Colonial precursors in Jamestown and Williamsburg During the
American colonial era, the
Colony of Virginia's first capital was
Jamestown, where the first legislative body, the
Virginia House of Burgesses, met in 1619. The new government used four state houses at different times at Jamestown due to fires. The first Representative Legislative Assembly convened on July 30, 1619 at the Jamestown Church which served as the first Capitol. With the decision to relocate the government inland to
Williamsburg in 1699, a grand new
Capitol building was completed in November 1705. Nearby was the grand
Governor's Palace. It burned in 1747 and was replaced in 1753. On June 29, 1776, Virginians declared their independence from
Great Britain and wrote the state's first constitution, thereby creating an independent government five days before Congress voted for the
Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia on July 4. The Capitol at Williamsburg served until the
American Revolutionary War began, when Governor Thomas Jefferson urged that the capital be relocated to Richmond. The building was last used as a capitol on December 24, 1779, when the
Virginia General Assembly adjourned to reconvene in 1780 at the new capital, Richmond. It was eventually destroyed.
Richmond and state capitol design where the
Ratifying Convention met When it convened in Richmond on May 1, 1780, the legislature met in a makeshift building near Shockoe Bottom. By 1788, the "Old Capitol" where the
Virginia Ratifying Convention met was at the New Academy by the Chevalier Quesnay. Plans were begun for a new building to serve a new state, the
Commonwealth of Virginia. The site selected for a new, permanent building was on Shockoe Hill, a major hill overlooking the falls of the
James River.
Thomas Jefferson is credited with the overall design of the new Capitol, together with French architect
Charles-Louis Clérisseau. The design was modeled after the
Maison Carrée at
Nîmes in southern
France, an ancient
Roman temple. The only other state to accurately copy an ancient model is the
Vermont State House, which based its portico on the
Temple of Hephaestus in Athens. Jefferson had Clérisseau substitute the Ionic order over the more ornate Corinthian column designs of the prototype in France. At the suggestion of Clérisseau, it used a variant of the Ionic order designed by Italian student of
Andrea Palladio,
Vincenzo Scamozzi. The cornerstone was laid on August 18, 1785, with Governor
Patrick Henry in attendance, prior to the completion of its design. In 1786, a set of architectural drawings and a plaster model were sent from France to Virginia, where it was executed by Samuel Dobie. It was sufficiently completed for the General Assembly to meet there in October 1792. It is one of only twelve Capitols in the
United States without an external dome. (The others are the Capitols of
Alaska,
Delaware,
Florida,
Hawaii,
Louisiana,
New Mexico,
New York,
North Dakota,
Ohio,
Oregon and
Tennessee.)
American Civil War The building also served as the Capitol of the
Confederacy during the
American Civil War (1861–65) (It was the Confederacy's second home, the first being the
Alabama State Capitol in
Montgomery, Alabama). The Capitol, the adjacent
Virginia Governor's Mansion, and the
White House of the Confederacy (about three blocks to the north on East Clay Street) were spared when departing Confederate troops were ordered to burn the city's warehouses and factories, and fires spread out of control in April 1865.
John Brown's carpet-bag, full of documents including many unpublished ones, was kept in the Virginia Capitol from 1860 to 1865 by
Andrew Hunter, at that time a state senator. When Richmond fell, "so Yankees can't find them", the carpet-bag was hidden "between the wall and the plastering". It has never been found.
1870 Tragedy After the end of the
American Civil War, during the
Reconstruction period, Virginia was under military rule for almost five years, ending in January 1870. In the ensuing months, a dispute over leadership of the Richmond government resulted in the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals holding a hearing on April 27, 1870, in the large courtroom on the second floor of the Capitol. Several hundred people crowded in. Before the proceedings could begin, the gallery gave way and fell to the courtroom floor. This added weight, in addition to the crowd already there, caused the entire courtroom floor to give way, falling into the
House of Delegates chamber. The injured stumbled, crawled or were carried out onto the Capitol lawn during the mayhem that followed. Sixty-two people were killed and 251 injured. There were no women believed to have been present when the collapse occurred. The dead included a grandson of
Patrick Henry, and three members of the General Assembly. Injured included both men contesting the Richmond mayoral position, the speaker of the House of Delegates, a judge and ex-governor
Henry H. Wells. Former Confederate general
Montgomery D. Corse was partially blinded by the collapse.
