Factors contributing to change

Sears moved in and brought with it a great many jobs, unfortunately it moved off West Main around the same time Safeway (another large employer and a staple for the neighborhood) moved away. Republic Plaza now stands where Safeway was, but it did not provide what had left.

Barracks Road shopping center offered a one stop shop location outside of town, with cheaper prices and more availability.

Sources

Central Peidmont Urban Observatory. West Main Street: Present Conditions and Future Prospects. Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia, 1977.

The Daily Progress 13 April 1962.

Preservation Studio (Walker C. Johnson, AIA Instructor with students). Charlottesville 2020: A Thirty Year Vision Balancing Development and Preservation on West Main Street and the Mall. University of Virginia, Charlottesville. Spring 1988.

Bridging the Community

Alicia Lugo (2002)

Alicia Lugo, former Director of the Teensight program, was honored on the Drewary J. Brown Memorial Bridge for the work that she has done with young people in the community. Teensight began in August of 1988 as an outgrowth of FOCUS, a local organization formed to empower women. It specifically focuses on men and women under the age of 18 in an effort to provide services such as helping people to finish school, finding jobs, and becoming self-sufficient citizens. Teensight also runs programs in the school to reduce pregnancy and the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases, as well as those that prevent high-risk behavior such as substance abuse. She has also had great influence through personal contacts in the community.

Sources

Daily Progress Staff. “Distinguished Dozen,” The Daily Progress, 23 October 2009, http://www2.dailyprogress.com/cdp/lifestyles/local/article/distinguished_dozen/47930/ (accessed 26 April 2010).

FOCUS: Women’s Resource Center. “FOCUS Teensight.” FOCUS: Women’s Resource Center. <http://focus.avenue.org/teensight.html> (accessed 26 April 2010).

Lugo, Alicia. Interview by Naomi Jacobs and Cynthia Terrell Richardson, 26 April 2010, Personal Collection, Charlottesville, Va.

Paul Gaston (2005)

Paul M. Gaston currently holds the position of Professor Emeritus in the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia and has won various awards for both his academic and community work. He has written about growing up in the single-tax colony of Fairhope, Alabama started by his grandfather Ernest Berry Gaston and continued by his father Cornie Gaston, as well as his experiences with the Civil Rights Movement in the American South beginning in the 1960s and continuing into the present day. He is perhaps best remembered by historians of the Charlottesville as being one of the first people assaulted on the fourth day of “stand-out” protests at Buddy’s Restaurant on Emmet Street in 1963, along with Reverend Henry Floyd Johnson (then President of the local NAACP) and William Samuel Johnson. Professor Gaston was also instrumental to the creation of the Afro-Americans Studies program at the University of Virginia and holds the distinction of teaching the school’s first class devoted to Black history.

There are many ways to build bridges, and Paul Gaston has done so across lines of not only race but also community. His participation in the 1963 protests and later fight for Black Studies is significant because complicates the traditional divide perceived between people associated with the University of Virginia and the community of Charlottesville. Gaining insight from his unique upbringing, Professor Gaston made a lasting impression at, and between, two distinct but intimately connected communities.

Sources

David A. Maurer, “Fair Hope for the Future,” The Daily Progress, 29 November 2009.

Gaston, Paul M. Coming of Age in Utopia: The Odyssey of an Idea. Montgomery, Alabama: NewSouth Books, 2010.

Gaston, Paul M. My South—and Yours. Pamphlet: Charlottesville, Virginia, 1997.

Gaston, Paul M. “Sitting In” in the ‘Sixties: An Historian’s Memoir. Pamphlet: Charlottesville, Virginia, 1997.

Jack Chamberlain, “’Stand-ins’ Are Suspended: Out Hurt, Four Arrested In Outbreak at Buddy’s,” The Daily Progress, 31 May 1963.

Rectors & Visitors of the University of Virginia. “Paul M. Gaston – Corcoran Deprtment of History.” University of Virginia. http://www.virginia.edu/history/user/85 (accessed 25 April 2010).

