Virginia State Capitol

• 1. Colonial Legislative Origins

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  The Virginia House of Burgesses convened for the first time on the 30th of July 1619 inside the Jamestown Church. This gathering marked the beginning of the oldest elected legislative body in North America. The colony used four different state houses at Jamestown before fires destroyed them repeatedly. In 1699, officials decided to move the government inland to Williamsburg. A grand new Capitol building finished construction in November 1705 near the Governor's Palace. That structure burned down in 1747 and was replaced by another building in 1753. Virginians declared independence from Great Britain on the 29th of June 1776 while meeting in that Williamsburg Capitol. The assembly last used the building as a capitol on the 24th of December 1779 before moving to Richmond.

• 2. Jeffersonian Architectural Design

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  Thomas Jefferson conceived the design for the new Capitol together with French architect Charles-Louis Clérisseau while they were in France. They based their plans directly on the Maison Carrée located in Nîmes, southern France. Construction began on the 18th of August 1785 when Governor Patrick Henry laid the cornerstone. Architectural drawings and a plaster model arrived from France in 1786 for execution by Samuel Dobie. The General Assembly first met inside the completed building in October 1792. Jefferson instructed Clérisseau to substitute the Ionic order over the more ornate Corinthian column designs found in the original French prototype. This choice created one of only twelve Capitols in the United States without an external dome. The site selected for this permanent building sat on Shockoe Hill overlooking the falls of the James River.

• 3. Confederate Capital Status

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  The building served as the Capitol of the Confederacy during the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865. It was the second home for the Confederate government after Montgomery, Alabama hosted the first sessions. Departing Confederate troops ordered fires to burn city warehouses and factories in April 1865 but spared the Capitol itself. John Brown's carpet-bag containing unpublished documents remained hidden between the wall and plastering from 1860 until Richmond fell. Lieutenant Johnston L. de Peyster hoisted the first Flag of the United States over the capitol since secession. President Abraham Lincoln toured the Capitol about a week before his assassination in Washington DC. Lynchburg served as the temporary capital from April 6 until the 10th of April 1865 while Governor William Smith moved branches there.

• 4. The 1870 Tragedy

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  A fatal gallery collapse occurred inside the large courtroom on the second floor of the Capitol on the 27th of April 1870. Several hundred people crowded into the room for a hearing by the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals regarding leadership disputes. The gallery gave way before proceedings could begin and caused the entire courtroom floor to fall into the House of Delegates chamber below. Sixty-two people died during the mayhem that followed when injured individuals stumbled or crawled onto the Capitol lawn. Two hundred fifty-one people sustained injuries including both men contesting the Richmond mayoral position. Former Confederate general Montgomery D. Corse was partially blinded by the falling debris. The dead included a grandson of Patrick Henry and three members of the General Assembly. No women were believed to have been present when the collapse happened.

• 5. Modern Expansion And Renovation

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  Two wings added to the east and west ends of the building appeared in 1904 to provide additional space for the growing legislature. These additions resulted from collaborative designs by Frye & Chesterman of Lynchburg, John Kevan Peebles of Norfolk, and Noland & Baskervill of Richmond. The assembly approved $83.1 million for renovation work in 2003 with construction beginning the following year. Work finished on the 1st of May 2007 after costs reached approximately $104 million. A completely new HVAC control system replaced older infrastructure alongside updated mechanical and plumbing systems. Architect Sonja Bijelić designed an expansion beneath the hill on the south lawn to create a visitor's entrance compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Virginia National Guard activated extra security at the Capitol prior to the 2021 Inauguration of Joe Biden due to FBI warnings about possible armed protests.

• 6. Capitol Square Monuments

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  The area surrounding the building is known as Capitol Square and contains several monuments to prominent Virginians. The Washington Monument completed its construction in 1869 with statues of Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Lewis, John Marshall, George Mason, and Thomas Nelson Jr encircling the base. A General Thomas J Stonewall Jackson Statue appeared in 1875 while Governor William Extra Billy Smith received his statue in 1906. Dr Hunter Holmes McGuire got his monument installed in 1904 and the Zero Milestone measuring highway distances from Richmond arrived in 1929. An Edgar Allan Poe Statue was dedicated in 1958 followed by the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial in 2008. The Virginia Women's Monument opened in 2019 and the Bell Tower built between 1824 and 1825 still rings for ceremonial occasions today.