Existing comment:
Capitol Disaster
This tablet was erected under an act of the General Assembly of Virginia, approved March 16, 1918 -- to mark the scene of the capitol disaster which occurred on April 27, 1870, when the floor of the court room of the Supreme Court of Appeals which was then above this hall fell. Resulting in the death of sixty-two and the injuring of two hundred and fifty-one other persons, the falling of the court room was occasioned by the attendance of an unusual number of persons assembled to hear the decision of the court in the case of Ellyson vs. Cahoon, known as the Richmond Mayoralty Case. Reported in XIX Grattan, page 673. |