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
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.
Meriwether Lewis Bust Unveiled in the Old Hall of the House of Delegates
"Of courage undaunted, possessing a firmness and perseverance of purpose which nothing but impossibilities could divert from its direction,..." so wrote Thomas Jefferson about his private secretary, Captain Meriwether Lewis when, in 1803, he selected Lewis to lead a proposed expedition to explore the continent.
In recognition of Lewis' role in guiding the Corps of Discovery, the first American overland expedition to the Pacific Coast, the General Assembly decreed in 1932 that Meriwether Lewis was one of the select "great Virginians" whose likenesses could be placed in the Old Hall of the House of Delegates at the State Capitol.
On August 18, 2008, a bust of Meriwether Lewis was presented to Governor Tim Kaine as a gift to the Commonwealth of Virginia from the Home Front Chapter of the Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, from the Locust Hill Graveyard Foundation, and from friends and family members across America. Among the more than 100 participants who filled the Old Hall of Delegates were Lewis family descendants, several of whom participated in the ceremony.
House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith welcomed guests and introduced Governor Tim Kaine, who accepted the bust on behalf of the Commonwealth. Period music provided by a brass quintet included "Columbia" and "Yankee Doodle." Following the ceremony, guests were invited to tour the Capitol and to view a newly-installed exhibit on Meriwether Lewis.
The bust, sculpted by John A. Lanzalotti, M.D., joins images of such other prominent Virginians as John Marshall, Patrick Henry, George Mason, and Sam Houston in the Old Hall.
The Corps of Discovery, led by Lewis and his partner William Clark between 1803 and 1806, was the first American overland crossing to the Pacific Coast. As outlined by Jefferson, the Corps of Discovery had two guiding objectives. The Corps was to explore the Missouri River and any related streams which might provide access to the Pacific Ocean. They were also to observe and record all natural phenomena, geographical features, and characteristics and practices of native peoples of the region. The information gathered by Lewis and Clark became an essential component in the development of a new understanding of the American West.
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.