Rebuilding, expansion, renovation Despite demands for the building's demolition, the damage from the tragedy of 1870 was repaired. In 1904, two wings (not in the original plans) were added to the east and west ends of the building to provide much-needed additional space for the growing legislature. These additions were built to the collaborative designs of three of Virginia's leading architects and architectural firms:
Frye & Chesterman of
Lynchburg,
John Kevan Peebles of
Norfolk and
Noland & Baskervill of Richmond. In 2003, the assembly approved $83.1 million for the renovation, restoration and expansion of the Capitol. Work began in 2004 and was completed on May 1, 2007. Among major changes are a completely new
HVAC control system, updated mechanical, storm water and plumbing systems, and construction of a expansion beneath the hill on the south lawn. The expansion provides a visitor's entrance that is compliant with the
Americans with Disabilities Act, plus office space and meeting rooms, and better security management. The final cost of the restoration was approximately $104 million. The extension was designed by architect Sonja Bijelić of
RMJM. The
Virginia National Guard was activated to provide extra security at the Virginia State Capitol, prior to the 2021
Inauguration of Joe Biden, in response to the
FBI warning of possible armed protests at US capitals.
Individuals known to have lain in state/repose • June 1806:
George Wythe, Signer of the Declaration of Independence from Virginia • April 22-23, 1850:
John C. Calhoun, 7th
Vice President of the United States; then-United States Senator from South Carolina • February 10-11, 1857:
Preston Brooks, then-United States Senator from South Carolina • October 29-30, 1859:
John Y. Mason, then-United States Minister to France (1854-1859) • January 21, 1862:
John Tyler, Tenth President of the United States; 23rd Governor of Virginia • February 14, 1862: O. Jennings Wise, Confederate captain, son of the 33rd Governor of Virginia,
Henry A. Wise • March 18-20, 1863:
John Pelham "The Galant Pelham", Confederate major • May 15, 1863:
Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, Confederate general • September 15-16, 1864:
John Hunt Morgan, Confederate general • March 1-4, 1873:
Edward "Allegheny" Johnson, Confederate general • October 23-24, 1875:
George Pickett, Confederate general • May 20, 1887:
William "Extra Billy" Smith, 30th & 35th Governor of Virginia • May 30, 1893:
Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America • June 8, 1899: John Bell Bigger, Clerk of the
House of Delegates & Keeper of the Rolls of the Commonwealth (1865-1879; 1883-1899) • September 28, 1899:
Henry Heth, Confederate Major-General • October 9, 1903:
Bradley Tyler Johnson Confederate general and member of the
Senate of Virginia (1875-1877) • June 15, 1971:
J. Sargeant Reynolds, then-
Lieutenant Governor of Virginia • June 8, 1991: Remains of unknown Confederate soldier • September 30, 1991:
A. L. Philpott, then-Speaker of the
Virginia House of Delegates • February 11, 2011:
Leroy R. Hassell Sr., then-Chief Justice of the
Virginia Supreme Court (first African American in Virginia to be afforded the honor) • January 29–30, 2013
Harry L. Carrico, Former Chief Justice with over 42 years of service as an active Justice on the
Virginia Supreme Court • September 6, 2017:
Lacey Putney, Former House Speaker and longest serving legislator in Virginian history (1962–2014) • January 30, 2025:
Henry L. Marsh, III, Member of the
Senate of Virginia (1992-2014), first African American mayor of the
City of Richmond (1977-1982), and civil rights attorney == Interior ==