Old City Hall

A stunning High Victorian Gothic building completed in 1894, featuring an impressive central courtyard. The building served as Richmond's city hall until 1971.

Richmond's Old City Hall rises like a Gothic cathedral of stone and shadow at 1001 East Broad Street, its 195-foot clock tower piercing the Virginia sky. Completed in 1894 after eight years of troubled construction, this High Victorian Gothic masterpiece has earned a reputation for its unsettling dark presence that seems to watch visitors from the shadows, leaving an eerie feeling that's hard to shake.

Architect Elijah E. Myers, who designed five state capitols including Michigan, Texas, and Colorado, won a national competition in 1886 to design the building. But the project was cursed from the start. Myers had paid a $1,500 bribe to ensure his design would be selected, and the construction budget of $300,000 exploded to an astounding $1.3 million—a 400% cost overrun. Almost 2 million cubic feet of James River granite were quarried to build the massive structure, with construction requiring a special railway along Broad Street to transport materials. The building was constructed primarily by Black laborers under the supervision of City Engineer Colonel Wilfred E. Cutshaw.

The site itself carries the weight of tragedy. Old City Hall occupies ground where three significant buildings once stood: Governor Edmund Randolph's House (built around 1800), the first City Hall (built 1818), and the First Presbyterian Church (built 1853). The original City Hall was demolished after its gallery suffered a fatal collapse in 1870—but that was merely a precursor to an even greater disaster.

On April 27, 1870, just blocks away at the Virginia State Capitol, a horrific tragedy unfolded that still reverberates through Richmond's collective memory. During a heated court case about the contested Richmond mayoral election, hundreds of spectators packed the Capitol's courtroom gallery. Just as the clock struck eleven, a deafening crack echoed through the chamber as the overloaded gallery floor gave way. The collapse sent hundreds of people and tons of debris plunging sixty feet into the House of Delegates chamber below.

Sixty-two people died that day, including Patrick Henry Aylett (great-grandson of the famous patriot), Richmond Fire Chief William Charters, State Senator J.W.D. Bland (one of two African Americans killed), and thirteen-year-old John Turner, the youngest victim. Over 250 more were seriously injured. This Capitol Disaster remains one of the deadliest building collapses in American history, and its shadow fell directly upon the construction of Old City Hall, built to replace the condemned original structure.

Within Old City Hall's three-foot granite walls and Gothic cloisters, paranormal activity centers on the basement areas where prisoners were once held in cells. Security guards working overnight shifts report the sound of chains rattling and desperate pleas echoing from the empty basement chambers. The cries seem to come from nowhere and everywhere at once, as if the walls themselves remember those confined within them.

On the upper floors, visitors and office workers have encountered a woman in Victorian dress drifting through the hallways. She is believed to be a former employee who died within the building during its years as city hall (1894-1971). Her apparition appears most often near the grand central staircase, where she pauses as if waiting for someone who never arrives, then vanishes into the shadows.

The building's architecture itself contributes to its haunted atmosphere. Victorian Gothic structures have long been associated with the supernatural—their tall windows, shadowy hallways, creaking wooden floors, and strange angles that block natural light all create perfect conditions for paranormal encounters. Old City Hall's fairy-tale silhouette, with its profusion of carved ornament and four corner towers of varying designs, embodies this tradition.

Today, Old City Hall has been converted to private offices, but the first floor remains open to the public Monday through Friday. The interior courtyard's three-story painted cast-iron atrium—crafted by Richmond's own Asa Snyder—is considered the most splendid interior space in Richmond. Yet even amid such beauty, visitors report cold spots, the sensation of being watched, and an oppressive atmosphere that seems to emanate from the very stones.

Richmond ghost tours frequently include Old City Hall on their routes through Capitol Square, where it stands alongside other haunted landmarks including the Virginia State Capitol (still haunted by victims of the 1870 disaster), the Executive Mansion (home to the Lady in Blue since the 1890s), and numerous other buildings scarred by the city's turbulent history as the capital of the Confederacy.

The building was saved from demolition twice—in 1915 and again in 1970—through major preservation efforts led by the Historic Richmond Foundation. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1971. Perhaps those preservation victories ensure that whatever spirits dwell within its granite walls will remain undisturbed for generations to come, continuing to watch visitors from the shadows of this Gothic monument to Richmond's haunted past.