As Richmond magazine marks its fourth decade, we step inside 1979 — and find its footprints on today.
Photo courtesy Richmond Times-Dispatch
BACKSTORY: In the early 1800s, Shockoe Slip was home to a famous boarding house run by Mary Randolph, Richmond’s queen of hostesses. And by the turn of the century, that stretch of Cary was known for its fan-patterned cobblestones.
In the mid 1970s, developers such as Andy Asch saw the beauty in the Slip’s buildings, buying them to preserve and convert them into office and retail spaces. And by 1977, Jerry Cable had turned an old three-story tobacco warehouse at 12th and Cary streets into Richmond’s first true destination restaurant, The Tobacco Company.
The Slip was the place where visitors and expense-accounted business people went to dine, where suburbanites went to drink and dance (the Tobacco Company opened its underground club in 1979), and where families gathered on weekends for street festivals along its cobblestones, which were covered by asphalt until the winter of 1978, when the city started removing it and discovered that 70 percent of the cobbles or durex blocks were intact.
The city, Historic Richmond Foundation, the Shockoe Slip Association and the Central Richmond Association banded together to restore the other 30 percent in the spring of 1979 between 12th and 14th streets.
A rainy May 20 Volunteer Work Day brought 125 volunteers who helped the city save money by performing several days’ worth of work within six hours.
“The restoration project is an example of the private sector and the public sector working hand in hand to achieve an end — revitalizing a historic area,” said Assistant City Manager A. Howard Todd.
TODAY: Still under the ownership of Cable, The Tobacco Company reopened in late 2018 after being closed for 18 months due to a fire. The Slip is anchored by the Martin Agency, four hotels, the First Freedom Center, and smaller retail shops and restaurants.
More Moments From 1979
Charting a New Course
Then: A city task force concluded that Deepwater Terminal was a vital asset. The Port of Richmond Commission was created in 1982 to run it.
Now: The Virginia Port Authority has a 40-year operating lease with the city for the 121-acre port, renamed Richmond Marine Terminal. This prompted state-funded upgrades, with the hope that it becomes a distribution center akin to Virginia Inland Port in Front Royal.
Judge Robert Merhige Jr. (Photo courtesy Richmond Public Library)
The Judge
Then: After integrating Richmond schools through busing, federal judge Robert Merhige Jr. presided over trials of American Nazi Party and Ku Klux Klan members accused of injuring and killing Communist Workers Party members.
Now: A documentary about Merhige is slated for completion in June.
The Angels
Then: After the New York Transportation Authority’s transit police force was cut back because of the city’s fiscal crisis, 24-year-old Curtis Sliwa formed the Guardian Angels in 1979 to stem the tide of robberies occurring on the city’s subway cars.
Now: Richmond’s Guardian Angels, founded in 2010, run the Highland Park neighborhood watch.
Remembering Brown
Then: On May 17, 25 years after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, Mayor Henry Marsh said its legacy depends “on whether we possess the toughness, the sophistication and will to fight new battles.”
Now: On Feb. 7, after the governor’s and attorney general’s blackface revelations, state Sen. Delores McQuinn said that oppression of African-Americans has “continued to impact areas of politics, education, generational wealth, voting rights and many other areas necessary for equal rights for all.”
