{"nrhp_refnum":"89001913","name":"Almshouse, The (Boundary Increase)","other_names":["West Building","Richmond Nursing Home","See Also:Almshouse, The"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"210 Hospital St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Richmond (Independent City)","county":"Richmond (city and county)","state":"VA","lat":37.55320758200003,"lon":-77.43018254699996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1990-06-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Health/Medicine","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The West Building and a garage at the Almshouse complex, 210 Hospital Street, Richmond, Virginia, added through a 4-acre boundary increase to the previously listed Almshouse. The main part of the West Building appears to date from 1908.","why_significant":"The form ties the complex to the early 20th-century Progressive Era reform of Virginia's welfare institutions. In 1908 the city council authorized a home for the city's Black poor, and the West Building served as a charity hospital for Black residents. The site reflects a long tradition of public care for the poor, shaped as much by a wish for social order as by philanthropy.","narrative":"This boundary increase adds the West Building and a two-story garage to the Almshouse complex on Hospital Street in Richmond, Virginia. The West Building has three two-story pavilions with raised basements, linked by two-story hyphens, and appears to date from 1908. It operated as a charity hospital for Black residents of Richmond, and medical students from the Medical College of Virginia received clinical instruction there. Later changes include a rear wing added in 1929, replacement of open frame galleries with enclosed glass-and-concrete porches in 1953, and extensive interior partitioning. The garage is of unknown history but is counted as contributing. The addition is tied to the early 20th-century reform movement in Virginia, when the city council authorized a home for its Black poor in 1908. A 1909 state report described Richmond's almshouse as the largest in Virginia and noted that residents were housed separately by race. The Almshouse, later the Richmond Nursing Home, served the community until the late 1970s.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"The Almshouse, later called the Richmond Nursing Home, served the community until the late 1970s. The West Building's interior has been heavily altered, and the garage is counted as a contributing building.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:00.98557-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/15/6831/41683115/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/89001913.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89001913/a2fb63aa03-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89001913/a2fb63aa03-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"Morgan Riley","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Almshouse,_Richmond,_Virginia.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Morgan Riley</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Almshouse,_Richmond,_Virginia.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"100007793","name":"Shockoe Hill Burying Ground Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/virginia/shockoe-hill-burying-ground-historic-district-100007793/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41683115","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Almshouse_(Richmond,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16159645"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/richmond/almshouse-the-boundary-increase-89001913/"}