St. Albans Hospital among eight sites added to Va. Landmarks Register

New VLR listings are in the counties of Albemarle, Hanover, Loudoun, New Kent, Pittsylvania, and Pulaski; and the cites of Fredericksburg and Richmond

The Virginia Board of Historic Resources has approved eight new listings on the Virginia Landmarks Register including a tavern visited by George Washington and French troops during the Revolutionary War, a rural village in Northern Virginia settled by African Americans before and after the Civil War, and a military academy in Southside Virginia established in 1909.

The New VLR listings are in the counties of Albemarle, Hanover, Loudoun, New Kent, Pittsylvania, and Pulaski; and the cites of Fredericksburg and Richmond .

One of the properties newly approved for listing on the Virginia Landmarks Register (VLR) is St. Albans Hospital in Pulaski County.

Constructed in 1892 as two separate buildings on a bluff above the New River and the City of Radford, St. Albans Hospital originally housed a well-respected private preparatory school for boys, St. Albans, that closed in 1911. In 1916 the two buildings were connected by a corridor and the 56-arce property then served as the privately operated St. Albans Sanatorium, opened by physician J. C. King to treat patients with “Mental and Nervous Disorders.”

A former superintendent at Southwestern State Hospital, Dr. King envisioned a mental health treatment regimen that offered a farm for fresh food and occupations for patients, gardens and orchards, and various forms of outdoor recreation.

Later changed to “hospital,” St. Albans provided employment and all forms of medical services, including emergency treatment, to the residents of Radford and surrounding rural counties. The only area hospital until 1943, it remained in the King family until a corporation purchased the business in 1965 and added a rear addition in 1969. Designed in the Classical Revival style by a Philadelphia firm, and built largely with local materials, the St. Albans Hospital building is both historically and architecturally significant.

The Department of Historic Resources will forward the documentation for these newly-listed VLR sites to the National Park Service for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.

Listing a property in the state or national registers is honorary and sets no restrictions on what property owners may do with their property. The designation is first and foremost an invitation to learn about and experience authentic and significant places in Virginia’s history.

Designating a property to the state or national registers—either individually or as a contributing building in a historic district—provides an owner the opportunity to pursue historic rehabilitation tax credit improvements to the building. Tax credit projects must comply with the Secretary of Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation. The tax credit program is voluntary and not a requirement when owners work on their listed properties.

Virginia is a national leader among states in listing historic sites and districts on the National Register of Historic Places. The state is also a national leader for the number of federal tax credit rehabilitation projects proposed and completed each year.

Together the register and tax credit rehabilitation programs play significant roles in promoting Virginia’s heritage and the preservation of the Commonwealth’s historic places and in spurring economic revitalization and tourism in many towns and communities.

To view property photos or to read nomination forms, go to https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/boards/