Built by architect Charles M. Robinson, the building at Patterson Avenue and Roseneath Road opened in 1926 to house Richmond Normal School. The Normal School, a teacher-in-training school with grades K-7, was discontinued in June 1933 in the Depression era as state teacher colleges had been founded.
In September 1933 the school was established as Albert H. Hill Elementary School, named for the former Superintendent of Richmond Public Schools from 1919-1933. In 1934, a junior high school was added to the elementary grades and, together with the rapid growth of the West End, soon led to crowded conditions at Hill. The opening of Mary Munford School, in 1951, gave temporary relief. To ease a crowded situation at Thomas Jefferson High School, ninth graders were retained at Albert Hill and the elementary grades were transferred in 1956 and 1957 to Cary and Lee Schools.
The part-three-story Spanish exterior features ornate stone carvings, meeting Superintendent Hill's specifications. The first principal in 1926 described the building: "The offices, library, cafeteria, teachers' room, industrial education laboratory, and fourteen class rooms are situated on the first floor; on the second and third floors there are twenty-three rooms, the auditorium and the gymnasium. The gymnasium contains a basket ball court 13,800 square feet and is well equipped with apparatus. Conveniently adjacent are locker rooms and shower rooms. For out-door athletics there are courts for basket ball, volley ball and tennis."
