Contact: Emily Seibert, (804) 649-0711, x322

Court End Christmas Returns With Added Attractions

Richmond, VA - Court End Christmas, downtown Richmond's popular annual open house featuring celebrated historic sites, welcomes two new participants this year. St. John's Church and Historic Church Hill will join the five traditional Court End National Historic Landmark sites in hosting this festive afternoon event to be held Sunday, December 14, from 12 to 5 p.m. Historic Church Hill will offer several homes open to the public for the first time. Another new feature will be two trolleys that will carry visitors free of charge to the participating sites in Court End and Church Hill. Tour guides on the trolleys will provide information about the sites and their events.

The historic Court End sites are: The Virginia State Capitol, The John Marshall House, The Museum and White House of the Confederacy, The Valentine Richmond History Center and Historic Richmond Foundation's Monumental Church. All sites will display holiday decorations, and the Court End historic house museums will feature costumes from the early Federal period through the mid-1860s and will recreate traditional holiday events. The historic institutions plan a variety of other activities such as live music, children's crafts, refreshments, traditional dances, and talks by costumed historians.

Court End sites will offer free admission throughout the afternoon as well as complimentary tours of the historic homes and buildings (admission will be charged to tour the Church Hill homes). Free parking will be available near the sites and in the MCV parking deck adjacent to The Museum of the Confederacy at the end of East Clay St. and also in the parking lot at 24th and Marshall Street in Church Hill. Clay Street will be closed to traffic between 10th and 11th streets.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Richmond's historic Court End District was a neighborhood of many prominent citizens. Developed around the state and federal courts of the late 1700s and early 1800s, Court End radiates from the Capitol. Today, it contains some of Richmond's most valuable architecture, including seven National Historic Landmarks and 12 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. Visitors get a singular view of the significance of Virginia's history as they tour these former homes, whose construction spans two centuries, architecture represents three styles, and interiors range from colonial to mid-Victorian.

Each site offers unique activities:
The State Capitol will offer special themed tours focusing on the legacies of important leaders connected to the Court End District-Chief Justice John Marshall, prominent Richmond attorney John Wickham, and Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Guests can learn more about topics such as the inauguration of President Davis on Capitol Square and the famous treason trial of Vice President Aaron Burr, presided over by Judge Marshall in the Capitol. Virginia's 1788 State Capitol, an early example of classical revival architecture, houses the oldest English-speaking law-making body in the United States.
Costumed historians portraying John Marshall and his friends and relatives will speak to guests as they enter the Marshall House (818 E. Marshall St.) for guided tours. Constructed by John Marshall in 1790, The John Marshall House is a Federal-style home preserving the largest collection of Marshall family furnishings and memorabilia in the United States.

Members of the 15th Virginia Infantry will be at The Museum and White House of the Confederacy (1201 E. Clay St.) to dance the Virginia Reel and interact with visitors, who will also have a chance to listen to a hand-bell choir performance by Sycamore Presbyterian Church. The White House of the Confederacy will be decorated for the season as it was in 1861-1865 when the family of Confederate President Jefferson Davis lived there. The classical-revival mansion, which served as the social and political center of the Confederacy, has been restored to its wartime appearance and features a mid-Victorian interior with more than half of the Davis family furnishings.

Just up the block at the Valentine Richmond History Center (1015 E. Clay St.), visitors will
enjoy live music, refreshments, horse-drawn carriage rides and special treats for children, including a pony sleigh, holiday clowns and historic craft activities. Owned and operated by the Richmond History Center, the adjacent Wickham House mansion will be decorated for a 19th-century holiday ball. The Wickham House was built for Richmond attorney John Wickham and his family shortly after his successful defense of Aaron Burr. The house features the only known surviving example of neo-classical wall paintings in this country today.

A few blocks over on Broad and 12th streets, visitors will have the rare treat of taking guided tours through Monumental Church, one of Richmond's most intriguing historical structures. Historic Richmond Foundation, which owns the church, has partially completed a major restoration project. Visitors will have the chance to experience this restoration up close on guided tours of the structure, which was built in 1814 to commemorate the 72 lives lost (including Virginia's governor) in an 1811 theatre fire. Today, the structure is the only surviving example of a Robert Mills octagonal auditorium in the Classical style.
Up the hill on Broad St., St. John's Church became famous as a living memorial to American liberty when more than 100 Virginia colonial leaders, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry met there in March 1775. Here Patrick Henry delivered his famous "Give me liberty or give me death" speech on March 23, 1775. The American Revolution began the following month. For Court End Christmas the church will feature 18th-century costumed interpreters and free tours.

Completed in 1741, St. John's Church was the first church built in the city of Richmond.
The graveyard is the site of the first public cemetery in Richmond. Many famous Virginians are buried there, such as George Wythe, signer of the Declaration of Independence and teacher of law to Thomas Jefferson, Chief Justice John Marshall (whose house is also featured in Court End Christmas), and John Page and James Wood, both governors of Virginia.

For more information, visit www.historicrichmond.com/courtendchristmas.html or contact the sites.

** Images for the media are available. Requests may be placed through
the appropriate site contact as listed on the release.

Historic Richmond Foundation - The William Byrd Branch of APVA Preservation Virginia