{"nrhp_refnum":"66000911","name":"Virginia State Capitol","other_names":["Confederate Capitol","Capitol of Virginia","Vdhr# 127-00021"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Capitol Square","address_restricted":false,"city":"Richmond (Independent City)","county":"Richmond (city and county)","state":"VA","lat":37.53860880050007,"lon":-77.43366059361342,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1966-10-15","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1960-12-19","areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The Virginia State Capitol is a government building on Capitol Square in Richmond, Virginia, begun in 1785 from designs by Thomas Jefferson and completed in 1798. It is a stuccoed brick temple-form building with later flanking wings.","why_significant":"It is described as the first purely Neo-classical building erected in the United States and the first modern public building to use the Roman temple form, setting a precedent for American public architecture. It also houses the oldest legislative body in America, and it hosted the 1829-30 Virginia constitutional convention and the Confederate Congress.","narrative":"Virginia's Capitol in Richmond, begun in 1785 and occupied in 1798, was designed by Thomas Jefferson while he was in France, with help from the French architect Charles-Louis Clerisseau. Its model was the Roman temple known as the Maison Carrée at Nîmes. Jefferson substituted the Ionic order and simple pilasters to suit local craftsmen. Samuel Dobie supervised construction and made several changes to the plans. The result is a stuccoed brick temple with a hexastyle portico on a high podium. The building is considered the first purely Neo-classical structure in the country and a model for later American public buildings. It houses the oldest legislative body in America, grown from the Colonial House of Burgesses, and served as the meeting place of the Confederate Congress. Wings added in 1904-06 provided new Senate and House chambers, and hyphens were enlarged in 1962-64. It remains the working state capitol, and it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960.","period_of_significance":"1785-1798","architect_builder":"Thomas Jefferson, with Charles-Louis Clerisseau; construction supervised by Samuel Dobie","architectural_style":"Early Classical Revival (Jeffersonian Classicism)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Still in use as the state capitol (government function); the interior was rebuilt in 1904-06 and the hyphens enlarged in 1962-64.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:56.779279-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/97/6831/41683197/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/66000911.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000911/1b5ae60dd3-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000911/1b5ae60dd3-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.0","author":"Ron Cogswell","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:State_Capitol_of_the_Commonwealth_of_Virginia_(7358972234).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Ron Cogswell</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:State_Capitol_of_the_Commonwealth_of_Virginia_(7358972234).jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"71000982","name":"James River and Kanawha Canal Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/virginia/james-river-and-kanawha-canal-historic-district-71000982/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":null,"wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_State_Capitol","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2537798"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/richmond/virginia-state-capitol-66000911/"}