Downtown Hopewell Historic District (Boundary Increase and Decrease)_

Downtown Hopewell, Virginia, is a compact commercial and civic district of about 8.5 acres, centered on East Broadway and Main Street. Most of its buildings date from 1916 to 1930, after a 1915 fire destroyed the earlier frame structures. Rebuilding relied heavily on brick and sandstone, and most commercial buildings are two stories tall and sit directly against the sidewalk. The district holds 38 contributing and 12 noncontributing buildings, including the individually listed Municipal Building and Beacon Theatre. Notable buildings include the Classical Revival Municipal Building of 1925, the Colonial Revival post office, the three-story Larkin and Randolph hotels, the D. L. Elder Bank of 1929, and the Art Deco Patrick Copeland School of 1939. Architects Fred A. Bishop and Osbert L. Edwards designed several of them. Storefronts have often been altered, and some blocks were lost to urban renewal, but upper facades largely keep their original character. The district was recognized for its role in commerce and government, its architecture, and its history as a boomtown that grew into a city, from 1915 to 1951.