Richmond, VA

Richmond, Virginia’s founder, William Byrd II, named the city after a spot in England where the River Thames view was similar to the view of the James River. English homage notwithstanding, 40 years later colonists moved the state capital to Richmond from Williamsburg, partly to better defend against the British. Then-governor Thomas Jefferson fled the capital, returning after the war to draft the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom – foundation of the First Amendment.

Not content to be a political architect, Jefferson went on to design (with French architect Charles-Louis Clérisseau) the Capitol building. The 1792 structure, a National Historic Landmark, still stands atop Shockoe Hill. The wings were added in 1904.

For a deep dive into historic architecture, visit Virginia’s Department of Historic Resources. Classic Commonwealth: Virginia Architecture from the Colonial Era to 1940 (pdf) is a comprehensive guide. The Virginia Cultural Resource Information System is an architectural database and detailed aerial map.

The photos in this section were taken during a visit in October, 2019.

• Wikipedia: Richmond, Virginia
• Official Website: richmondgov.com
• Tourism Website: visitrichmondva.com
• Tourism Website: Virginia.org
• Related: Atlas Obscura
• Related: ArchitectureRichmond.com
• Related: Virginia Department of Historic Resources
• Related: Interactive map of Richmond Historic Districts
• Google Map
• For Your Bookshelf: Richmond: A Historic Walking Tour (Images of America)

Richmond Photo Galleries

Richmond / 600 Canal Place

600 Canal Place replaced Dominion Energy’s former headquarters at 700 East Canal Street, aka One James River Plaza. That building was demolished by implosion in 2020. The new curtain wallEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Afton Chemical Corporation

Afton Chemical Corporation headquarters is on the Gambles Hill site of the former Virginia State Penitentiary. Name:  Afton Chemical CorporationLocation:  500 Spring StreetYear Completed:  1993Style:  PostmodernWikipedia:  Afton ChemicalStyle Weekly: AEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Altria Center for Research and Technology

Altria Center for Research and Technology is the largest tenant in the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park, a 34-acre hub for life sciences research. Approximately 70 public and private institutes andEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Altria Theater

The Shriners built Altria Theater in 1927 as the Acca Temple Shrine. The City of Richmond bought the building in 1940 and converted it for municipal use. The theater, renamedEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / American Heritage Apartments

American Heritage Apartments is proof positive that you should always look up. At street level, my only interest was visiting the 7/11. From the State Capitol grounds, I found thisEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / American Tobacco Company

American Tobacco Company built this Colonial Revival-style research lab in 1939; additions were made in 1955 and 1992. Name:  American Tobacco CompanyLocation:  400 Richmond HighwayYear Completed:  1939Architect:  Francisco and JacobusStyle: EXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Bank of America Center

Bank of America Center was built in 1974 as the First & Merchants Bank Building. Name:  Bank of America CenterLocation:  1111 East Main StreetYear Completed:  1974Architect:  Welton Becket & AssociatesStyle: EXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Berry-Burk Building

Berry-Burk Building, once home of Berry-Burk clothiers, has been converted to rental apartments and a ground floor restaurant. The four-story limestone structure has a colorful terra cotta crown and fourthEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Carpenter Theater

Carpenter Theater opened in 1928 as the Richmond Loew’s Theater, a state-of-the-art movie palace. Inside and out, the architect designed a “Spanish plaza” atmosphere. The theater closed in 1979, andEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Cathedral of the Sacred Heart

Cathedral of the Sacred Heart is said to be the world’s only cathedral financed by a single donation – that of industrialist Thomas Fortune Ryan and wife Ida Barry Ryan.EXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Chesterfield Apartments

Chesterfield Apartments, built in 1903 as luxury residences – and Richmond’s first high-rise apartment building – is now occupied mostly by VCU students. The landmark building is part of theEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / City of Richmond City Hall

Richmond’s new City Hall towers over Old City Hall, cater-corner across East Broad and North 10th Streets. The 19-story postmodern high-rise was briefly the city’s tallest building. The original marbleEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Cokesbury Apartments

Cokesbury Apartments, originally built as Methodist Publishing House in 1921, is part of the Grace Street Commercial Historic District. The street-level retail space is still used as a book store.EXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Continental Building

Continental Building seems best known for its next-door neighbors: the crinkled-aluminum Markel Building to the west and the Willow Lawn shopping center to the east. Yet, it’s a surprising (thoughEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Corner Lofts

The Corner Lofts is seven interconnected buildings formerly known as the Wedge at Courtyard Lofts. The former commercial buildings were erected between 1866 and 1875, and are part of theEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Deco at CNB Apartments

