Three Capital Cities

Over the last four centuries, Virginia’s royal and representative governments have met in churches, homes, a college hall, commercial buildings, and several statehouses. Jamestown, the first successful English settlement in the New World, served as the capital of the Virginia colony from 1607 until 1699. The Virginia General Assembly held its first session in a church at Jamestown during the summer of 1619, twelve years after the founding of the Virginia colony and more than a year before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. In 1699 Virginia colonial leaders decided to relocate from Jamestown to higher and healthier ground at Middle Plantation, which they renamed Williamsburg. In 1779 during the Revolutionary War, the Virginia General Assembly voted favorably on Thomas Jefferson’s proposal to move Virginia’s capital inland. Richmond was chosen as a safer and more central location than Williamsburg and it had the further advantage of being an inland port. Governor Jefferson presided over the actual move of the Virginia government from Williamsburg to Richmond in the spring of 1780. Except for very brief interludes in 1781 and 1849, Richmond has continued to serve as the seat of Virginia government into the present day.

1907 Memorial Church on the site of the first General Assembly meeting in 1619 at Jamestown

1619 First Legislative Meeting at Jamestown: Virginia’s General Assembly, the earliest English speaking representative legislature in the New World, met in 1619 and for many years afterwards in the choir of the Anglican church at Jamestown. This building was the only suitable structure large enough to hold the Council, the Governor, and the elected Burgesses meeting together as a unicameral body.

1630s – 1665 Private Buildings for Public Uses at Jamestown: For more than three decades the Virginia government used a combination of various private buildings which were borrowed, purchased or rented for public purposes.

For many years the Council and the Burgesses convened in buildings owned by Governor Sir John Harvey. In 1641 Governor Harvey, having completed his second term of office two years earlier, was forced to sell his property to pacify creditors. The General Assembly and Harvey’s successor Sir Francis Wyatt purchased the same buildings in which the General Court, Governor’s Council and unicameral Assembly were accustomed to meeting.

In 1642 Sir William Berkley became governor and in 1643 the unicameral Assembly was divided into a House of Burgesses and the Governor’s Council, which began meeting separately from each other. By 1646 Governor Berkeley completed a three unit row house in town at his own expense which probably served as a meeting place for the Governor’s Council and perhaps for the House of Burgesses. Today visitors to Jamestown Island can still see the remaining foundations of Berkeley Row on land managed by the National Park Service at Colonial National Historical Park.

By 1657 another ready-made state house was evidently acquired, but its exact location at Jamestown has still not been identified. This last building was destroyed by fire about 1660. During the next five years, the legislature met in one of the Jamestown taverns. Money was set aside by the Assembly to build a new State House complex with public funds.

1665-1698 Public State House Complex at Jamestown: This evolving and expanding State House complex was located to the west of earlier State Houses. At its maximum development it had two stories with garrets and cellars totaling 23,000 square feet under a long rectangular roof. Unfortunately, most of the Jamestown settlement, including the State House complex, was burned in 1676 during Bacon’s Rebellion.

Another State House complex was built on the ruins of its predecessor and became operational around 1685. This complex continued in use for more than a decade. In 1698, Jamestown’s last State House went up in smoke. Its foundations were discovered and identified in 1903. They are kept intact by Preservation Virginia (formerly APVA). A unique archeological museum has been erected over top of the foundations. The 1698 fire which consumed the last state house ended Jamestown’s career as the seat of the colony’s government.

A reconstructed version of the first Williamsburg Capitol which was used from 1704-1747.

1699 – 1704 Move to Williamsburg: In 1699, the town of Williamsburg was established at Middle Plantation and was designated as the capital of the colony. Since there were as yet no public buildings there, the General Assembly met temporarily in the Wren Building at the College of William & Mary.

1704 – 1747 First Williamsburg Capitol: This handsome brick capitol was in the form of an H, each wing of which was two stories high. The structure contained large, well-appointed chambers for the House of Burgesses and for the Governor’s Council. The capitol became an important part of the colony’s social life when Williamsburg was overrun with visitors during the General Assembly sessions. The walls of this capitol, which resounded by day to the blasts of the orator, echoed by night to the shrill of fiddles and the sound of dancing feet. Sadly, in 1747 the first Williamsburg capitol was destroyed by fire. Note: In the 1930s this first Capitol was reconstructed on its foundations by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation as a visitor attraction.

1747 – 1753 Williamsburg between Capitols: After the 1747 fire, Virginia’s legislators again met in the Great Hall (dining room) of the Wren Building at the College of William & Mary until a new Capitol could be built.

1753 – 1780 Second Williamsburg Capitol: The second Capitol was built on the same site and, in general, according to the same H-shaped floor plan as the first Capitol. However, the new building seems to have been less elaborate. Here, in June of 1776 Virginians declared their independence from Great Britain and wrote the state’s first constitution, thereby creating an independent government several days before Congress voted for the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. After the state government moved to Richmond in 1780, this building was used by George Wythe, professor of law at the College of William & Mary, for the moot courts and mock legislatures which he initiated to train the leaders of the next generation. The building was destroyed –by fire–in 1832.

The capital moved from Williamsburg to Richmond in 1780, and occupied it’s current building for the first time in 1788.

1780 – 1788 A Wartime Move to Richmond: With the establishment of Richmond as the new capital, six squares on Shockoe Hill were appropriated as the location for future public buildings. Until a new and permanent Capitol could be built, the General Assembly met in two adjacent commercial buildings located at the northwest corner of 14th and Cary Streets. In June of 1781 the threat of British military invasion and the prospect of becoming political prisoners led the legislators to adjourn to the safer atmosphere of Charlottesville. They soon found that even the Piedmont was not safe enough when British cavalry came galloping into Albemarle. The lawmakers narrowly escaped capture and met on June 7 in the Episcopal church at Staunton for a two-week session — keeping themselves ready to flee farther west if the enemy continued pursuit.

The General Assembly returned to Richmond in October 1781. Fortunately the British had not taken the trouble to burn the two unimposing structures at 14th and Cary Streets previously used by the legislature. The House and Senate continued meeting in those public buildings for seven more years until the new Capitol designed by Thomas Jefferson was ready for occupancy. The Virginia legislature moved uphill into the classical Capitol in October 1788. Both of the temporary public buildings at the bottom of the hill were demolished sometime before 1851. A small plaque now marks the site.