The Virginia Home is on the path towards a new chapter in a brand new facility in Hanover County. That new chapter will bring the nonprofit, which cares for people with a range of disabilities, out of Richmond for the first time and greatly expand the number of people it serves. Leaders of The Virginia Home unveiled its
$128 million plan to build a brand-new facility in Hanover County on Bell Creek Road near Pole Green Road. The land was purchased from Big Oak Development Company Shield Hanover Land Trust for $8.65 million.
A rendering of the new Virginia Home facility in Hanover County on January 30, 2025 in Richmond, Va. The new campus will increase the number of beds from 130 to 160, allowing for more people who need 24-hour care. The building itself is planned to be 196,000 square feet, compared to its current 125,000 square-foot building at 1101 Hampton St. in Richmond. The added space is also paving the way for The Virginia Home to launch a new comprehensive day program for 55 to 60 more people, including meaningful activities and supports. The Virginia Home serves people with a range of disabilities such as paralysis and ALS. Some live with their families, in other facilities, or on their own, and could be helped with the day program. Others have disabilities that require 24-hour care from medical staff. “It represents a really transformative step for the Virginia Home,” said Doug Vaughan, president and CEO for the nonprofit. “Most importantly, this expansion means we can welcome more individuals from our ever-present waiting list to our supported, thriving community that we build together.”
Virginia Home CEO Doug Vaughan speaks about the new facility in Hanover County on January 30, 2025 in Richmond, Va. The Virginia Home, a Richmond mainstay for 91 years
The Virginia Home has been at its current building on Hampton Street, adjacent to William Byrd Park, for the past 91 years. “It will be hard to say goodbye to this building, but our new building is an opportunity to better serve our residents and staff and to open our doors to more residents, and eventually open doors to residents and visitors,” said Laura Stewart, chair for the board of trustees. The home traces its beginnings back to the 1800s and a teenage Mary Tinsley Greenhow from a prominent Virginia family. When she became paralyzed after falling from a horse, she soon realized the level of care she needed and started fundraising. The precursor to the Virginia Home opened its first residential care facility to eight adults with permanent disabilities on Ross Street. The move will better accommodate the residents' needs. Its current building is old, and was built without the idea of housing people with disabilities, in bulky modern wheelchairs. The hallways are tight and the building is six stories tall. Residents can't be moved upward by more than two at a time in the elevators.
Stacey Thomas, left, and Cynthia Carter talk about the features that allow for more independence in the resident rooms of the new Virginia Home facility in Hanover County on January 30, 2025 in Richmond, Va. 'Transforming lives with technology'
The rooms in Hanover will also be more than 100 square feet larger, and include private bathrooms compared to the current hall-style baths. The 70-acre campus is where the Virginia Home is planning to grow for the next 100 years, ad beyond. It will also include quality-of-life upgrades for residents to be even more independent, with features like automatic blinds that don’t require help to use. “This really isn’t about bigger spaces, it’s about transforming lives with the latest technology,” Vaughan said. “We’re creating an environment that falls with greater dependence, dignity and comfort for all our residents.” There are only a handful of facilities like the Virginia Home across the country. Many people with physical limitations live in other types of assisted living, like a traditional nursing home, or with their families, that don’t necessarily specialize in their needs.
People gather to look at a rendering of the new Virginia Home facility in Hanover County on January 30, 2025 in Richmond, Va. The Virginia Home is family
Outside of that, one of the things that sets the Virginia Home apart is the way it pushes to give residents any opportunity they want. One former resident of the home was an avid horseback rider before becoming disabled, and always wanted to find a way to get back on a horse. The Home helped her find a way to do assisted horseback riding. Another group of people loved Wrestlemania, and the home organized a trip. Other trips to places like Disney World are planned throughout the year. Thirty-year Virginia Home resident Al Allen has continued working on his love of engineering since moving to the home. Allen previously worked for NASA in the 1980s. He controlled an array of telescopic satellites used to observe far-away neutron stars, black holes, and weather events on the sun, before the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990. He’s kept working on projects, such as a self-controlling robot that can wander the halls without bumping into walls or people. He got the idea after seeing a project from a graduate student at MIT. They’d created a self-driving wheelchair and he thought he could make something similar.
A rendering of the new Virginia Home facility in Hanover County on January 30, 2025 in Richmond, Va. “The recreational therapy department always looks at me like I’m crazy when I come up with another project,” Allen joked. “They go out of their way to make it a home for people who might otherwise not be able to experience life.” Stewart, the trustees' chair, said that beyond all of those experiences, the Home really is a family, and that they want everyone to have community and feel engaged. “You want everyone to be safe, you want everyone to be healthy. But beyond that, you want them to have friends. You want them to have interesting things to do and to have a purpose,” said Stewart, who first started her journey with the home as a coffee volunteer. “That’s what the Virginia Home provides.” Given the home’s specific population and relative uniqueness, it has a long waiting list of people wanting to get in. Resident Cynthia Carter has ALS, and waited through the list twice before being admitted. She got on the waiting list after developing ALS. She was first notified that she could move in, but her disease hadn’t progressed and she was still self-sufficient at home. She went back to the bottom of the list and later moved in when she was notified again. “It was always a goal of mine to get here,” Carter said. And now, she’s looking forward to the move out to Hanover, and a new facility which has just been pictured through renderings. “It’s designed specifically for us. I’m really looking forward to the new rooms, they have big windows and so much natural light,” Carter said. “It’s beautiful, just beautiful.”
Collection: Our 'From the Archives' series
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