St. John's Episcopal Church, Richmond (must see)

St. John's is an Episcopal church located at 2401 East Broad Street in Richmond. Formed from several earlier churches, St. John's is the oldest church in Richmond, built by William Randolph's son, Colonel Richard Randolph in 1741 and giving its name to the Church Hill district. It was the site of two important conventions in the period leading to the American Revolutionary War, and is most famous as the location where Patrick Henry gave his closing speech at the Second Virginia Convention with the famous quotation "give me liberty or give me death." The earliest precursor of St. John's was Henrico Parish Church, initially located at Sir Thomas Dale's progressive development at Henricus.

Although an active church with a ministry and congregation, a small souvenir shop is located within the churchyard, from which regular tours depart, beginning with the tombstones (some of archaic design) marking the graves of many prominent Richmond and Virginia residents and concluding inside the church where the background to the historic events preceding and during the Revolutionary War is described. George Wythe, the first law professor in the United States, a delegate to the Continental Congress and signer of the Declaration of Independence, is buried in the churchyard. Elizabeth Arnold Poe, mother of author Edgar Allan Poe, is buried in the churchyard.