Main Street Station

Main Street Station (c. 1910)

Main Street Station (2014)

Site Name: Main Street Station (1520 East Main Street)

Date of Construction: 1901

Reason for Construction: Union station (railway station where tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies) for the Chesapeake and Ohio and the Seaboard Air Line

Site History: The Main Street Station was a union station for the Chesapeake and Ohio and the Seaboard Air Line, created by the Philadelphia architectural firm of Wilson, Harrison, and Richards.  Its first plans were drawn up in the early 1890s, but construction was delayed for almost 10 years by a huge economic downturn.  The building costs of the station is still not agreed upon and ranges from $165,000 to a few million dollars.  On June 2, 1900, the first train built by the Richmond Locomotive Works, was headed for Tampa, Florida.  As the train rolled up into the station, there was a 21-gun salute as three rounds were fired for each of the seven states that the train would pass through.  From its inception, the station was a very busy place and by the 1920s, up to 20 trains would come and go in a 24-hour period.  In addition to being a passenger destination, the station was also a place where packages and mail were handled and shipped.  With the arrival of longer and more powerful trains, the station was in need of a complete overhaul by the 1950s.  Not only did this rebuilding not happen, but maintenance became more infrequent over time as passenger rail service decreased.  The main reasons for the growing unpopularity of the station were floods, Shockoe Bottom’s virtual abandonment, and the increasing popularity of automobile and air travel.  Although the station received recognition as a state and national historic landmark in 1970, Hurricane Agnes in June of 1972 made the station’s conditions worse.  In 1975, Amtrak moved out of the station due to the rising costs of operation and the last train pulled away from Main Street Station at 5:25 p.m. on October 15, 1975.  About seven months later, on May 10, 1976, a fire consumed portions of the platforms.

  

In August 1980, Larry Shiffflett and David White, principal partners in the SWA Architects firm, announced a $23 million renovation idea that detailed three levels of retail in the train shed with a mixture of 100 shops and food vendors.  On October 7, 1983, a major six alarm fire once again devastated the station, but Shifflett and White weren’t deterred and they used the insurance money from the fire to do a major renovation project.  The mall was officially completed in November 1985 but it only consisted of basic shops stocked with merchandise available at any suburban shopping center, and the undercapitalized merchants quickly went broke.  In 1988, the last shop in the station closed, and by April 1989, the Commonwealth of Virginia purchased the building for $7.9 million and set aside $3.6 million for renovation as an office for the Virginia Department of Health.  In 1992, the City of Richmond started envisioning Main Street Station as a way to boost downtown development and as an addition to Shockoe Bottom, whose renaissance was well underway.  Viktoria Badger, Richmond’s principal planner, began working on the revival of Main Street Station, and the Station officially reopened in 2003.  

Area History: Shockoe Bottom, the area surrounding Main Street Station, played a major role in the slave trade during the early to mid-1800s.  It is estimated that between 10,000 and 11,000 slaves were sold at or around Shockoe Bottom each year from 1830 to 1840.  In more recent times, Shockoe Bottom had been a quite unpopular area until the construction of the Richmond’s James River Flood Wall in 1995.  Until then, Shockoe Bottom was met with periodic flooding of the James River.  With the risk of another flood gone, the rate of growth began to increase in the area until Hurricane Gaston hit and did colossal damage to the area in 2004.  Although the hurricane stunted the growth of Shockoe Bottom for a while, it now serves as a major dining, nightlife, and entertainment center of Richmond.

What about the site has changed: Despite two fires, several floods, and multiple renovations, the Main Street Station kept most of its original appearance.  The biggest reason for this is that people saw the station as a symbol for Richmond and didn’t want to alter it and lose its significance.  The upper stories are veneered in a tile that resembles old Roman brick.  Embellished with stone and terra-cotta, two rows of dormers pierce the steeply-pitched tile roof.  All of the roofing of the station was destroyed in the fire of 1983, but Shifflett and White made sure to preserve the station’s looks by replacing the demolished roof with new terra-cotta roofing that looked just about the same.  Each clock face of the six-story high corner tower is surrounded by fluted columns and cherubic faces.  In the fire, this tower was also in extreme danger of collapsing but somehow managed to beat the fire.  A notable change can be seen in the purpose of the station as previously, the ground floor contained service facilities such as mail and baggage and the upper floors housed a chapter of the Y.M.C.A.  The Y.M.C.A has moved out and the station has gotten a lot more unpopular since its construction and flourishing in the 1920s.  In the 1920s, the station was a symbol of prosperity and progress and a center of activity, while now, it is largely ignored by the general public and plays a much smaller role in the lives of Richmonders.

What about the surrounding area has changed: The most notable change in the surroundings in the construction of Interstate 95 (the Richmond Petersburg Turnpike) in July of 1958.  A general pattern that can be noted is that the growth of this new roadway and the decline of the Main Street Station went hand in hand.  This represents the transition of Richmond City as a whole from mass transportation to more private methods of transportation.  Also, prior to the construction of the Station, Bell’s Tavern occupied the area.  This tavern was torn down in order to make room for Main Street Station.  Shockoe Bottom also went through periods of growth and decline that closely correlated with the station.  In the 1800s, Shockoe Bottom was popular for slave trade and in the 1900s, with the construction of the station, growth was slightly stimulated.  Then, with repeated floods and the decline of the station, Shockoe Bottom went unnoticed till 1995 when the James River flood Flood Wall was built.  Now, although the Station has made a comeback (starting in 2003), Shockoe Bottom is growing at a much faster pace than the Station.

Reflection: Local history is a very strange topic as some become completely engrossed in it while others are buried in total apathy regarding the matter.  I fell in the latter category till I did the documentary project on Henricus Historical Park.  Since then, although I haven’t spent a tremendous amount of time familiarizing with local history, I have always kept my ear open for the little pieces of information that I get from here and there.  Through this project, I got an opportunity to learn about one of Richmond’s symbolic landmarks, the Main Street Station.  Before I undertook this project, I believed that the history of the station would be as simple talking about the station’s construction date and the role that it currently plays.  In fact, I was quite worried about how I will furnish a whole paragraph about the station’s history.  But ever since I started digging for information, I found out that there is much more to the station and in the end, struggled to condense the history of the station into one paragraph.  I also find it quite remarkable that something that played a very important role in history is largely ignored today, showing how time can change people’s perceptions and values.  Just like the documentary project, this project also showed me how learning about local history can change how you view one place in terms of its significance.

Sources:

Bergman, Scott, and Sandi Bergman. Haunted Richmond. Charleston, SC: Haunted America, 2007. 

Kollatz, Harry. Main Street Station. Richmond, VA: Target Communications, 2003.

"Main Street Station." Monument House. Accessed February 23, 2014. http://www.monumenthouse.com/richmond/landmarks/3043.

The Richmond Planet (Richmond, VA), February 14, 1903. Accessed February 23, 2014. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84025841/1903-02-14/ed-1/seq-7/.

 Edwards, Ana, and Phil Wilayto. "The Significance of Shockoe Bottom." Defenders. http://defendersfje.tripod.com/id33.html.

Author: Felix