How Richmond's Old City Hall was saved from demolition

For more than a century, Richmond’s Old City Hall loomed over Broad Street like a gothic fortress, a Gilded Age artifact with a singular and distinctive appearance. But after standing for 85 years, the former home of Richmond’s local government was in dire straits.

“An inspection of the building yesterday showed that much of the paint on columns and carved wood trim was peeling,” reads an article in the Aug. 31, 1979, Times-Dispatch. “Paint and plaster were peeling and falling from walls in many of the rooms.

“Much of the carpeting in the first-floor foyer was beginning to mildew, and a strong musty odor filled the building,” it continues.

By the end of the 1970s, Old City Hall was stuck in limbo. It was slowly decaying, sitting vacant on its plot on the north side of Capitol Square, fa