Branch House

Branch House
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark District Contributing Property
Location:	2501 Monument Avenue, Richmond, Virginia
Coordinates:	37°33′29″N 77°28′7″W
Built:	1916
Architect:	John Russell Pope
Architectural style:	Tudor Revival, Jacobean Revival
Governing body:	Virginia Center for Architecture Foundation
Part of:	Monument Avenue Historic District (#70000883)
NRHP Reference#:	84003569
Added to NRHP:	February 23, 1984

Branch House is a mansion in Richmond, Virginia designed by John Russell Pope for John Kerr Branch in 1916. It is now the home of Virginia Center for Architecture, one of the few architectural museums in the United States. In addition, it houses the Virginia Society AIA. Though part of the Monument Avenue Historic District, it was also independently listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

History

The building is located at 2501 Monument Avenue in the Fan district of Richmond, Virginia. The 27,000 sq ft (2,500 m²). mansion was commissioned in 1916 by John Kerr Branch. The house is the work of architect John Russell Pope, who designed the Broad Street Station two blocks away shortly thereafter. It was finally completed in 1919. The house was designed in the Tudor-Jacobean style and remains one of a few works by Pope in which the original interior has survived.

In 1953 the Branch family gifted the house to the United Givers Fund, which, in turn, sold the mansion to Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance in 1982. The house was once again sold in 2003, this time to the Virginia Center for Architecture Foundation. In 2005, the Virginia Center for Architecture opened, and provides exhibitions, tours, and lectures on architecture.

See also

• Kobe City Museum of Literature, also funded by Branch

References

• The Virginia Landmarks Register. ed. Calder Loth

External links

• Virginia Center for Architecture