Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 04/28/1995
NRHP Listing Date 07/07/1995
NRHP Reference Number 95000818
The rapid growth that followed Richmond’s becoming the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia quickly overwhelmed available burial space. The city recognized the need for a public cemetery and purchased a 28.5-acre parcel on Shockoe Hill. Richard Young, the city surveyor, laid out the new Shockoe Hill Cemetery in 1824. Surrounded by a tall brick wall, the cemetery is subdivided by four roads and twenty-six grassy walkways. The straight roads and paths, and the regular layout of plots, contrast with the Romantic informality that characterized many later municipal cemeteries. Shockoe Hill Cemetery is endowed with a rich collection of 19th-century funerary sculpture, with many works signed by local stonemasons. Among the 36,000 interments are Chief Justice John Marshall; engineer Claudius Crozet; Dr. William Foushee, Richmond’s first mayor; and Union spy Elizabeth Van Lew. A granite pyramid marks the graves of several hundred soldiers, both Confederate and Union.
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: July 7, 2021
