{"nrhp_refnum":"79003032","name":"St. Paul's College","other_names":["St. Paul's Normal and Industrial School"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"St. Paul's College campus","address_restricted":false,"city":"Lawrenceville","county":"Brunswick County","state":"VA","lat":36.76100343300004,"lon":-77.84971637699994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-06-27","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Religion"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-acre complex of three early buildings at the core of the St. Paul's College campus in Lawrenceville, Brunswick County, Virginia: the Saul Building, the Fine Arts Building and St. Paul's Memorial Chapel, built between 1883 and 1904.","why_significant":"The three buildings form the early core of a school founded by the Rev. James Solomon Russell, born into slavery, to serve the region's Black community. They show the institution's growth from a one-room parochial school to a four-year liberal arts college. The chapel was the first brick building on campus and was built largely with student labor.","narrative":"Three early buildings on the St. Paul's College campus in Lawrenceville, Virginia, mark the beginnings of a school for the region's Black community. The Rev. James Solomon Russell, born into slavery in 1857 and educated at Hampton Institute, arrived in Lawrenceville as a newly ordained Episcopal deacon and organized a congregation and a parochial school. The three-room frame Saul Building, funded by a Philadelphia clergyman, housed the St. Paul's Normal and Industrial School, founded in 1888. Russell's former residence, now the Fine Arts Building, dates from 1900. The Gothic Revival Memorial Chapel followed in 1904 as the first brick building on campus, raised mostly by student labor during a period of technical training. The school later added teacher training, a four-year liberal arts curriculum in 1941, and the name St. Paul's College in 1957. These surviving buildings are the remaining 19th and early 20th century structures of the campus.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899, 1900-1904 (specific dates 1883; 1900; 1904)","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Gothic Revival (Memorial Chapel); Colonial Revival mantels in the Fine Arts Building","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition is checked as excellent and good; the buildings are occupied and used as offices, classrooms and a chapel, with some interior alterations.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:57.622748-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/79/6798/41679879/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/79003032.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79003032/4b6cac0477-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79003032/4b6cac0477-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Jerrye &amp; Roy Klotz, MD","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ST._PAUL%27S_COLLEGE,_BRUNSWICK_COUNTY,_VA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jerrye &amp;amp; Roy Klotz, MD</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ST._PAUL%27S_COLLEGE,_BRUNSWICK_COUNTY,_VA.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"00000313","name":"Lawrenceville Historic District (Additional Documentation)","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/virginia/lawrenceville-historic-district-additional-documentation-00000313/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41679879","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Paul%27s_College_(Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7402014"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/brunswick-county/st-pauls-college-79003032/"}