You’re looking at the Library of Virginia-the state’s massive memory bank, sitting quietly on Broad Street, but absolutely packed to the rafters with stories, scandals, and straight-up trivia about Virginia. This is where the Commonwealth keeps its paper trail…and, let’s be honest, Virginia’s had some fascinating paperwork through the years.
The Library itself was officially founded in 1823, though folks in power were hoarding records and documents here back when the British were still grumbling about rebellious colonists. Back then, those “official” records were crammed into a single room-basically a closet-tucked in the State Capitol. Of course, more history means more paperwork, and pretty soon the collection needed an ever-growing trail of homes around the city like someone with way too many boxes after a move.
By the time Abraham Lincoln was still practicing law, the Library’s collection hit 14,000 volumes. In today’s money, just insuring that would be quite a bill-books were expensive commodities back then. These days, the Library holds more than 134 million items. Yes, million. If you stacked all those books and papers from here to the James River, you’d probably block half of downtown.
Now, the collection is almost bursting at the seams: rare books with handwritten notes, maps older than most European countries, presidential letters, and millions of government records tucked away on microfilm, hard drives, yellowed parchment-the lot. And it’s not just dull government stuff, either. There are diaries of ordinary people, photographs of street scenes, letters from high school sweethearts, even the occasional juicy political scandal-fun for researchers and nosy neighbors alike.
The Library isn’t just a quiet sanctuary for bookworms. It’s lively, with talks from top Virginia authors, hands-on workshops on genealogy, art displays, and the annual Virginia Literary Awards. Speaking of writers, the Library has honored everyone from Edgar Allan Poe, who probably would’ve enjoyed the air conditioning in here, to John Grisham, who’s sold enough books to fill the stacks twice over.
There’s a real focus on making local history accessible. The Library’s digital collections mean you can snoop on everything from notorious Civil War generals to the anonymous people who helped build this city-from anywhere in the world. Ever want to know if your ancestor got into trouble in Richmond in the 1800s? There’s probably a record on file-and no, they won’t judge you for looking.
Of course, running this operation takes a dedicated staff-and volunteers who help transcribe documents so the rest of us can decipher 18th-century handwriting. There’s even a program where you can join in, if you fancy untangling Virginia’s history one hard-to-read letter at a time.
It’s funny, standing outside this modern building, that so much of Virginia’s past-heroism, heartache, bureaucratic disputes over fence lines-is all preserved inside. From colonial muster rolls to the latest TikTok research grant, it all ends up here eventually. If the state had a diary, this building would be it.
Alright, hope you’re ready to keep moving. For Murphy’s Hotel, just head southwest. It’s a breezy 2-minute walk.
