Virginia State Penitentiary

[4] The prison once housed Virginia's men's death row and execution chamber in Building A.

The bill was amended to change Virginia's method of execution to the electric chair, signed by Governor Claude A. Swanson on March 16, 1908, and became effective starting July 1.

[6] In 1928 the original building was demolished and a new prison was erected on the same site in Richmond, just north of the James River.

It expanded to occupy an entire campus of high-walled cellblocks and administrative buildings, in the block bordered by Byrd, Spring, Belvedere and South 2nd Streets.

The prison closed in 1991, and the execution chamber was moved to the Greensville Correctional Center near Jarratt.