The Grant House

The Department of Health Administration is housed in the William H. Grant House, which is located on 1008 E. Clay Street in Richmond, Virginia. The Grant House provides classrooms, computer labs, conference rooms and offices for faculty and staff.

The Department of Epidemiology and Community Health, an important partner department, shares the Grant House with the Department of Health Administration (Epidemiology and Community Health is housed on the third floor). Right next door to and just to the south of the Grant House is the Paul A. Gross Conference Center. Named for a distinguished alumnus of the Department's MHA Program, the Gross Center provides additional meeting rooms for the Department's teaching program and for the University community generally.

The Grant House, which is on the national registry for historic landmarks, was built in 1856 by the then prominent tobacconist, William H. Grant, Jr.

For other details on the historic Grant House, see:

The Department's Move to the Grant House

In 1983, it was painfully clear that the department needed new space. It had expanded beyond its headquarters in Randolph Minor Annex to the fifth floor of the Nursing Education Building and the basement of the Lyons Building. The faculty were thus spread across three buildings.

To remedy the situation a star-studded group of alumni joined Dr. Roice Luke (then Chairman of the department) and Dean Thomas Barker to meet President Edmund Ackell and Vice President Lauren Woods. Their agenda was to discuss the need for new space for the Department of Health Administration. The alumni who were at that meeting included:

David Bernd (Sentara Health System),
Jerry Brink (Riverside Health System),
Wickliffe Lyne (HCA, Richmond),
Carter Melton (Rockingham Memorial Hospital),
Stephen Montgomery (Williamsburg Community Hospital), and
John Simpson (Richmond Memorial Hospital).

The upshot of this meeting was that President Ackell recommended the then Sheltering Arms Hospital Building be given to the Department as its new headquarters. The only problem with this was that about a million dollars were needed to pay for much needed renovations to this historic landmark building. An extended fund-raising effort was initiated, led by David Williamson, Jr., who at the time was Vice Chairman of the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA; David was an alumnus of the Department's MHA Program). Mr. Williamson was successful in helping the Department and the University raise the needed funds. As a result, renovations began in1991 and were completed in early 1992. The Department moved into its new facilities on May 18, 1992.

Note: In recognition of Mr. Williamson's significant contribution to the fund-raising effort, Dr. Luke recommended to the University that a new institute be created and named for him. This was approved by the University and, in his last week of his life (he died of cancer in early November of 1986), David was informed that the David G.Williamson, Jr., Institute for Health Studies would be established within the Department of Health Administration at VCU.