Drewary John Birchard Brown (1998)

Mr. Drewary J. Brown was a leader and activist in the Charlottesville community, promoting programs for the poor and underprivileged while building bridges throughout the city and surrounding counties. For a period in the 1960s, Brown served as the President of the local NAACP chapter and was one of the founding members of the Monticello Area Community Action Agency. Throughout his lifetime, Drewary J. Brown was dedicated to helping those in need and promoting social justice in the area. Writing in The Daily Progress on April 12, 1998 after Brown’s passing, Bob Gibson commented, that “for many a resident of the city, the intersection of black and white Charlottesville started with Brown.”

As a memorial to Drewary J. Brown’s legacy, the city named the bridge on West Main Street over the train tracks for this local hero “in honor of those people who succeeded in building bridges in our community.” Every year recipients are honored for their work, and a plaque with their name is placed on the bridge’s railing. Although the award was conceived as going to African Americans who had built bridges across racial barriers, it soon became apparent that there were many people in this city, Black and White, who had contributed to mending race relation in Charlottesville.

Our investigation into the West Main Street area and our participation in a class co-taught by the University of Virginia and the Quality Community Council is our own small way of attempting to build our own bridges between the University and Charlottesville communities. Our attendance could never come close to comparing with the achievements of the citizens who have been honored on the Drewary J. Brown Bridge, but we hope that the relationships we have begun between the these two communities that have been historically been separated will at least have a small impact on relationships between Charlottesville and the University of Virginia.

Sources

Bob Gibson, “Brown Was Linchpin of Community,” The Daily Progress, 12 April 1998.

Hook Staff, “Photophile – Bridge Builders: City Honor’s Drewary Brown’s Legacy,” The Hook, 16 June 2005, <https://www.readthehook.com/Stories/2005/06/14/photophileBridgeBuildersCi.html> (accessed 26 April 2010).

Lugo, Alicia. Interview by Naomi Jacobs and Cynthia Terrell Richardson, 26 April 2010, Personal Collection, Charlottesville, Va.

Maria Sanminiatelli, “Tribute to Man Who ‘Helped Us All.’” The Daily Progress, 12 April 1998.

Monticello Area Community Action Agency. “Drewary Brown Reception.” Monticello Area Community Action Agency. <http://www.macaa.org/events/DB_reception.html> (accessed 26 April 2010).

Car Shops

616 West Main
843 West Main
Starr Hill Automotive 864 West Main
Empty lot at West Main and 9th Street, used to be Bradley Peyton III




315 West Main
1311 West Main323 West Main

Where Main Street Market is today

Team Tires

1001 West Main

These pictures and ads from 1962 help to show that there were a number of auto shops along West Main, but over the years have mostly relocated to suburbs like Pantops. Empty lots are left on the street, not creating a sense of space or a community, leaving West Main as a corridor.

Sources

The Daily Progress 13 April 1962.

KELLERCO Inc. for the City of Charlottesville, Virginia. West Main Street Corridor and Downtown Traffic Circulation Studies. Tysons Corner, Virginia: KELLERCO Inc, 1988. Prepared for: City of Charlottesville, Virginia.

Kane Furniture

Although this building has been modified, Kane furniture was moved to its current location after the demolition of Vinegar Hill, but has always been on West Main Street. It is a good example of the types of businesses that one can expect to find along the corridor; stores that are not needed everyday, stores that offer larger rarer services.

The University's Impact

This building is largely under utilized and houses medical center computing and a web center for University of Virginia Health Systems.




Although this building was a house, it is now the building for the UVA medical foundation, however it retains its original historic architecture on the outside.
The University has expanded onto West Main Street, with the hospital being one of the largest buildings and largest employers in the city. Despite this, it does not seem to be the University's intention to overtake this corridor, it has developed relatively few plots and there do not seem to be major plans for it to develop anymore presently.

Lugo, Alicia. Interview by Naomi Jacobs and Cynthia Terrell Richardson, 26 April 2010, Personal Collection, Charlottesville, Va.

Sources

Department of Community Development: Charlottesville, Virginia, 1976. Historic Landmark Study: Charlottesville, Virginia. Charlottesville, Virginia: The Michie Company, 1976.

Preservation Studio (Walker C. Johnson, AIA Instructor with students). Charlottesville 2020: A Thirty Year Vision Balancing Development and Preservation on West Main Street and the Mall. University of Virginia, Charlottesville. Spring 1988.

University of Virginia. "U.Va. Web Map: Stacey Hall (Health System)." University of Virginia. (accessed 20 April 2010).

