Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 11/05/1968
NRHP Listing Date 04/16/1969
NRHP Reference Number 69000356
This antebellum mansion opposite the Valentine Museum is an early use of the Italianate style in the city of Richmond. The massive scale and square proportions employed here were inspired by the Renaissance palaces of Florence. Notable features of the house include the thin-jointed pressed brick façade, marble entrance steps, elaborately detailed porch, and cast-iron hood moldings over the windows. Dating from 1853, the house was the home of William A. Grant, a tobacco manufacturer whose factory survives in Shockoe Valley. It was sold to the Sheltering Arms Hospital in 1882. The hospital has since moved and the mansion is now owned by the Medical College of Virginia of Virginia Commonwealth University, which has sympathetically restored the first-floor reception rooms. The Grant House and nearby dwellings are part of a progression of distinguished houses that once formed a leading residential neighborhood.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Updated: September 22, 2021
