Nomination Form
The opulence of America’s Gilded Age was given full expression in the Jefferson Hotel, commissioned in the 1890s by Richmond tobacconist Maj. Lewis Ginter. Ginter engaged the New York firm of Carrere and Hastings, a leading practitioner of the Beaux Arts style, and charged it to provide the finest hostelry in the South. Completed in 1895, this Renaissance Revival masterpiece, inspired by Rome’s Villa Medici, exhibits an exuberance seldom seen in commercial buildings. The magnificent interior featured a regal progression of public rooms in addition to its 342 guest rooms. An early fire destroyed the south half of the Jefferson Hotel building, but it was sympathetically rebuilt in 1901 by Norfolk architect J. Kevan Peebles, who replaced the original glass-and-iron court with the present Edwardian Baroque lobby and its grand stair. A comprehensive rehabilitation late in the 20th century returned this architectural and social landmark to its former magnificence.
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
Nomination Form
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
