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VCU PULLS PLUG ON LANDMARK: VCU DEMOLISHES LANDMARK TO MAKE WAY FOR NEW CONSTRUCTION
Photo by: Julie Ericksen
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 29, 2006
CONTACT: Jennie Dotts, 804-422-2148
(Richmond, VA) Yesterday, Virginia Commonwealth University began demolishing Cabaniss Hall (also known as the Nursing Education Building) on its Medical College of Virginia campus, the first of three university-owned landmarks buildings targeted for demolition in the next few years. University growth also threatens the loss of the privately owned White House of the Confederacy—a National Historic Landmark. The Museum of the Confederacy, which owns the White House, is seeking help from the Commonwealth of Virginia to move the house out away from VCU, whose encroachment has resulted in a decline in visitor attendance.
“A.C.O.R.N. has encouraged the City of Richmond and the Commonwealth of Virginia—the two largest property owners in downtown—to coordinate their planning and construction to avoid the needless destruction of landmark buildings, such as Cabaniss Hall,” commented Selden Richardson, president of A.C.O.R.N. “This remarkable structure was one-of-a-kind. It should have been preserved and adaptively reused, while locating the new medical sciences building on nearby vacant land. At the very least, the unique façade of Cabaniss Hall should have been incorporated into the replacement structure to preserve the streetscape and historic ambience of the area.”
Cabaniss Hall was completed in 1927 in the Italian Renaissance Revival and newly emerging Art Deco styles. A survey completed for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR) in 2005 notes that “the building’s raised basement, round arches, recessed arcade, brick columns and glazed tiles all work together to express the styles. The building exemplifies the craftsmanship and detail not found in many post-World War II buildings along Broad Street. “ DHR determined the building to be a contributing resource to the MCV Historic District, which is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. However, VCU and the state refuse to officially list the district.
“The Commonwealth of Virginia and, its agent VCU, own many early 20th century buildings of landmark quality, yet they have refused to place them on the state and national registers. This practice will help ensure the loss of worthwhile structures as the state continues to expand over the next 25 years unless a new policy is developed for the thoughtful preservation of state-owned buildings from the previous generation,” Richardson said.
In 1838, Hampden Sydney College established a medical department tin Richmond, which in 1854 was chartered by the state as the Medical College of Virginia. Prior to 1927, nursing students lived in a converted Greek Revival residence (now demolished). Baskervill and Lambert designed Cabaniss Hall in proportion to the neighboring historic Monumental Church, completed in 1814. MCV named the building after Sadie Heath Cabaniss, a pioneer nurse who came to Virginia in 1895 after graduating from Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She developed the first Virginia nursing program that followed the Nightingale plan. Ms. Cabaniss also helped form the Virginia State Association of Nurses, later the Virginia Nurses Association and served as its first president. In this role, she worked to obtain a registration law to regulate the practice of nursing in the Commonwealth. She was one of the original members of the
Virginia State Board of Examiners of Nurses.
A.C.O.R.N. is urging the city and state to develop a coordinated master plan for downtown Richmond to ensure better use of their properties and better protection for the historic buildings that give Richmond its unique identity. Without a change in policy, the two historic hospital buildings adjacent to Cabaniss Hall will be demolished in the next few years. To view images of Cabaniss Hall and other landmarks threatened by state expansion,
visit richmondneighborhoods.org.