The wooden building on the right is the oldest Masonic hall in continuous use in the United States which was built originally for Masonic purposes. Governor Edmund Randolph was among the many prominent Virginia Masons who participated in the corner-stone laying in 1785. Lafayette was given a reception here in 1824 on his triumphal return visit to the scenes where he had served in the American Revolution. ¶ Proceed east on Franklin, halting briefly between Twenty-first and Twenty-second.
At the top of the hill to your left, you can see a typical old galleried home of early Richmond, now incorporated in the buildings of Monte Maria Roman Catholic Convent. ¶ Turn right on Franklin at Twenty-third, go to Main, turn right, then proceed to Twenty-first Street, turn right and continue north to Broad, turn right on Broad, continue to Twenty-fourth.
You are now entering Church Hill, Richmond’s oldest residential section. ¶ Stop at Twenty-fourth and Broad, location of St. John’s Church.
St. John’s Church ([Front Cover])
St. John’s Episcopal Church, built in 1741, the oldest in the city, will forever be famous as the place where Patrick Henry uttered his ringing challenge for “Liberty or Death” to the American colonists. The second Virginia convention met in St. John’s, because it was the largest hall in Richmond, in March, 1775, and even at that, the original was not half the size of the enlarged present-day structure. It is worth your while to get out here and let the sexton show you the church and tell you briefly of its story. On the left, as you face the church, you will see the grave of Elizabeth Arnold Poe, the tiny actress-mother of America’s great imaginative writer. Young Edgar Poe is said to have been found more than once lying sobbing on his mother’s grave. ¶ Proceed east on Broad to Twenty-eighth; right on Twenty-eighth two blocks to Franklin.
Soldiers and Sailors Monument
Here, at Libby Hill Park, is the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, erected in 1894 as a memorial to the soldiers and sailors of the Confederacy. The figure on the top is by William L. Sheppard. ¶ Return to Broad Street; turn left on Broad, halting between Thirteenth and Twelfth.
Monumental Church
This unusual-looking Episcopal church structure was built in 1812 as a memorial to more than seventy persons, including the Governor of Virginia, who lost their lives in a fire which destroyed a theatre on this site on December 26, 1811. In this theatre Edgar Allan Poe’s mother had acted a few short months before, and in this same theatre the Virginia Convention of 1788 had ratified the Federal Constitution. ¶ Proceed west on Broad (Passing Medical College of Virginia Hospital Building) to Twelfth, turn right on Twelfth to Marshall, turn right on Marshall to center of block.
