About the Capitol
Welcome and thank you for your interest in Virginia's Capitol. With the extensive restoration that has recently been completed, there is no better time to discover all that the new Capitol has to offer. Improvement features include a new Visitor's Center, cafe and gift shop in the underground extension. Also, painstaking effort was made to bring the Capitol's appearance back to its look in the early 1900's era. A wonderful, architectural blend of new and old, the Capitol carries on themes originally presented by Thomas Jefferson and also caters to a 21st-century visitor's expectation of what the Commonwealth's Capitol should be.
Current Events at the Capitol
Civil War HistoryMobile visits the Capitol
The Virginia Civil War 150 HistoryMobile will visit the General Assembly from January 23 through 27, welcoming visitors from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Friday. The interactive "museum on wheels," housed in a 53-foot expandable tractor-trailer, will be open to the public, positioned in the Darden Garden bus loop between the General Assembly Building and the Capitol. Members of the General Assembly, staff, and visitors to the Capitol are invited to tour the HistoryMobile during its visit.
The HistoryMobile draws together stories from all over Virginia and uses state-of-the-art technology and immersive exhibit spaces to present individual stories of the Civil War from the perspectives of those who experienced it—young and old, enslaved and free, soldier and civilian. Just as the Civil War impacted every area of Virginia, the stories represented in the HistoryMobile are representative of the war experience throughout the state: battlefront, homefront, and the journey to freedom. From the heart-rending last letter written by a dying son to his father after being injured at Spotsylvania in 1864, to touch-screen computers that invite visitors to consider "What Would You Do?", to an overheard conversation between husband and wife considering the great risks and great rewards of fleeing to freedom, the HistoryMobile presents the stories of loss, gain, and legacies of the Civil War throughout Virginia.
New Capitol Virtual Tour Website
The General Assembly has released a state of the art virtual tours website that brings Virginia's State Capitol to the citizens of Virginia. The website provides online tours of both the Capitol Grounds and the Capitol Building. Visitors to this interactive website will have the ability to explore areas on their own or view video presentations.
Please note the virtual tours website requires the Adobe Flash Player. You can download the Flash Player at the Adobe website at no charge. If you do not have the Flash Player plug-in installed, you will be prompted to install it before any content is shown.
For visitors with special needs: An accessible segment of this website has been created for those visitors who use technology other than standard web browsers to view web content.
Civil Rights Memorial Unveiled on Capitol Square
On July 21, 2008, The Virginia Civil Rights Memorial was unveiled on Capitol Square. The Memorial is a privately financed, $2.6 million granite and bronze statue. It is the first statue on the grounds of the historic Capitol to include depictions of blacks and women in prominent roles.
The 18-figure sculpture called a "living memorial" by sculptor Stanley Bleifeld is meant to represent a key moment in the history of the civil-rights movement in Virginia. The new Memorial spotlights the African-American students in rural Prince Edward County whose 1951 walkout to protest their run-down school led to a lawsuit that was folded into the challenge that triggered the 1954 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court banning segregated public schools.
Among the figures on the Memorial is Oliver W. Hill, Sr. holding a rumpled legal brief aloft as he stands shoulder to shoulder with law partner Spottswood W. Robinson III. They took on the case of the Prince Edward County students who protested the shabby condition of their school. Barbara Johns was the one who called the school strike in 1951 and she is also featured. The student protests garnered support from the local community, benefiting from the moral leadership of the Rev. L. Francis Griffin, who is also a part of the memorial.
Jefferson's State Capitol and Poplar Forest Named as Sites On "U.S. Tentative World Heritage List"
The Virginia State Capitol, recently restored, and Poplar Forest, Jefferson's rural retreat in Bedford County, are among 14 sites in the U.S. selected for inclusion on a new U.S. World Heritage Tentative List, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced earlier this year. Inclusion on the U.S. list is "the necessary first step" toward being considered for inscription on the United Nations World Heritage List, "the most prestigious international recognition accorded to properties of global importance," Kempthorne said in his announcement.