Development Transforms City : Richmond: New Life Stirs in an Old Southern Belle

If Atlanta can be likened to Scarlett O’Hara--bold, brash and willing to kick over all conventions in pursuit of her dreams--then this former capital of the Confederacy has certainly seemed like Miss Mellie--demure, gracious and clinging loyally to the old ways.

As far back as the 1880s, the noted landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted said of Richmonders that they “have a disposition within themselves only to step backwards.”

A more recent story here asks how many Richmonders it takes to change a light bulb. Answer: Three--one to remove it and two to sit around and talk about what a fine old bulb it was.

“There was a kind of Civil-War-museum quality to Richmond,” one longtime resident said recently. “Although the people were friendly, Richmond was a closed society. Unless you knew the right people and joined the right clubs, it was hard to make it big here. And, of course, there were strict lines between blacks and whites.”

In the last few years, however, a dramatic transformation has taken place in this historic city of 219,000 on the banks of the James River.

A new spirit of progress, fueled by a fierce desire to carve a place for Richmond in the Sun Belt boom, is at work, stripping Richmond of its “backwards” image and propelling its citizens full tilt into the 21st Century.

Not since the urban boosterism of the New South movement lifted the Virginia capital out of its post-Civil War lethargy at the turn of the century has Richmond witnessed such profound change. Local officials and community leaders declare that it signals nothing less than a genuine urban renaissance--a new flowering of the city’s entire economic, political, social and cultural life.

“Richmond is a sleeping giant that has finally awakened,” Mayor Roy A. West said. “You can feel it in your bones. We’re not just heading for the 21st Century, we’re already there.”

New Building Sprouting

Signs of the new spirit are everywhere evident but perhaps nowhere more palpable than in the new office buildings, shops, restaurants and hotels sprouting all over downtown. In all, downtown construction projects worth more than $1 billion are under way or in the works, making up for decades of neglect and decay and reinvigorating the economy.

One of the most ambitious projects is a $350-million complex along the James River that will house offices, retail shops, condominiums and a hotel in a series of glittering towers when completed. Designed by the same New York architectural firm that designed the World Trade Center in Manhattan, the James Center promises to be the largest mixed-use downtown development in the Southeast.

But the most attention-getting work-in-progress for Richmonders is undoubtedly the $25-million Sixth Street Marketplace, a three-block-long specialty shopping arcade scheduled for completion this fall.

Designed by James W. Rouse, who also designed and developed Boston’s Faneuil Hall Markets and Baltimore’s Harborfront, the Richmond marketplace features a glass-enclosed elevated pedestrian bridge spanning Broad Street between the new 400-room Marriott Hotel and the city’s two leading downtown department stores, Thalhimers and Miller & Rhoads .

‘Twain Now Have Met’

It is the symbolism of the bridge that most intrigues Richmonders. “Traditionally, the north side of Broad Street has been considered the ‘black’ side and the south side has been considered the ‘white’ side,” explained Clarence L. Townes Jr., deputy director of Richmond Renaissance, a nonprofit group of political, business and community leaders that fosters downtown development. “That bridge is a sign that the twain now have met.”

“Every time I look up and see that thing,” added a black Richmonder as he stood on Broad Street waiting for a bus, “I have to pinch myself. This ain’t nothing like the Richmond I’ve been used to.”

What is more, as part of the agreement under which the project received city community development funds, a certain percentage of the vendor positions in the arcade has been set aside for blacks to help foster minority entrepreneurship.

Preservation of old buildings and neighborhoods is going on side by side with the new construction. And the projects under rehabilitation are not just antebellum monuments, as they tended to be in the past.

“Richmonders have come a long way in their attitudes toward historic preservation,” said Pamela White of the Historic Richmond Foundation. “The mentality used to be, if it’s antebellum, save it--if not, tear it down.”

