Afton Chemical Corporation headquarters is on the Gambles Hill site of the former Virginia State Penitentiary. Name: Afton Chemical Corporation Location: 500 Spring Street Year Completed: 1993 Style: Postmodern Wikipedia: Afton Chemical Style Weekly: A New Book Tells of the Horrors of the Virginia State Penitentiary Google Map All images copyright © Kenneth Grant / […]
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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 William Winthrop Kent designed the mansion with elements of Romanesque Revival and Queen Anne styles. Ginter’s niece, Grace Arents, inherited the property in 1897. From 1924
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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 the West Franklin Street Historic District. The building’s distinctive features are stone sills and flat-arch lintels on all windows, 10 oriel projections, an Ionic-columned portico, and
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Prestwould Condominiums is a limestone-trimmed brick high-rise designed by Alfred C. Bossom and erected in 1928. Now condominiums, the Jacobean Revival building has a crenelated tower, gables, and oriels. Prestwould overlooks the northeast edge of Monroe Park and is part of the Monroe Park Historic District. Name: Prestwould Condominiums Location: 612 West Franklin Street Year
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Johnson Hall was built in 1915 as the Monroe Terrace Apartments, designed by Alfred C. Bossom in neo-Gothic style. Now used as a dormitory by Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), it was excluded from the overlapping Monroe Park Historic District and the Western Franklin Street Historic District. The building’s crown has been drastically simplified from the
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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. Ryan family members are interred alongside Richmond bishops in the crypt below the cathedral’s altar. Together with the Bishop’s Residence, Priest’s House and supporting structures,
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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 Power Building. The high-rise was converted to residential use in 2013/2014 as the 700 Centre Building and combined with the adjacent modern low-rise structure. Soon after,
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St. Paul’s Episcopal Church is a landmark place of worship, used by Confederate President Jefferson Davis and General Robert E. Lee. The church used to have extensive memorials to the Confederacy, but most have since been removed. Architecture Richmond notes that the church provides “a virtual museum of late 19th century stained glass. Works are
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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 complete Egyptian expression. Its obelisk gate, battered walls, papyrus columns, monumental windowless surfaces, and harsh contrast between shadow and highlight create a convincing Egyptian effect.” Name:
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Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles headquarters, a massive block of white concrete and black glass, is next door to the Science Museum of Virginia – quite a contrast in styles. And, true to its function, VDMV is set amid acres of blacktop parking. Name: Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles Location: 2300 West Broad Street Year
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