The turn-of-the-20th-century architectural movement termed the American Renaissance endowed cities and towns with grand classical works that lent a strong sense of continuity and place. A relatively late but nonetheless effective expression of this movement is the Danville Municipal Building, a tour de force of civic stagecraft. Fronted by a monumental Ionic colonnade and closing a vista on a tight site amid relatively narrow streets, the building exudes a European urbanity. It was designed by the local firm of Heard and Chesterman and completed in 1927. The project was generated by a desire to consolidate expanded municipal offices with court facilities. No less imposing is the interior, the corridors and principal rooms of which are a bold display of columns, pilasters, and other classical details. The Danville Municipal Building now houses only municipal offices, and it is located in the Downtown Danville Historic District.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia