Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 08/21/1990
NRHP Listing Date 01/11/1991
NRHP Reference Number 90002136
Opened in 1876, Lynchburg’s first toy and confectionery store was operated by the Bragassa family. The building is itself a little-altered example of the simple Italianate commercial architecture that once defined so many American downtowns. Italians by birth, the Bragassas were associated with the toy and candy business as early as 1858. In 1871 Francisco Bragassa purchased part of the Lynchburg Female Seminary property and built the present building in 1875. Family tradition holds that the shopfront had the first plate-glass windows in Lynchburg. Mrs. Bragassa’s candies were famous throughout the city, and the store was a popular gathering place for neighborhood children. Owned by the Bragassas until 1987, the building, a nostalgic link with simpler times, is now headquarters for the Lynchburg Historical Foundation.
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Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Updated: March 26, 2021
