John Marshall House - Richmond

The John Marshall House is located on East Marshall Street in the Court End District of Richmond, Virginia.  The Federal style home was built in 1790 for the Chief Justice of the United States John Marshall and was his home for 45 years.  Marshall lived here with his wife, Polly, and their six children, until his death in 1835.  He served in the House of Delegates from 1782 to 1789 and 1795 to 1796, the House of Representatives from 1799 to 1800, and had been Secretary of State under John Adams from 1800 to 1801 before Adams appointed him Chief Justice, a position he served in for the rest of his life.  During that time he participated in over 1000 decisions, writing 519 of them himself, while leaving a lasting mark on the development of the Supreme Court.  He was also involved in several notable cases throughout his career, including Marbury v. Madison, Fletcher v. Peck, McCulloch v. Maryland, Cohens v. Virginia, Gibbons v. Ogden and the Aaron Burr treason trial.  Marshall died on July 6, 1835 in Philadelphia.  He was returned to Richmond and buried in Shockoe Hill Cemetery.  The house remained in the Marshall family until 1907, when his granddaughters sold it to the city of Richmond.  Plans were then underway to raze the structure and build a school in its place.  However, that did not come to pass, as the home was placed in the care of Preservation Virginia in 1911 and opened as a museum.  The John Marshall House was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966 and added to the Virginia Landmarks Register in 1969.        

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