007, and included a 27,000-square-foot underground expansion on the south lawn designed by architect Sonja Bijelić of RMJM.
The Virginia State Capitol's classical white exterior served as the White House in the 2000 film The Contender. The House of Delegates chamber was used as the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1993 film Dave, and the building stood in for the U.S. Capitol during Civil War-era scenes in the 2012 film Lincoln.