Lee Medical Building
Historic building in Virginia, US
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The Lee Medical Building is a historic office building located in Richmond, Virginia. It was constructed in 1952, and is a six-story, 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m2) building designed in the Colonial Revival style. The building occupies a prominent site on Monument Avenue in the city, located on a corner lot across from and facing the since-removed Robert E. Lee Monument, and was the first commercial building on that primarily residential street.
Lee Medical Building | |
Lee Medical Building in 2018 | |
   | |
| Location | 1805 Monument Avenue, Richmond, Virginia |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 37°33′14″N 77°27′39″W |
| Area | 0.3979 acres (0.1610 ha) |
| Built | 1952 |
| Architect | W. Harrison Pringle |
| Architectural style | Colonial Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 100002356[1] |
| VLR No. | 127-0174-0393 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | April 17, 2018 |
| Designated VLR | December 14, 2017[2] |
It resides within the Monument Avenue Historic District, but was built outside of that area's period of significance and so is not a contributing structure. The office building itself was listed to the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.[3]
History
The history of Monument Avenue dates to 1887, when it was decided to place a monument to Robert E. Lee in a field west of the city of Richmond.[3] The area surrounding the monument was platted and sold to speculators, and city services were extended to the vicinity, but the panic of 1893 cooled the real estate market.[3] Though the monument to Lee was dedicated in 1890, it was 1903 before the first house was built on Monument Avenue.[3][4]
The majority of the street and surrounding neighborhoods had been developed by the early 1940s.[3] A number of the lots located around the avenue's statues were undeveloped, however, which may have been due to their irregular shape as well as a hesitancy to reside in such high profile locations.[5] By 1950, the southwest portion of Lee Circle was empty, its property lines demarcated by a hedge.[3]
In that year, the land came under the ownership of Franklin A. Trice, a Richmond-area developer who had previously worked on numerous residential projects in the city.[3] Trice recognized the need for medical office space in the newly developed district, and decided to build a five-story tower for that purpose in Lee Circle.[3] He met significant opposition to the proposal from area residents concerned about the effect of the office building on their property values.[6] Previous changes to local zoning laws allowed for such development, however, though the building would be the first commercial structure on Monument Avenue.[3] Trice's first attempt at obtaining a building permit was denied for not allowing enough of a setback from the road and neighboring structures.[6] To remedy this issue, Trice had his architect, W. Harrison Pringle, reduce the design's square footage per floor and add a sixth story.[3] The modification was approved, and Trice received his permit in June 1950.[7]
Pringle's final design was for a multi-faceted, seven-sided building arranged to take advantage of the site's wedge-shaped layout.[3] It was done in the Colonial Revival style, faced with brick and limestone, with six broad limestone pilasters separating the front facade's five bays.[3] The facade is further decorated with carved dogwood blossoms as well as a shield displaying both the caduceus and the Rod of Asclepius.[3]
The building's interior was constructed with six symmetrical, nearly identical floors containing suites of offices intended for medical and dental professionals.[3] The offices were occasionally modified and renovated to accommodate their various tenants, but generally included space for reception and waiting, examination and operating rooms, and laboratories.[3]
In addition to opposition to the building's initial permit, Trice also met considerable resistance to his attempt to open a pharmacy on the structure's ground floor.[8] Neighborhood residents, concerned that a soda fountain would operate in the pharmacy, feared the facility would attract "teen-agers and bobby-soxers".[9] While the zoning ordinance allowed for "uses customarily incident" to the building's operation, which Trice argued a pharmacy qualified as, the courts determined that the pharmacy's additional function of selling soda and candy was overly broad and did not qualify.[10][11]
In 1953, just over a year after its opening, Trice sold the medical building to a consortium of doctors for the price of $750,000.[12] The building had sufficient occupancy that no tenants were forced out of the building due to its sale.[12] Within a decade of opening the building was home to roughly 60 separate practices.[3] As the 20th century progressed and medical professionals required larger spaces, those tenants vacated the building and were gradually replaced by practices such as massage therapy and mental health treatment.[3]
The building was listed to the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.[3] In 2019, the property was again the center of a permit debate when a city councilwoman objected to the site's potential conversion into apartments.[13] The following year, Lee Circle was the location of numerous protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.[14] In June of that year, following a candlelight vigil celebrating Juneteenth at the site, an airport security officer was arrested at the Lee Medical Building.[14] He had been seen on the roof of the then-vacant building, and was armed with a handgun when police arrived.[14] The man was charged with trespassing but the police found that the gun was carried lawfully.[14]