02/20/2026
Chesterfield Apartments, 900 W. Franklin Street, Richmond. Built in 1903, this was the first high-rise apartment building built in Richmond. Built of brown brick over a steel frame, the building was designed by the Muhlenburg Brothers firm of Pennsylvania and supervised locally by architects Noland and Baskervill.
It is a brick Georgian Revival with stucco and stone trim, seven stories, low roof, five-bay front, striated base with stone portico, three-unit projecting bays mark ends, stucco frieze pierced by paired arches with swags decorating the coved cornice.
The building’s seven stories sit atop an english basement that now contains a book store. Following the building up from the ground, a traditional classical order is observed. The lightly rusticated stone base transitions into dark brick and culminates in a arcing stucco cornice. Bands of wrought iron balconies and bay windows emphasize verticality, already pronounced when compared to the 3 story structures surrounding it.
It was also the first building of its scale on the prosperous blocks of West Franklin Street near Monroe Park. The building holds a cherished place in Richmond’s collective memory as the home of the Chesterfield Tea Room. At the time of it’s closing in 1988 it was the city’s oldest continuously operating dining establishment.
Today, the building is owned by LandMark which is a full service, private equity real estate firm actively involved in the acquisition, conversion, leasing, and management of properties that currently span the East Coast. With a portfolio of vintage and historic residential properties. The building houses VCU students. Sources: Richmond: A Pictorial History From The Valentine Museum and Dementi Collections, By: Thomas F. Hale and Louis H. Manarin; dhr.virginia.gov; Ray Bonis, shockoeexaminer; architecturerichmond.com
