The architectural firm Asbury and Whitehurst designed the neoclassical Fraternal Order of Eagles Building, erected in 1914 in Richmond’s Jackson Ward. To accommodate the specific functions of the FOE, the original floor plan included formal waiting areas and a grand hall on the first floor, and assembly rooms on the second and third floors. A national organization founded in 1898, the Fraternal Order of Eagles is “dedicated to the ideas of democracy and brotherhood”; the Richmond chapter or “aerie,” established in 1903, occupied the building from 1914 through the mid-1980s. Originally FOE limited membership to white males between ages of 21 and 50; during its heyday in the 1920s and 1930s, Richmond’s Dixie Aerie boasted around 3,200 members, including Virginia governors John S. Battle, William M. Tuck, and J. Lindsey Almond, Jr. By the 1980s, when membership dwindled to 26, the Dixie Aerie folded and sold the building. After sitting vacant many years, the Fraternal Order of Eagles Building was renovated in 2005 into apartments with a commercial space in the basement.
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
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia