Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 02/19/1980
NRHP Listing Date 05/07/1980
NRHP Reference Number 80004217
The former charitable hospital of the Little Sisters of the Poor is a massive and rare example for Richmond of late-Victorian institutional architecture. The St. Sophia Home of the Little Sisters of the Poor building is believed to incorporate the walls of Warsaw, a brick farmhouse built in 1832 as the residence of William Anderson, on whose farm a large part of the surrounding neighborhood, the present Fan District, was built. Warsaw was acquired by the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic order of nuns, in 1877. Over the next two decades, it was transformed into a huge Second Empire-style building, a conspicuous symbol of ministry to the indigent in an otherwise tidy middle-class neighborhood. The nuns relocated in the late 1970s, and the complex was sold and remodeled into luxury condominiums known as The Warsaw.
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 21, 2021
