2026 SESSION
ENROLLED
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 63
Commending the Masons' Hall Historic Preservation Foundation.
Agreed to by the House of Delegates, January 26, 2026
Agreed to by the Senate, January 29, 2026
WHEREAS, the Masons' Hall Historic Preservation Foundation has greatly served the community by preserving Masons' Hall in Richmond and publicly interpreting its profound significance to the history of the United States, the Commonwealth, and the City of Richmond; and
WHEREAS, the Virginia General Assembly, supporting Thomas Jefferson's proposal, voted to move the Capitol of the Commonwealth to Richmond in 1780 during the American Revolutionary War; and
WHEREAS, shortly after the Treaty of Paris officially ended the American Revolutionary War, the cornerstone of the current Virginia State Capitol building was laid on August 18, 1785, in a Masonic ceremony conducted by Richmond Lodge No. 3 of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; and
WHEREAS, just two months later, on October 12, 1785, the same Masons laid the cornerstone for the historic Masons' Hall in Richmond's Shockoe Bottom, located at 1807 East Franklin Street; and
WHEREAS, the construction of Masons' Hall was led by Edmund Randolph, Governor of Virginia and the future first attorney general of the United States, and John Marshall, the future Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court; and