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Click
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1904
- Today Present Day Capitol - Richmond
In 1904, extensive renovation and additional construction
to the Capitol were begun. Wings were added to the
west of the original structure as a new Senate chamber
and to the east as new quarters for the House of Delegates.
In 1964 connectors were enlarged on the wings to create
conference room space. At the same time a modern heating
and air conditioning system was installed. Other modernizations
have also been added, including automatic elevators,
public address systems, electronic voting tabulators,
a snack bar, and other facilities unknown to Jefferson's
contemporaries. These structures remain in use to the
present day. Back to top
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1870 - Historic Note
A hotly disputed Richmond mayoralty case attracted a large
crowd to the second floor room directly above the chamber
of the House of Delegates. The floor collapsed under the
weight of spectators, killing 62 and injuring 251. This
catastrophe is still remembered as the Capitol Disaster. Back
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1849 - Historic
Note
A cholera epidemic in the Tidewater area led to the legislators'
decision to meet elsewhere that during the spring of
1849. They convened on June 1 in the ballroom of the
luxurious Fauquier White Sulphur Springs Hotel near Warrenton.
While cholera raged downriver and while economy-minded
newspaper editors fumed, the legislators had a splendid
opportunity to combine business and pleasure. Back
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1788 - 1904 First Permanent Capitol - Richmond
As the model for Virginia's
first permanent capitol, Thomas Jefferson selected the
Maison Carrée at Nîmes in southern France,
an exquisite temple which had been built by the Romans
early in the Christian era. This building is the middle
structure of our present capitol complex, its center
rotunda area displaying the life-size Houdon statue of
George Washington and portrait busts of the seven other
Virginia-born presidents and of Lafayette, the French
volunteer who fought for America and for Virginia during
the American Revolution. Back to
top
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1780 - 1788 The Capitol - Richmond
With the establishment of Richmond as the new capital,
six squares
"on an open and airy part" of Richmond were to
be appropriated for public buildings. Until completion
of permanent facilities, the General Assembly met in the
clumsily constructed William Cuninghame Building at the
corner of Pearl (now 14th) and Cary Streets, with only
one interruption. In the spring of 1781, the threat of
military invasion and the prospect of an unpleasant mass
captivity led the legislators to abandon the capital and
to adjourn to the safer atmosphere of Charlottesville.
They soon found that even the Piedmont was not safe enough
when the British cavalry came galloping into Albemarle.
The lawmakers escaped and met on June 7 in the Episcopal
church at Staunton for a two-week session -- keeping themselves
ready to flee farther west if the enemy continued pursuit.
The Assembly moved back to the Richmond "capitol" in
October. The British had not taken the trouble to burn
such an unimposing structure during their occupation of
Richmond. The building was demolished sometime before 1851
and a plaque now marks the site. Back
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1753 - 1780 Sixth State House - Second Williamsburg
CapitolAlthough the
sixth state house was built on the same site and, in
general, according to the same H-shaped plan as the fifth,
it seems to have been much less elaborate. Here, on June
29, 1776, Virginians declared their independence from
Great Britain and wrote the state's first constitution,
thereby creating an independent government four days
before Congress voted for the Declaration of Independence
in Philadelphia. After the state government moved to
Richmond in 1780, this building was used by George Wythe,
professor of law at the College of William and Mary,
for the moot courts and mock legislatures which he initiated
to train the leaders of the next generation. The building
was destroyed -- by fire, of course -- in 1832. Its location
is indicated only by a marker erected by the Association
for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. Back
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1747 - 1753 Williamsburg
After the fire, Virginia's legislators again met in the
Great Hall (dining room) of the Wren Building at the College
of William and Mary. Back to top |
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1704 - 1747 Fifth State House - First Williamsburg
CapitolThis brick
capitol was in the form of an H, each wing of which was
two stories high. The structure contained large, well-appointed
chambers, and became an important part of the colony's
social life when Williamsburg was overrun with visitors
during the General Assembly sessions. The walls of the
capitol, which resounded by day to the blasts of the
orator, echoed by night to the shrill of fiddles and
the sound of dancing feet. All these things ended in
1747, as one more capitol was destroyed by fire. Back
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1699 - 1704 Williamsburg
In 1699, the town of Williamsburg was established at Middle
Plantation and was designated as the capital of the colony.
Since there were as yet no public buildings there, the
General Assembly met temporarily in the Wren Building at
the College of William and Mary. Back
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1685 - 1699 Fourth State House - Jamestown
The fourth capitol was built on the ruins of the third,
and continued in use for the next 14 years. In 1699, this
last Jamestown state house went up in smoke. Its foundations
were discovered and identified in 1903. They are kept intact
by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities
and are open to visitors. The fire which consumed the fourth
state house ended that town's career as the seat of the
colony's government and, for all practical purposes, its
history as an inhabited community. Back
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1676 - 1685 Jamestown
The first Assembly after the fire was held at "Green
Spring,"
the governor's residence outside of town. As buildings
began to go up in Jamestown again, the legislators gathered
once more in taverns and in private homes. Back
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1665 - 1676 Third State House - Jamestown
The third capitol
was located about a half mile west of the first state
house. The Jamestown settlement, including this building,
was burned in 1676 during Bacon's Rebellion. Back
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1660 - 1665 Jamestown
During these five
years, the legislature met in one of the Jamestown taverns. Back
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1656 - 1660 Second State House - Jamestown
The second state house
lasted just four years, and its location has still not
been identified precisely. It was destroyed in 1660. Back
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1632 - 1656 First State House - Jamestown
The Council and the House of Burgesses convened in the
home of the colonial governor, then Sir John Harvey, at
his expense. In 1641 Governor Harvey, having completed
his second term of office, was forced to sell his property
to pacify creditors. So the General Assembly purchased,
for 15,700 pounds of tobacco, the same house in which it
was already accustomed to meeting. The career of this first
Jamestown statehouse was ended in 1656, either by an advanced
condition of disrepair or by damage resulting from one
of the fires which repeatedly endangered the town. Visitors
to Jamestown may see the remains, now under the care of
the National Park Service's Colonial National Historical
Park.
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1619 - 1632 First
Legislative Meeting - Jamestown
Virginia's General Assembly, the earliest elective legislature
in the New World, met for eleven years in the choir of
the church at Jamestown. This building was the only one
large enough to hold the Council, the Governor, and the
22-member House of Burgesses (as it was known until 1775). Back
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