Robinson House, also known as The Grove, Main Building, and Fleming Hall, is a historic building located on North Arthur Ashe Boulevard in Richmond. Originally built in the late 1820s by Richmond banker Anthony Robinson Jr. as a modest one-story summer home, it was expanded in the late 1850s to a two-story mansion for year-round residency by the Robinson family.
In late 1884, the house was sold along with 36 acres by Robinson's son, Channing, to the newly formed R. E. Lee, Camp No. 1, Confederate Veterans organization. It served as a home for indigent and disabled veterans. Funded primarily by the Commonwealth of Virginia after 1892, the Soldiers' Home grew to a large complex of over 30 buildings, including residential cottages and a hospital. Robinson House - then called Fleming Hall after a donor contributed the third floor and pyramidal belvedere in 1886 - served as the home's administration building, library, and war museum.
When the Soldiers' Home closed in 1941, the Commonwealth of Virginia transferred the care of the building to the state Department of General Services. In 1993, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) took over ownership. After extensive renovations, the refurbished house now features a Richmond regional tourism center and a history exhibition, open to the public daily with free admission. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and Virginia Landmarks Register in 2013.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
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