459 Locust Ave

From the National Register nomination

104-5144-0061 Hospital, Stories 5.00, Style: Other, ca 1928 A very large complex with only one address, the Martha Jefferson Hospital was built in four major phases. The first hospital building was constructed in 1903, but was demolished in order to make way for the present emergency room. The impressive Colonial Revival building Patterson Wing, made possible by a $100,000 donation from Mr. and Mrs. Addison Patterson, was constructed in 1928-29 and designed by Johnson & Brannan of Lynchburg. The four-story common bond brick Patterson Wing has 13 bays and an end, parapet-gable, asphalt-tile roof with a massive, double chimney on each end. The three central bays project slightly to create a well-defined formal entrance. Seven brick steps lead to a small platform from which a set of stairs spring to either side of the main entrance, both bounded with identical metal handrails. The doorway is ornate with decorated, wooden, compound pilasters, architrave and broken pediment, as well as sidelights and a transom with tracery. Immediately above the entrance is a circular headed window, its shape determined by the classically-detailed surround with a semi-circular, broken pediment. Brick quoins border the 2nd story window and compliment the quoins that line the sides of the 1st and 2nd floors of the central projection. Immediately above is a brick stringcourse, followed by a Venetian window. The central projection is topped by a pediment that continues the cornice and modillions that encircle the structure, and includes a fanlight with keystone. All of the windows are 12/12-sash windows; jack arches and keystones distinguish those of the 1st and 2nd floors. Three gabled dormers with circular headed windows and broken pediments are symmetrically distributed to either side of the central projection. The south elevation has three bays with a two-story addition abutting the two western bays. The addition is bounded on the 1st floor by large, circular headed windows and segmental surrounds. The 2nd floor is a sunroom with modern sliding glass doors, coupled Tuscan columns, a simple entablature and balustrade, and a chinoise-rail balcony. Window air-conditioning units occupy many of the second-story windows. Abutting the north end of the Sanitarium is the four-bay, five-story, flat-roofed Rucker Wing, built in 1952-54 and constituting the 3rd major phase of building at the hospital. The rectangular Palladian windows on the Locust Avenue facade of the Rucker Wing have since been altered; all Colonial Revival decoration has been removed, leaving only metal surrounds. The final phase of building at Martha Jefferson includes the substantial, non-historic, five-story, brick building to the rear and north of the Patterson and Rucker Wings, built beginning in the 1980s. This includes the Emergency Room that is accessed via East High Street and sits behind the Patterson Wing and the Cardwell Center north of the Rucker and Patterson Wings that is accessed via Locust Avenue. A covered walkway was built along the north elevation of the Rucker Wing to join with the hospital's principal entrance in the northern part of the new wing. Individual Resource Status: Hospital Contributing Total: 1