Monumental Church Crypt in Richmond, Virginia

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Get directions 1224 E Broad Street (Rt. 250)
Richmond, Virginia 23219 United States

Coordinates: 37.53886, -77.43005
804-643-7407
Cemetery ID:

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Monumental Church was built between 1812 and 1814 to commemorate the 72 people who died on this site on December 26, 1811 in the Richmond Theatre fire. The church is an unusual octagonal form capped with a dome.The monument under the front portico is inscribed with the names of the dead. The building consists of two parts, a crypt and a church. The crypt is located beneath the sanctuary and contains the remains of those claimed by the fire. In 1786 on this site Richmond's first theatre was built, which had the appearance of a barn-like building. Following the 1811 fire which consumed the theater, the church for the same site was commissioned by Chief Justice John Marshall and designed by architect Robert Mills, the first American-born architect, the only pupil of Thomas Jefferson and the architect of the Washington Monument and White House of the Confederacy. Deconsecrated in 1965, Monumental Church was given by the Medical College of Virginia to the Historic Richmond Foundation. In 2004 Monumental Church underwent a significant renovation, during which the monument to the 72 people killed in the fire was replaced by an exact replica. The bodies of the victims are still in a brick crypt below the church.