The Murphy Hotel

The Murphy Hotel. . , On this site once stood the Murphy Hotel (also known as Murphy's Hotel)., In 1866, John Murphy established his original hostelry as a small Oyster Bar and guesthouse. Business thrived and the two-story frame oyster shack was replaced with a four-story mansard-roofed brick hotel building in 1886. Continued success allowed Murphy to build two annexes on the west side of 8th Street in 1902 and 1907, which were linked to the main hotel building by a private enclosed bridge over 8th Street. In 1913, a year after the Hotel Richmond (now the Barbara Johns Building south of the site to your left) completed an expansion to its current size, Murphy demolished the 1886 building and replaced it with a beautiful 11-story brick and terra cotta hotel building, which occupied the site for over 90 years. To realize his dream, Murphy engaged, the noted Norfolk architect, John Kevan Peebles who had gained statewide recognition for the design of the two wings of the Virginia State Capitol (1906 with Noland and Baskervill), and the 1905 reconstruction and expansion of the Jefferson Hotel. Even more pertinent, Peebles also was the architect for the 1912 expansion of the nearby Hotel Richmond., When the 11-story Murphy Hotel building opened in 1913, it was the largest hotel in the city and the tallest building on Broad Street; positions it maintained until the Hotel John Marshall surpassed it in room numbers in 1927 and the Central National Bank Building in height in 1929. The 1913 building at Eighth and Broad Streets was the main Murphy Hotel building. It was linked to the two earlier annexes on the west side of 8th Street by an enclosed bridge, which provided a unique sitting room overlooking pedestrian and vehicular traffic., The bridge demolished in 1942 and salvaged for scrap metal. In the mid-20th century Richmond Hotels, Inc., which acquired the Murphy Hotel in 1939, combined facilities at the Hotels Murphy and Richmond to create a single hotel that was linked through the center of the city of block. In 1966, the Commonwealth of Virginia acquired the properties and renovated them as state office buildings., In 2006, after 40 years of use as an office building, the Commonwealth of Virginia vacated the by then obsolete Murphy Hotel building and it was demolished, while the Hotel Richmond building was restored and rehabilitated for continued use into the 21st century., The Murphy and Richmond hotels were built between 1904 and 1913 as a direct outgrowth of the prosperity the United States enjoyed during the era known as the American Renaissance. During this period Neoclassicism flowered, popularized by the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Economic growth fueled a sense of infinite potential that encouraged competing entrepreneurs John Murphy and Addie Atkinson, owner of the Hotel Richmond, to develop well-appointed high-rise hotels that would house politicians, lobbyists, salesmen and tourists with business and other interests at the State Capitol. While Murphy's boasted a one-of-a-kind "sun bridge", with a lounge linking the main hotel building to earlier annex buildings on the west side of 8th Street, Mrs. Atkinson's Hotel Richmond had the city's only Roof Garden. While Murphy's was the local headquarters of the Democratic Party, the Hotel Richmond was more than 30 years the home of WRVA, Richmond's first radio station, which had the most powerful transmitter between Washington, DC and Atlanta., [Timeline:] , 1866 , John Murphy establishes his hostelry as a small oyster bar and guesthouse., 1886 , The two-story frame oyster shack is demolished and replaced by a four-story mansard-roofed brick hotel building., 1902 , First hotel annex built westward across 8th Street., 1907 , Second hotel annex built across 8th Street., 1913 , Murphy demolishes his 1886 hotel and builds a new eleven-story brick and terra cotta hotel building., 1939 , Murphy's Hotel acquired by Richmond Hotels, Inc., 1966 , Murphy's Hotel and the Hotel Richmond acquired by the Commonwealth of Virginia., 2006 , Murphy's Hotel building vacated by the Commonwealth of Virginia and demolished. Planning for a new building on the block begins., 2021 , Groundbreaking for new mixed-use state building., 2022 , Dedication of new multi-use parking facility for the Commonwealth of Virginia.