Qualla: St. John's Episcopal Church (Richmond, Virginia)

St. John's Episcopal Church (Richmond, Virginia): Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Skyring, CC BY-SA 3.0. "Give me liberty, or give me death!" Eight words shouted inside a small wooden frame church in Richmond on March 23, 1775, and the colony of Virginia tipped toward war. The man speaking was Patrick Henry, a delegate from Hanover County who had earlier in his career been dismissed as too uneducated for serious public life. The room was packed — 120 delegates of the Second Virginia Convention, among them Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, jammed into pews and along the walls. They had moved the convention to Richmond from Williamsburg precisely because the royal governor's troops could not easily reach this hilltop. By the time Henry sat down, the vote to arm a militia was effectively won. St. John's Church on Richmond's Church Hill is the room where it happened, and against considerable odds, the room is still standing.

Image: Skyring | CC BY-SA 3.0

St. John's Episcopal Church (Richmond, Virginia): Henrico Parish

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David H. Anderson, Public domain. St. John's traces its lineage back further than its 1741 building suggests. The first Henrico Parish Church stood at Henricus, a 1611 colonial settlement seventeen miles upriver — the second permanent English town in Virginia. It was at Henricus in 1613 that Pocahontas, daughter ...

Image: David H. Anderson | Public domain

St. John's Episcopal Church (Richmond, Virginia): The Speech

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Billy Hathorn, CC BY-SA 3.0. By March 1775, royal government in Virginia had collapsed. The House of Burgesses had been dismissed and was meeting as a provisional convention; the loyalist forces around Williamsburg made the capital unsafe. So the Second Virginia Convention came to Richmond, and on March 23 t...

Image: Billy Hathorn | CC BY-SA 3.0

St. John's Episcopal Church (Richmond, Virginia): The Churchyard

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Midnightdreary at English Wikipedia, Public domain. The churchyard around St. John's holds names that resonate well beyond Richmond. George Wythe — the first law professor in the United States, signer of the Declaration of Independence, mentor to Thomas Jefferson — is buried here. Elizabeth Arnold Poe, mother of Edgar Allan Poe, a...

Image: Midnightdreary at English Wikipedia | Public domain

St. John's Episcopal Church (Richmond, Virginia): Living Memory

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown artist, Public domain. The church still serves an active Episcopal congregation. It is also a working monument to one of the founding moments of the American republic. Reenactments of Henry's speech are performed by professional actors in 18th-century costume every Sunday at 1:30 p.m. from Memorial Day...

Image: Unknown artist | Public domain

St. John's Episcopal Church (Richmond, Virginia): Church Hill

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The neighborhood took its name from the church, not the other way around. Church Hill rises above the eastern edge of downtown Richmond, looking down on the bend where the James River turns south. It is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, and one of the most photographed...

Image: Unknown author | Public domain