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The Rise · HBCU

VUU(Virginia Union University)

School colors: Maroon and Steel

Pickford Hall, Virginia Union University
Morgan Riley, Taken on 7 August 2011, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Richmond, Virginia · Founded 1865

Private · Four-year · ~1,700 students

www.vuu.edu · official site

Founding

Virginia Union University was founded in 1865 by the American Baptist Home Mission Society, shortly after Union troops took control of Richmond at the end of the Civil War, to give newly emancipated freedmen an education. Hartshorn Memorial College, a women's college established in Richmond in 1883, became part of the university in 1932.

Source: Our History, Our Purpose, Virginia Union University, read 2026-09-14.

On the official record

Campus address
1500 N Lombardy St, Richmond, VA 23220
Control
Private not-for-profit
Students
~1,700 students
Directory id
234164
OPE id
00376600
Student aid
Takes part in Title IV student aid
Title III Part B list, FY 2026
Listed
Location
1500 N Lombardy St, Richmond, VA. See it on the Ledger map.
Where this location comes fromCampus location from IPEDS 2024-25This campus location comes from the federal IPEDS 2024-25 record, used as published, so the pin on the map is the campus.IPEDS Institutional Characteristics, Directory information (HD2024), 2024-25 collection, file dated 2025-09-21, retrieved 2026-09-14: coordinate 37.562405, -77.450903 as published. The Census Bureau geocoder also matched this address exactly on 2026-09-14.

Across newBWS

Sources

  1. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. IPEDS Institutional Characteristics, Directory information (HD2024), 2024-25 provisional data collection. Unit id 234164. https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/data/HD2024.zip. File dated 2025-09-21.
  2. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education. Higher Education Programs Eligibility Matrix, sheet 'HBCU', dated 2026-06-08. https://www.ed.gov/media/document/fy-2026-higher-education-programs-eligibility-matrix-june-8-2026-114185.xlsx.
  3. Our History, Our Purpose, Virginia Union University. https://www.vuu.edu/about-union/about/our-history-our-purpose. Read 2026-09-14.
  4. Students: 1,662 total, Fall 2023 (1,170 undergraduate, 492 graduate). IPEDS Fall Enrollment 2023, derived variables (DRVEF2023). https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/data/DRVEF2023.zip. File dated 2024-09-30, read 2026-09-17.
  5. School colors: Maroon and Steel. Values as stated. Virginia Union University, Wikipedia (revision 1373469772). Read 2026-09-16.
  6. Photograph: Morgan Riley, Taken on 7 August 2011, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pickford_Hall,_Virginia_Union_University.JPG. Retrieved 2026-09-16.
  7. U.S. Census Bureau Geocoder, batch address service, benchmark Public_AR_Current. https://geocoding.geo.census.gov/geocoder/.

Enrollment is the official 2023 count, rounded. Tap a school for its source.

Machine-readable: /api/v1/hbcus/virginia-union-university · All HBCUs

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