Grace Street Commercial Historic District (Boundary Increase)

This expansion of a downtown Richmond commercial district adds 27 buildings, 19 of them contributing, around Broad, Franklin, 8th and 1st streets. The area was once part of a fashionable residential neighborhood, and by the 1920s it had become a retail and entertainment center. Added buildings include rows of 1909 storefronts on North 8th Street by Carl Ruehrmund and C. G. Craigwell, the 1844 Greek Revival Stewart-Lee House, the 1895 Romanesque Revival Mayo House, the 1906 Classical Revival Second Baptist Church, the 1940 Georgian Revival YMCA, and the 1924 National Theater designed by Claude K. Howell. The International Style Franklin Federal Savings and Loan, designed by Edward F. Sinnott and finished in the mid-1950s, had its aluminum cladding removed in 2008 and its exterior restored from the original drawings. The amendment also extends the period of significance from 1946 to 1956 and brings the district to 116 buildings, of which 100 contribute. It remains a clear record of the city's mid-twentieth century retail core.