Memorial Terrace

This site was part of the Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts, where the Virginia Convention of 1788 approved the proposed U.S. Constitution on June 25th. In 1806 the Richmond Theatre opened here in a three-story brick building, but it was destroyed by fire on December 26, 1811, killing 72 people, including Governor George W. Smith and former U.S. Senator Abraham Venable; Dr. James McCaw and the enslaved Gilbert Hunt saved many from the burning building. In 1812 U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall led a building committee to raise funds for a memorial on the site, and Robert Mills, the first native-born American architect and a student of Thomas Jefferson, designed the octagonal church with a Delorme dome. Construction of Monumental Church, led by master builder Isaac Sturdevant of Boston, followed, and its first Episcopal service was held on May 4, 1814; the Marquis de Lafayette was honored there at a special service on October 31, 1824. The church was altered between 1845 and 1850 with the addition of an altar, removal of the central pulpit, and enlargement of the upper sanctuary windows; a Sunday school building was added in 1873-1874, stained glass windows were installed from 1878 to 1901, including one Tiffany window, and in 1899 a mural of the Resurrection in the apse and a fresco of the Angel Gabriel on the dome were painted. In 1919 Virginia Commonwealth University, then the Richmond School of Social Work and Public Health, moved into the church vestry. The church was deconsecrated in 1965 and deeded to the Medical College of Virginia Foundation, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1971, and underwent restoration beginning in 1976 to return it to the original Mills design; the Sunday school building was demolished that year. In 1983 the foundation deeded the church to Historic Richmond, and from 1985 to 1987 stained glass windows were replaced with clear windows to replicate the Mills design and the roof was restored with a copper dome. From 2003 to 2012 Historic Richmond completed a $3.5 million restoration that included a replica of the monument, and in 2014 the site's 200th anniversary was celebrated with the installation of Memorial Terrace and restoration of the marbleized altar.

Richmond, Virginia · United States