Historedia
Episode 2 of 2

Investigation and Commemoration

When
1811-1814
Where
Monumental Church site
Part of
Richmond Theatre fire kills 72, including Governor George William Smith

The Common Council absolved the theatre company, blaming building design, and the Monumental Church was built on the site.

A Committee of Investigation was commissioned on December 27, 1811. The Monumental Church was built on the theatre site between 1812 and 1814 to commemorate the victims, including Smith and Venable.

Sources

  1. Richmond Theatre fire Wikipedia, revision of 2026-06-22
  2. George William Smith (politician) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-05-07

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.