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THE LEWIS F. POWELL JR. UNITED STATES COURTHOUSE
This obtrusive facade in it’s distinctive Italianate style has served the nation for over 150 years and stands today in service to the American Judicial System. Oficially known as The Lewis F. Powell ,Jr. United States Courthouse, it is the last of more than 70 original structures of this design still owned and managed by the U.S. Government. Built in the 1850’s at double the estimated cost, designed by The Treasury Department’s first Supervising Architect, it was acclaimed as Richmond’s first completely fireproof building. Just two years after it’s completion, it would become the executive headquarters of a ‘government in rebelloin’ determined to bring down by a violent conflict the very system that built it. Here, decisions were made that affected the course of the bloodiest conflict in American history and changed the lives forever of those who lived through it. The building has been threatened with distruction by fire and human indifference, hosted persons both famous and infamous, and was at one time accused of being a house of prostitution. It has been a banking institution, a place of religous ceremony, and had the city’s first Womans’ Suffrage meeting. Persons have been condemned to death here, people have died here, and some have been sent to war from this building.