Our Man in Arlington

A fairly substantial part of Arlington’s political community is now spending its weekdays in Richmond for the annual meeting of Virginia’s august and ancient (by American standards) General Assembly.

This includes the two Senators (Mary Margaret Whipple and Patsy Ticer) and four Delegates (Mary Van Landingham, Al Eisenberg, Bob Brink and Adam Ebbin) representing various parts of Arlington as well as their aides. (Full disclosure: Delegate Bob Brink’s aide is my wife, Jean Barton.)

This is just a drop in the bucket, however. Scores of local officials, business lobbyists, civic groups, reporters and just plain gawkers trek down to Richmond.

They are there on serious legislative business, of course. They are also sightseers in a town of many historic sites. Right now, however, what they are seeing is a lot of construction on Capitol Hill and downtown Richmond that is restoring and enhancing two historic Richmond areas.

Bob Brink has chronicled much of this in his weekly newsletter, from which I am borrowing (plagiarizing?) both literally and liberally. Visitors to the Capitol this year may be shocked. Instead of a glimmering white federal style building (designed by Thomas Jefferson) facing a lovely lawn and garden, they will see a huge muddy hole and a substantial part of the building covered by scaffolding and layers of white tarpaulin.

The Capitol is now undergoing major restoration and renovation that will take at least two more years. Two projects will change the facility, if not the face, of the Capitol: renovation and restoration of the main building and creation of a new visitors’ center. The plan is to complete the restoration for the the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown. Queen Elizabeth is expected to attend the celebration in Jamestown and, on the way, visit Richmond and its new Capitol.

Visitors to Richmond will also see extensive construction work along Richmond’s former main drag, Broad Street, which fell onto hard times with the closing of the major department stores Thalheimers and Miller and Rhodes in the 1970’s as well as the relocation of most of the glittering Broad Street shops and restaurants to suburban malls. The new buildings on the old Thalheimer’s site include a new luxury hotel and a major performing arts center that will go a long way to restoring the former grandeur of Broad Street.

In its heyday, Broad Street was known as the Broadway of Virginia. A French nobleman, Alexandre Quesnay de Beaurepaire who attempted to build a French Academy there after failing in New York and Philadelphia, built the first major theater there in the middle of the eighteenth century.

The next 200 years brought many famous theaters and glittering movie houses to Broad Street. Among the most famous was Madison Theater (later named the Richmond Theater), built in 1818. The theater was renowned for a performance by Jenny Lind (P.T. Barnum was the impresario) with tickets that sold for as high as $105 in an auction before the performance. Junious Booth and his world famous son Edwin Booth performed there throughout their careers, as well as the lesser son, John Wilkes Booth.

The new construction on Broad Street is a welcome sight for those who remember the old Broad Street as a combination of Fifth Avenue and Broadway right here in Virginia Richard Barton may be emailed at rbarton@towervillas.com