Monumental Church Ramp & Exterior Coating Project Updates!

Monumental Church

Project Overview:

Completed in 1814, Monumental Church, a National Historic Landmark, was designed by the first native-born architect Robert Mills. It is a civic space built by a community devastated by the tragedy of the Richmond Theatre Fire (1811) to honor their fellow citizens lost in one of the worst urban tragedies of American history of the time.

For several years, Historic Richmond has been planning a high-priority project to address exterior coatings issues and to improve accessibility to Monumental Church. When completed, this project will install a ramp at the West Portico entrance and recoat the entire exterior of the building with a specialized KEIM coating. The installation of the ramp will include ADA-compliant pathways, signage, and hardware and will incorporate recommended site drainage for that portion of the site.

Monumental Church’s exterior shows signs of biological growth, salts, rising damp, and discoloration. It has been 15 years since its exterior stucco was last painted, longer than we would have liked. Due to the specialized nature of the KEIM exterior coatings, we worked with architectural conservators from the Philadelphia office of Building Conservation Associates Inc. to identify exterior coating issues and recommend how to address and repair them. We also are working with a design team to develop plans for the ramp. With a building of Monumental Church’s architectural significance, not surprisingly, this project is expensive and complicated.

Monumental Church Updates!

Monumental Church’s Ramp & Exterior Coating Project Has Begun!

December 1st, 2022

All stucco repairs have been completed! They need to cure for 30 days and little heating pads are being used to keep the surface at 60 degrees so it can cure properly.

Monumental Heating Pads for Stucco

We anticipate universally applying KEIM around Christmas – some may call this a White Christmas. 🙂 The main part of the ramp is poured and we hope to have the steps poured soon too. Here, they are removing the form surrounding the poured concrete:

Ordering the steel and aluminum is all dependent on measurements that are taken after the concrete is poured, so now we are in a bit of a waiting period. Everything is continuing to move along and we can’t wait to utilize Monumental again!

November 10th, 2022

Scaffolding has been moved to the west side of the building.
The east side, post-restoration, is so white that it’s blinding!

We’re moving along with the construction of the permanent ADA-compliant accessibility ramp and hope to see it really take form in the next few weeks once the concrete is poured.

Restoration includes wall repair. The first step is to “sound” the wall, using mallets to tap on the wall to see if the stucco is damaged. Listening to its sound, if it is damaged, there is a difference in the sound it makes!

The areas that are damaged are then removed until the brick is exposed. Those are the cutouts in Monumental’s wall you can see now.

Inspecting damaged stucco removed from the exterior.

The second step is to re-stucco those patches. Glass fiber mesh is used in the base coat of stucco where repairs to structural cracks are required. The stucco needs to cure for 30 days before the next step.

Stucco is installed in three layers – scratch coat, brown coat, and top coat. The larger patches or cracks use glass fiber mesh to provide flexibility to the repair material. Faux stone coursing lines will be blended with the existing stucco. The building is cleaned after the stucco has cured, then the KEIM is applied.


Our existing granite pavers are honed. Our preservationist wanted something more slip resistant for the ramp, so the granite will be thermalled then brushed. Thermalled creates a slip resistent surface and the brushed finish helps bring out the blue in the stone so that it matches the existing granite pavers.

Restoration is hard work, but we also have fun.

At the beginning of November, we hosted the “Craftsperson’s Crawl” for AIA Virginia’s Historic Resources Committee!  Everyone loved hearing Warren Davies of Virginia Masonry Restoration speak about their company’s historic masonry expertise and seeing our ongoing restoration in person.

October 27, 2022

Restoration work on Monumental Church continues!

We are completing the Keim application on the east side. The lead-coated copper downspouts and gutters have had the former coating Keim coating completed stripped, and will now be coated with an elastometal paint by RD Coatings. This will match the Keim, but perform much better on the metal elements. We will then move the scaffolding to the west side and begin sounding the stucco to check for any issues.

Regarding our ADA-compliant permanent ramp installation, progress is being made! You can get a visual sense of its size and scale now.

Even with all this work, we have been able to give virtual tours to high school and middle school students,  and this week we will be giving a tour to Virginia AIA!

If you would like to schedule a virtual tour for your own school, please reach out by calling the office or via email.

July 27, 2022

Last week, Virginia Masonry Restoration began preparing mock-ups to provide standards of work for cleaning, repairs, and coating application at Monumental Church.  Different products may be needed depending on the subsurface material (stucco vs stone) and if it is general soiling, efflorescence, or biological growth being removed. The mock-ups will then be allowed to dry for a minimum of five days and then a conservator will assess the final color and any potential problems. Once an application(s) is approved, we will begin scaffolding the structure in sections as we work to clean, repair, and recoat the entire building with Keim.

Here are photos and videos from the first day!



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Keep following along for more updates on each step of the process.

THANK YOU to all who have donated to make these critical updates to Monumental Church happen. We still need support! Please consider a contribution to Historic Richmond.

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