The Petersburg Exchange Building is a National Historic Landmark structure built in 1841. StudioAmmons was engaged to developed the scope of work for the first phase of the building’s restoration and wrote the $700,000 Save America’s Treasures grant to help fund this initial restoration work. The Exchange was designed by the New York architect Mr. Berrien who was probably an associate of Calvin Pollard, the architect of the nearby Hustings Courthouse. It is a boldly detailed building in the Greek Revival Style. Rectangular on the exterior with a tetra style Doric entrance portico. The interior space surrounds a central two-story rotunda rising to a dome and octagonal lantern. The dome structure is that of a Dalorme Dome, similar to structure Jefferson used in the construction of the Rotunda at the University of Virginia. The Exchange Building in Petersburg is most probably the last, unaltered ante-bellum Merchants Exchange in existence in the United States.”

The long term plan will be to restore the building for use as the city history museum, telling a more complete and inclusive version of the Petersburg Story with a specific focus on the interpretation of this unique building and its original use as an early-mid 19th century cotton exchange.

See the Historic Structures Report Here.