About

In 1777, shipping mercahnt Thomas Shore purchased 144 acres atop Archer's Hill naming the property, Violet Bank. The present building, owned by the City of Colonial Heights, replaces the first house constructed by Thomas Shore, destroyed by fire in 1810, and rebuilt by his widow, Jane Grey. Violet Bank Museum is a superb document of Federal design and American Interior Decorative Arts. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and a Virginia Historic Landmark. With an interpretive period spanning 1815 to 1873, the Museum served as General Robert E. Lee's Headquarters during the first six months of the Petersburg's campaign in 1864, the Southern Confederacy's "Last Stand" in its fight to achieve independence. The Museum maintains an array of artifacts: guns, furnitrue, swords, glass and ceramics. Museum is closed on Monday's.