Hunton Student Center, Virginia Commonwealth University

Thomas Ustick Walters; 2007 restoration by Einhorn Yaffee Prescott, Architects and Engineers, P.C.
1841

In Court End, a district that boasts many architecturally distinguished buildings and many on the National Register of Historic Places, the Hunton Student Center is an elegant stand-out.

This former church-turned student activities building was designed by Thomas Ustick Walter (1804-1887) who was once considered the “dean” of American architects. He was a founder of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the classically-inspired buildings that he designed for Philadelphia once helped to define his native city. His commissions came from as far afield as China and Venezuela.  But most notably Walter designed the United States Capitol largely as it appears today, including the iconic dome and flanking chambers that contain the Senate and the House of Representatives.

In 1841 for the First Baptist Church, one of Richmond’s earliest and largest congregations, Walters built a Greek revival temple on the hilltop where East Broad and Governor streets meet. To compensate for the rather shallow building site, he dispensed with a full colonnade across the front, and built in antis. While this arrangement allowed for six colossal Doric columns, only two are free-standing. The outer four columns are pier columns. This arrangement provided additional interior space for stair halls that connect the sanctuary level with the second level balconies.

The building exterior has a granite base at ground level. The upper walls are brick covered in stucco that is scored to look like ashlar stone.

The highlight of the interior is the sanctuary which is in remarkable state of preservation. The original pulpit is in place and old pews are in evidence.

The First Baptist congregation was so influential, and the design of its building so well-liked, that the Walter design served as the prototype for at least three other churches in Richmond. These included First African Baptist Church (two blocks east of Hunton on East Broad Street), and Fourth Baptist Church at 2800 P Street on Church Hill.

In 1927 the First Baptist congregation moved from this downtown location to a new and larger facility at the southeast corner of Monument Avenue and Boulevard in the then-suburban Fan District. The design of the new sanctuary’s exterior followed closely the design and detailing of the Walter church. In 1938 the original former sanctuary was sold to the Medical College of Virginia (since 1968 the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center). For a number of years the structure has served as a student activities facility.

In the mid-1970s Hunton Student Center (named for long-time medical school trustees Eppa Hunton, Jr. and Eppa Hunton IV) was threatened with demolition. A successful nation-wide effort to save the building was led in part by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In 2007 the university undertook a thorough and sensitive rehabilitation of the building. The restoration architect was Einhorn Yaffee Prescott of Washington, D.C.

In 2018 the exterior approach to this landmark– through its distinctive cast iron gate and up a steep flight of front granite steps– was compromised by the placement of an architecturally incompatible public transit shelter in front of the building.

ES