The Virginia War Memorial: A True Shrine of Memory

As stated so eloquently by the caretakers of the Virginia War Memorial, “through the stories of those who served, the nation’s leading state War Memorial honors Virginia’s fallen and preserves the past. In the process of helping veterans find their voice and collecting and telling their stories, the Memorial also educates and inspires for the future.

The Virginia War Memorial is the Commonwealth of Virginia’s premier monument, museum, and educational center dedicated to Virginians who served to defend the United States from World War II through today. The Virginia War Memorial, constructed in 1955, is a memorial in our state’s capital committed to its mission of ‘Honoring our Veterans, Preserving our History, Educating our Youth, and Inspiring Patriotism in All’. Originally dedicated to Virginians killed in World War II and then the Korean War, in 1980, the Shrine was enlarged to honor those Virginians killed in action in the Vietnam War. In 1996, the names of Virginians killed in action during Desert Storm/Desert Shield were added. Today, there are nearly 12,000 Virginians whose names are engraved on the Shrine of Memory's glass and stone walls. Reflecting the different character of war today, Virginia has created a special Memorial Shrine to honor the over 250 Virginians killed in the Global War on Terrorism.”1

According to Edwin Slipek in an article in Style Weekly, “Virginia’s war memorial had a highly difficult birth.  A temple on a hilltop was no sure bet when debate got underway in the mid-1950’s immediately after the Korean War and not quit a decade after World War II.  

While none argued against the overarching goal of honoring the war dead, many people challenged public funding. The state’s fiscally conservative business and political establishment couldn’t wrap its collective head around financing a stand-alone memorial structure. Still smarting from the Great Depression and the debts from back-to-back wars, many leaders wanted to combine the memorial with a public school, children’s hospital or sports stadium.

But the naysayers were no matches for the leading advocate of an architecturally handsome memorial structure. John J. Wicker, (1893-1985), was a super-patriotic World War I veteran and Virginia lobbyist. He was also a founder of the American Legion and had represented Richmond in the state Senate from 1932-1936. Wicker didn’t just conceive grand civic ideas, he was untiring in selling them.

For the memorial he envisioned, Wicker had eyed since the 1940s the hilltop site at 621 S. Belvidere Street. He considered it the city’s most visible location with steady local and out-of-town traffic moving in both directions. And being on U.S. Highway 1, it would catch tourists’ attention. But Fred G. Pollard, a staunch opponent to a stand-alone shrine, argued that since the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike and Interstate 95 was then being built; the site would become increasingly less prominent. Another negative was the ominous State Penitentiary, now demolished, which loomed just two blocks north on Belvidere at Spring Street.  In addition, the local historian and preservationist, Mary Wingfield Scott, was totally opposed to destroying historic houses to build the memorial.

But John Wicker, who lived nearby at the Prestwould, a fashionable high-rise apartment house, prevailed. And since he lived close by, and strode about town with an elegant cane, he could supervise construction regularly.

When money finally was appropriated by the General Assembly, a design competition was held among Virginia architects. Samuel J. Collins, a Staunton architect, and his nephew, Richard E Collins of Silver Spring, Maryland, won the commission. Both had graduated from the architecture school at Catholic University. A formidable talent who also had skin in the game as a consultant was Leslie Cheek, director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. He was a trained architect and friend of the renowned Frank Lloyd Wright. It was Cheek’s idea to use glass panels onto which names of the war dead would be etched.

The immediately iconic memorial was at first a nine-column pavilion with the 22-foot-high statute of a woman, “Memory,” at the south end of the structure. Memory was designed by Leo Friedlander, one of the nation’s leading modernist sculptors. He had previously designed many of the adornments to the Rockefeller Center in New York. Memory was carved from Georgia marble by stonecutters Joseph Campo and William Kapp.

An eternal flame was placed at the base of “Memory.”  However, it has failed on occasion to be eternal. In 1972 during the energy crisis, the state extinguished the flame in a round of budget cutbacks. The savings were $300.

In addition to the Shrine of Memory, the original facility also had a modest office building and auditorium at the north end of the complex. In 2010, this structure was expanded with the Paul and Phyllis Galanti Education Center, an 8,000-square-foot reception center and museum. Captain Galanti was a Navy pilot during Vietnam who was taken prisoner for six and a half years. His wife worked tirelessly for the release of her husband and others. Glave & Holmes Architecture was the designer. Randy Holmes was born and raised in South Hill.  Their creative design broke from the memorial’s rectangular mold by establishing an oval entry space with large rounded bays. The amphitheater was also added at this time.

The just-expanded Virginia War Memorial held it dedication on February 29, 2020.  The newly expanded education center, a stalwart design by SMW Architects and constructed by KBS whose Chairman and CEO, William Paulette, was born and raised in South Hill, returns to the rectangular mode. Its most dramatic point is the Shrine of Memory for the Global War on Terrorism & Beyond. Its glass wall is inscribed with names of the fallen during the War on Terrorism, Beirut attacks and the USS Cole bombing. Some of the stone paving blocks in the open-air space are embedded with sand particles, flag fragments and glass slivers from world conflicts that span Omaha Beach, the Hanoi Hilton, Afghanistan and the Pentagon.

Inside, and available for viewing under state COVID guidelines, is the C. Kenneth Wright Pavilion. It is named for a businessman who is also a major benefactor of the Virginia War Memorial. Also awaiting future exploration are the Anne Carter Robins and Walter R. Robins Jr. Grand Lobby, the Virginia Medal of Honor Gallery, Veterans Hall, a flexible 350 seat auditorium, and the Veterans’ Art Gallery, which offers changing exhibitions of work by Virginia artists who have served in the armed services. These spaces sit atop three levels with 165 parking spaces.”2

“The Virginia War Memorial is the Commonwealth of Virginia's monument to honor the memory of Virginia's men and women who demonstrated a willingness to serve and fight to defend our way of life from World War II to the present.”3  This beautiful shrine, located on the hill above the mighty James was conceived and constructed with the intent of ensuring Virginia will never forget the service and sacrifices of her patriots.  A noble mission, indeed.

This article incorporates public domain material from websites

  1. Virginia War Memorial Foundation.
  2. Edwin Slipek, Style Weekly, pages 2-3, May 27, 2020.
  3. Virginia War Memorial Foundation