Chapel

Located between Grove and Kensington Avenues, the Confederate War Memorial Chapel bears an inscription on one of the chapel interior arches: “This Chapel is Dedicated to the Memory of the Confederate Dead.” Completed in 1887, the chapel was originally part of a complex for a home for Confederate Veterans.

The act legislating the home for needy Confederate veterans was passed by the Virginia General Assembly in 1884 and incorporated the R.E. Lee Camp #1, United Veterans to establish the residence for the veterans, an administration building, a medical facility and a chapel.

The Confederate War Memorial Chapel was designed by Marian J. Dimmock and built by Joseph F. Wingfield. Eight of its 16 windows are stained glass and honor soldiers and military units that fought in the War Between the States. Pews in the chapel are hand-hewn originals, as is the Mason & Hamlin organ, which was brought from Boston and was recently restored.

During the Civil War Centennial of 1960, over $40,000 was raised from a number of private sources for the restoration of the Chapel. Today, it is known as a Virginia Historic Landmark.

Soldiers’ Home

The R.E. Lee Camp #1 Soldiers’ Home was founded by the Camp in 1885 to care for needy Confederate Veterans . To this end, a considerable amount of land was bought by the Camp from the Robinson Family, who owned the farm that made up the present area between Kensington and Grove Avenues and Sheppard Street to the east side of the Boulevard.

Eventually, the Camp deeded the Home’s grounds to Commonwealth of Virginia in return for yearly operational appropriations and the promise that the grounds be kept in perpetuity as a Confederate Memorial Park. Gradually, parcels were granted to other organizations, including the Confederate Memorial Association (Battle Abbey—Virginia Historical Society), Home for Needy Confederate Women (a one-third size replica of the White House now controlled by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts), and the land occupied by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Most of the original buildings were torn down in the 1930s. Today, only three of the original buildings remain on the original grounds—Robinson House, the workshop, and the Pelham Chapel, which stands as a solemn solitary war memorial to the Confederate dead who sacrificed themselves for their homeland.

R.E. Lee Camp #1

In the spring of 1883, a number of Confederate veterans’ met together in Richmond with the idea of forming a “Confederate Veterans Association”. Named the R.E. Lee Camp #1, of Southern Veterans. The Camp was chartered in 1884 by the Commonwealth of Virginia for the purpose of perpetuating the memory of fallen comrades and caring for disabled and destitute Confederate Veterans.