Deco at CNB Apartments is adaptive re-use of Central National Bank, a landmarked Art Deco skyscraper that was Richmond’s tallest building 1930 - 1971. The building changed hands several times:EXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Delta Hotels by Marriott Richmond Downtown

Delta Hotels by Marriott Richmond Downtown, built as Crowne Plaza Hotel in 1986, is a knife-edged red high-rise squeezed between East Canal Street and a Downtown Expressway on-ramp. The building’sEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Edison Apartments

Edison Apartments was built in 1913 as Virginia Railway and Power Company Office Building. It’s also been known as Virginia Electric & Power Building, VEPCO Building, and Railway and PowerEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Egyptian Building

Egyptian Building is one of Richmond’s architectural treasures. Architecture Richmond says it best: “It’s facade is not merely an Egyptian entry sutured onto a neoclassic building but rather a completeEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Enterprise Center

Inspired by a foil-wrapped baked potato the architect consumed at an American Institute of Architects dinner. Each floor is clad in a 555-foot sledge-hammered sheet of aluminum. Name:  Enterprise Center,EXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Eskimo Pie Building

530 East Main Street, aka Eskimo Pie Building, Atlantic Life Insurance Company Building, and Chamber of Commerce Building, is scarred from cornice repairs that destroyed distinctive terra cotta ornamentation. TheEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Ethyl Corporation

Ethyl Corporation headquarters, atop Gambles Hill, fools many Richmond visitors. It looks like a capitol, or at least a governor’s mansion, and it looks to be about a century olderEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond is among Richmond’s tallest buildings, and visually a near-twin of Dominion Energy’s One James River Plaza building, which was demolished in 2020. The skyscraper wasEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / First African Baptist Church

Black members of the multiracial First Baptist Church congregation purchased the existing (1802) church after white members built their own church on 12th Street, a block away. The black congregationEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / First National Bank Building

First National Bank Building was Richmond’s first high-rise building, according to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Surprisingly (to me, at least), this 1913 landmark was built as a bankEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Gallery 5

Gallery 5, aka Steamer Company Number 5, is a quirky building across the street from another quirky building – Richmond Dairy Apartments. The triangular-shaped firehouse was built when fire enginesEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Gateway Plaza

Gateway Plaza is an aluminum and glass high-rise office building overlooking Kanawha Plaza. Visually, the building appears to be three stacked boxes, each with a different façade treatment. Along SouthEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Ginter House

Ginter House was built in 1892 as the residence of Lewis Ginter, a transplanted northern entrepreneur who made Richmond his home after the Civil War. Harvey L. Page and WilliamEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Grace & Holy Trinity Episcopal Church

Grace & Holy Trinity Episcopal Church was built in four major stages: The church proper was built in two stages under two architects, as funds became available; a matching parishEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Hood Temple A.M.E. Zion Church

Hood Temple A.M.E. Zion Church (African Methodist Episcopal) is a 170-year-old landmark in the Jackson Ward Historic District of Downtown Richmond. Name:  Hood Temple A.M.E. Zion ChurchLocation:  16 West ClayEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Hotel John Marshall

Hotel John Marshall opened in 1929 as “The Finest Hotel in the South,” and for decades reigned as the premier venue for political events. Seven presidents, from FDR to RonaldEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Hotel Richmond

Hotel Richmond was built in two phases. The original 1904 structure was an eight-story building fronting East Grace Street, designed by Harrison Albright. A 1911 expansion added two stories toEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Imperial Building

Imperial Building, aka Richmond Free Press, is a neo-Classical building at 422 East Franklin Street. Name:  Imperial Building, Richmond Free PressLocation:  422 East Franklin StreetYear Completed:  1923Architect:  Neff & ThompsonStyle: EXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU

Institute for Contemporary Art, aka Markel Center, is part of the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Monroe Park Campus. The ultra-modern design is also ultra-environmentally conscious, with green roofs, geothermal heatingEXPLORE NOW

Richmond / Italianate Building

Even Google Maps is confused about this building: Reynolds Tobacco and Reynolds Metals both built warehouses and factories alongside the Haxall Canal in the vicinity of Haxall Point. This building,EXPLORE NOW

Richmond / James Center

James Center is a two-square-block complex of three office towers, all interconnected with each other and with the Omni Richmond hotel, and a parking garage. One James Center, Two JamesEXPLORE NOW

Richmond Buildings

The table below is a list of all Richmond buildings in my photo archive.