Capitol Square

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Capitol Square

Virginia’s historic Capitol Square in downtown Richmond is an architectural and artistic setting for events shaping America’s individual liberties, political institutions, judicial traditions, and social progress. Government buildings and public monuments on the Capitol Square are reminders of power, leadership and enduring principles. The twelve acres of landscaped grounds are enclosed by an original and distinctive 1818 cast iron fence–one of the earliest of its kind in the country. The historic grounds and buildings of Capitol Square are recognized as an ideal downtown location for legislation, inauguration and commemoration. Capitol Square remains an active public park and civic campus for self-government in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Godefroy landscape design of Capitol Square – 1816

The public area surrounding the 1788 Capitol was originally a weed-filled, virtually treeless open square with informal lanes and footpaths. The first formal landscape plan for Capitol Square was developed by Maximilian Godefroy in 1816. His formal walkways, public fountains and trees planted with geometric precision recalled the courtly gardens of 18th century France. In 1850 John Notman was hired to redesign the landscape of Capitol Square. He introduced informal winding paths, additional public entrances and new plantings of trees in scattered groups. Notman’s plan was implemented in the 1850s, making Capitol Square one of the first major urban parks in the nation designed in the English picturesque style. The current landscaping of the grounds reflects various elements of previous 19th and 20th century designs used on the Square. As a planned urban park, Capitol Square is older than Central Park in New York City.

Notman landscape design of Capitol Square ca. 1850

For more than two centuries, Capitol Square has been a place of political power and public inspiration, attracting local citizens and foreign dignitaries alike. The Marquis de Lafayette, a French general who served with distinction in the American Revolution, was an honored guest on the Square in 1824. In April 1865 Abraham Lincoln toured Capitol Square near the end of the Civil War. Teddy Roosevelt addressed a crowd gathered in Capitol Square in October 1905. Winston Churchill was a guest at the Executive Mansion in October 1929. He returned to Capitol Square in March 1946 and gave a speech to a joint session of the Virginia General Assembly. Margaret Thatcher addressed the Virginia General Assembly on the topic of “liberty” in February 1995.

Capitol Square has long served as a familiar setting for inaugurations. In February 1862 Jefferson Davis was inaugurated here as the only elected president of the Confederacy. For most of the 20th century, Virginia governors have taken their oaths of office in outdoor ceremonies every four years. In January 1990 Lawrence Douglas Wilder was sworn in as the first elected African-American Governor of a U.S. state and Mary Sue Terry, the first woman elected to executive office in Virginia, was inaugurated for her second term as Attorney General.