The Jefferson Hotel

Carrère and Hastings

1892-1895

101 West Franklin Street, Richmond, VA

The Jefferson Hotel is one of the finest examples of Beaux Arts architecture in the city, and certainly one of the grandest. Conceived and funded in 1892 by Gilded Age Richmond business leader Lewis Ginter, the design was carried out by Carrère and Hastings, a top New York firm. John Mervin Carrère and Thomas Hastings were both trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Both apprenticed with the firm of McKim, Mead and White, the most influential and sought after architectural practice in America in the Beaux Arts period. Carrère and Hastings founded their own firm and designed projects such as the New York Public Library main branch and the Standard Oil Building. In addition to work in New York, they secured commissions across North America and in Europe.

Even given the scope and scale of their oeuvre, The Jefferson Hotel was not a minor project. Carrère and Hastings drew on Italian villas for inspiration, especially on the building’s north facade. This faces Franklin Street which is composed largely of brownstones and townhouses with projecting bays and turret elements. The Tuscan towers of the Jefferson’s north facade break up the monotony of the broad Street frontage and relate to the composition of Franklin Street.The building’s south face is more monumental in scale, though less inventive. Columns and entablature frame the massive arched windows of a grand interior ballroom. Ornamental swag and exuberant cartouches (a trademark of the firm) decorate the face.  Above the first few levels the details falls away, returning at the top with a comparatively modest cornice.

The Jefferson is a valuable asset to the urban fabric of Monroe Ward. Unfortunately, the building is currently fronted on almost three full sides by surface parking lots. Nowhere is this condition more egregious than on the south facade (facing Main Street) where the grand columned facade is met with an entire block of parking. This block is one of the places most needing of thoughtful infill in all of Richmond.

The Jefferson itself was considered for demolition in the 1970s, but was brought back into service in its original function. Today, its remains the finest hotel in Richmond, holding both the coveted AAA Five Diamond rating and the Mobil Five Star rating. There is little doubt that it will serve as a key anchor point for the development of the surrounding neighborhood and as a Richmond landmark for decades to come.

DOK