Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
See link(s) below to view additional documentation.
VLR Listing Date 09/15/1999
NRHP Listing Date 04/13/2000
NRHP Reference Number 00000313
Lawrenceville Historic District includes most of the town that has developed around the Brunswick County seat established in 1814. Much of that growth was directly related to the coming of the Atlantic and Danville Railroad in 1891, which tied the broad local agricultural base to national markets. At the same time, James Solomon, an Episcopal priest and former slave, founded St Paul’s College, a private African American college. The district includes the courthouse square, the college, blocks of commercial buildings built between 1870 and 1940, and residential areas with domestic structures primarily from the 1890s to 1920. In addition, it includes a variety of public buildings, railroad-related resources and well-preserved recreational facilities built by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Works Progress Administration (WPA), federal New Deal programs in the 1930s. Few large towns have such a cohesive and complete fabric.
Additional Documentation was submitted to update the Lawrenceville Historic District nomination, including current information about the district’s physical condition, further documentation of the significance of the district, and extending the end date of the district’s period of significance from 1949 to 1973. The extension into the early 1970’s allowed for the inclusion of a new area of significance, Social History; and additional context and justification for other related areas of significance such as Education and African American Heritage, due to the contributions of James Solomon Russell and Nellie Pratt Russell, and to events associated with the Civil Rights movement in Lawrenceville.
[NRHP Approved: 8/5/2021]
2021 Additional Documentation Nomination
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: August 6, 2021
