Monumental Church

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Visit our “Tour Destination: Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia” page to see the entire tour of the area’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

Monumental Church.
Photo courtesy Historic Richmond Foundation.

Monumental Church

1224 East Broad Street

Richmond, VA

Website:  Historic Richmond Foundation: Monumental Church

The Treasure:  You might consider Monumental Church an American treasure because it commemorates the site of the greatest urban tragedy to take place in the United States up to 1811. Or you might consider Monumental Church to be an American treasure because it’s an architectural masterpiece by Robert Mills, famed architect perhaps best known for the Washington Monument. Either reason would be sufficient. Both reasons combine to make it unforgettable.

Interior view of pulpit at
Monumental Church.
Photo courtesy Historic Richmond
Foundation.

Accessibility:  Monumental Church is in the final stages of being restored by the Historic Richmond Foundation. Currently, it is open for tours by request only. You can contact the Historic Richmond Foundation to schedule a personal or group tour.

Or… plan your wedding at Monumental Church. Scroll down on the website page linked above for information on wedding planning. It would be a lovely—and very historic—location choice for your wedding. And afterward you get to say you were married in an official American Treasure!

Notes:  First the tragedy: This site wasn’t always a church. From 1806 to 1811, the Richmond Theatre was located here. On the day after Christmas in 1811, a capacity crowd gathered in the theatre for a benefit concert. A chandelier accidentally touched off flames that quickly spread, fueled by combustible paints and oils. Panic ensued and people found themselves trapped in the crush for the doors. In all, 72 people died that night. More would have died if not for the heroic efforts of Dr. James D. McCaw and Gilbert Hunt, a slave blacksmith. From inside the building on the second floor, McCaw lowered people from a window while Hunt waited to catch them as they fell. Working together, McCaw and Hunt were classic first responders, answering a crisis with heroic action.

A brick vault was built on the site to serve as a final resting place for the fire’s victims. Then United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall led the campaign to build a memorial and church over the vault. A young architect named Robert Mills won the competition to design the church and memorial.

Mills has the distinction of being Thomas Jefferson’s only architectural student, having worked with Jefferson on the design of Monticello. Mills’ design for Monumental Church is a domed octagonal building in the Greek Revival style. Inside, the church’s interior is stately and graced with unusually fine acoustics. The marble memorial to the victims is on the front portico.

For a century and a half, Monumental Church served the community as an Episcopal church. Over the years, the congregation dwindled and finally the building was deconsecrated in 1965. A 2002 Save America’s Treasures grant launched the current restoration campaign which is now in its final stages.

The marble funeral urn
at Monumental Church.
Photo courtesy Historic
Richmond Foundation.

Notes from the Editor: A large marble funeral urn commemorating the Richmond Theatre victims stood outside on the Monumental Church portico for 185 years. Then in 1999, the urn broke off its base. Determining that the original was too fragile to repair, a team of architectural conservators recommended placing it in storage to protect it from further damage from the elements.

But visitors to Monumental Church still see an urn today, looking exactly like the original. To create this precise replica, Historic Richmond Foundation contracted with Direct Dimensions, Inc., a laser scanning, digital modeling, and reverse engineering company. Close study of historic photographs combined with analysis of detailed laser scans enabled the team to create a replacement urn that captures minute details that had been largely obliterated by urban erosion.

Special thanks to Amy Swartz, Director of Preservation Services at Historic Richmond Foundation, for sharing her article “The Restoration of Monumental Church in Richmond, Virginia” (CRM: The Journal of Heritage Stewardship, Summer 2008) which has been invaluable in preparing this blog entry. Also, thanks to our Monumental Church tour guide who led a group of us on a delightful and informative tour of the church a couple of months ago!

Other Recommended Sites:  John Marshall (1755-1835) was one of the most influential of Supreme Court Chief Justices, putting his firm stamp on American constitutional law in its early years. As noted above, Marshall was also the head of the committee that raised the funds to build Monumental Church. Dedicated to his adopted home city of Richmond, Marshall lived several blocks away at 9th and Marshall. Today, the John Marshall House is open for tours on weekends from March through December (with tours only by appointment in January and February). Check the John Marshall House website for details.

The memorial on the portico of Monumental Church.
Photo courtesy Historic Richmond Foundation.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Monday’s destination:  Virginia Historical Society (The Dinwiddie Collection)
Tuesday’s destination:  Virginia Historical Society (Custis Family Papers)

© 2012 Lee Price