For example, $40 million is being spent by private investors to restore the once-grandiose 19th-Century Jefferson Hotel to its former glory. In its prime, it hosted presidents, business tycoons and internationally known entertainers--and once boasted a pair of live alligators in the two carved marble pools in the lobby. The sweeping staircase on the main floor is reputed to have been the model for the staircase in Scarlett O’Hara’s home in the film version of “Gone With the Wind.”

The historic Main Street railroad station, whose ornate French Renaissance-style clock tower is a local landmark, also is being renovated. Originally built in 1901, it will house a discount shopping mall when it reopens this fall.

Cultural Activities

Along with the burst of downtown development and renovation activity, Richmond is enjoying an outpouring of artistic and cultural activities--opera, ballet, concerts, art exhibits and the like.

The old downtown Loew’s Theater, with its opulent Moorish-style interior, has been restored and converted into a performing arts center. And a $22-million expansion at the Virginia Museum of Art, the South’s leading art museum and home of a major collection of Faberge Russian imperial Easter eggs, will double the amount of gallery space.

“That’s going to be the biggest thing that ever happened to the museum community in our town,” said Adrienne Hines of the Federated Arts Council. “We’re really going to be on the map artistically with that museum expansion.”

One of the most telling signs of Richmond’s new coming of age is the budding downtown night life at the bars and restaurants along Shockoe Slip, a cobblestoned river-front area that once served as a cotton and tobacco trading district. Restoration of the old warehouses first began in 1973, and now the area is one of the most popular attractions in town, adding to Richmond’s growing cosmopolitan air.

It has been only since the late 1960s that Richmonders have had liquor by the drink, thanks to a change in state alcohol laws. And for a long time after that, the mores of the city frowned on unaccompanied women entering bars.

“If you went into a bar alone,” said Polly Bouldin, leasing agent for Faison Associates, “you were either asked whether you were waiting for your husband or else you were considered a tramp. Nowadays, of course, nobody pays you any attention in that respect.”

Undergirding Richmond’s revival are changes that are not so immediately apparent to the outsider--especially the dramatically improved relations between whites and blacks since the turbulent era of the civil rights struggle of the 1960s and early 1970s.

Few Richmonders would contend that the millennium has been reached in race relations, but there is little doubt that whites and blacks have been able to set aside their differences enough to help foster a climate for economic growth.

“That’s what really distinguishes Richmond’s revitalization from similar efforts in many other cities,” said Christopher Silver, an urban affairs specialist at Virginia Commonwealth University here. “Racial divisions and the strongly conservative element here were perhaps the major obstacles to Richmond’s getting ahead.”

But keeping race relations from backsliding is one of the major tasks ahead for Richmond. Blacks are perhaps the most skeptical segment of the population about the promised benefits of Richmond’s renaissance. Although they make up 52% of Richmond’s popu lation and hold key political positions--the mayor and four other members of City Council are black, as is the city manager--blacks do not occupy any citadels of power in the business community.

As a result, there is a pervasive fear in the black community that the “Main Street crowd,” as the white businessmen and bankers are called after the street serving as the city’s chief financial district, may limit their economic progress.

Hears Two Voices

“One voice tells me to stay in Richmond because Richmond’s growing and there’s going to be opportunity for all,” said Ronald Duckenfield, a college student who also works as a bartender at hotels and private clubs. “But another voice is telling me just as strong: ‘Get out of Richmond, because nothing’s really going to change.’ ”

Whether the evident progress in Richmond’s buildings, arts and commerce will be mirrored by lasting changes in its social structure will become clear only with time. But it is already certain that the city is on a new course, no longer obsessed with its past.

“Richmond is on a roll,” said David V. O’Donnell of the state Department of Economic Development. “For the past five years, it has been called an undiscovered jewel. Now it’s hit the break point where everybody wants to know about it.”

And Gertrude Bryan Sorg, a retired schoolteacher whose mother’s family came to Virginia in the 1600s, said: “Richmond will always be Miss Mellie at heart, but you’re going to see a whole lot more of Scarlett peeking out from under her petticoats.”