United Daughters of the Confederacy Memorial Building

Memorial Building

Dedicated November 11, 1957,
in Richmond, Virginia,
to the Women of the South

This Memorial Building and Great Hall are affectionately dedicated to the women of the Confederate States of America for their loyal devotion, self-sacrifice, adaptability to new tasks, constancy of purpose, exemplary faith in never changing principles. In these qualities reposes the memory of the women of the Confederacy

Erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy

The oil portrait hanging in the Great Hall was painted by G. B. Matthews, 1906 for the Jamestown Expedition, and later given to the Robert E. Lee Camp No. 1, United Confederate Veterans. The C.S.S. Virginia was originally a fine Union steam frigate of 3,500 tons known as the Merrimac. On March 8, 1862, she entered the Hampton Roads, sank the Cumberland, destroyed the Congress, and drove the Minnesota aground.
On the morning of March 9, 1862, when the Virginia returned to complete the destruction of the Minnesota, she was met by a still stranger craft -- the Monitor -- of only 776 tons.
Great Hall in the Memorial Building

The Memorial Building houses the UDC's Business Office and headquarters and two libraries -- the Caroline Meriwether Goodlett Library and the Helen Walpole Brewer Library.