Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 02/26/1979
NRHP Listing Date 06/19/1979
NRHP Reference Number 79003285
Founded in 1890 under the original Randolph-Macon College charter of 1830, Randolph-Macon Woman’s College was the first college of women admitted to membership in the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. Main Hall, erected in stages over a nine-year period beginning in 1891, remains the architectural centerpiece of the institution. The huge structure appears as a range of connected buildings, stretched along a ridge at the head of a tree-dotted campus. It was designed by the Washington, D. C. architect William M. Poindexter and is the state’s most ambitious and probably most sophisticated example of the late 19th-century Queen Anne style. Poindexter’s use of red brick, white trim, towers, turrets, classical detailing, and a multiplicity of window types, closely relates the building to the best of contemporary Queen Anne structures in Great Britain.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Updated: September 22, 2021
