Virginia State Penitentiary
Virginia State Penitentiary was a prison in Richmond, Virginia. Towards the end of its life it was a part of the Virginia Department of Corrections.
First opening in 1800, the prison was completed in 1804; it was built due to a reform movement preceding its construction. Thomas Jefferson initiated these reforms and submitted an initial design which was not constructed. The original building was the first American design of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, who later designed the U.S. Capitol building. The prison began hosting executions on October 13, 1908.
In 1928 the original building was demolished and a new prison was erected on the same site in Richmond, just north of the James River. It expanded to occupy an entire campus of high-walled cellblocks and administrative buildings, in the block bordered by Byrd, Spring, Belvedere and South 2nd Streets. It once housed Virginia's men's death row and execution chamber in Building A.
The prison closed in 1991, and the execution chamber was moved to the Greensville Correctional Center near Jarratt. The Virginia State Penitentiary was demolished that year. The site is owned by Afton Chemical.