Marriott Courtyard Charlottesville

The area is an architectural design control district, however it has not been made into a historic district, hence why the one hundred year old houses could be knocked down to make way for the Marriott (1203 and 205 West Main Street) in 1998-2000.

Although these are not the houses in question, they are of a similar time period and remain along West Main.

Sources

Department of Community Development: Charlottesville, Virginia, 1976. Historic Landmark Study: Charlottesville, Virginia. Charlottesville, Virginia: The Michie Company, 1976.

"West Main Street" Vertical File, Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society: Charlottesville, Va.

First Baptist Church

First Baptist Church

632 West Main Street

(First Baptist Church Christian Education Center)

The original congregation of the First Baptist Church on Park Street was interracial, with African Americans seated in the balconies above the White congregants. After the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect in 1863, the black members requested to leave the main body of the church to form their own congregation under the guidance of Francis Fife’s father, which met in the original structure’s basement until 1868.

On August 20^th of that year, the new group purchased the Develan Hotel at the corner of 7^th Street and West Main Street. This structure, also known as the “Mudwall” building because of the color of the Albemarle clay used in its construction, was home to the Develan Baptist Church until it was torn down in 1876 to make room for a brand new building. The actual construction of the new structure was significant because the African Americans did not want to take out loans and take the risk that White creditors would be able to take possession of the building of they feel behind on the payments. Instead, congregants worked on the building whenever they had time, with whole families becoming involved with women serving food and children carrying bricks for the men. The new church was completed on October 12, 1883 and dedicated the next year as the First Colored Baptist Church of Charlottesville. It is unclear when the term “Colored” fell out of use, but it is not mentioned in the 1962 200^th Anniversary Edition of The Daily Progress detailing the congregation’s history.

The First Baptist Church has had fifteen pastors over the course of its history, many of which have been active in the community and acted as pillars of society. The Reverend Benjamin Bunn served the church for 36 years into the early-1980s and was also responsible for establishing the local chapter of the NAACP, which was instrumental in the fight to desegregate local schools against Massive Resistance legislation, to desegregate local businesses though sit-in demonstrations, and to resist more Urban Renewal projects after Vinegar Hill. The Reverend Bruce A. Beard served for sixteen years beginning in 1993 and developed Transformation Ministries, which is dedicated to bridging the gap between the church and the community until moving to Atlanta.

In 1979 the First Baptist Church became the only African American church in Charlottesville or Albemarle County to join the Southern Baptist convention, and in 1982 the building was recognized on the National Register of Historic Places.

Sources

Bryant, Florence Coleman. Rebecca Fuller McGinness. A Lifetime: 1892-2000. Charlottesville, Virginia: The Van Doren Company, 2001.

Lugo, Alicia. Interview by Naomi Jacobs and Cynthia Terrell Richardson, 16 April 2010, Personal Collection, Charlottesville, Va.

Lugo, Alicia. Interview by Naomi Jacobs and Cynthia Terrell Richardson, 26 April 2010, Personal Collection, Charlottesville, Va.

Members of the Albemarle County Historical Society Publications Committee. “Tour F: West Main Street/Ridge Street Driving Tour.” In Historic Charlottesville Tour Book: 10 Tours of Charlottesville, Virginia, edited by Frank E. Grizzard, Jr, 43-51. Charlottesville’s Historic Resource Task Force in conjunction with The Albemarle County Historical Society: Charlottesville, Virginia, 2002.

Progress Staff, “First Baptist Church Was Organized in 1831,” The Daily Progress – Charlottesville’s 200^th Anniversary Edition 1762-1962, 13 April 1962. “Churches and Temples. Religion – Baptist – First Baptist, Ch’ville.” Local History File, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.

Saunders, James Robert and Renae Nadine Shackelford. Urban Renewal and the End of Black Culture in Charlottesville, Virginia. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2005.

Steve Stinson, “Integration Comes Slowly To City Churches,” The Daily Progress, 28 July 1974. “Churches and Temples. Religion – [Miscellaneous; General] – Local.” Local History File, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.

Virginia African American Heritage Program. “Site: First Baptist Church, Charlottesville.” African American Heritage Virginia. <http://www.aaheritageva.org/search/sites.php?site_id=597> (accessed 22 April 2010).

Inge's Store

Inge’s Grocery Store (1891-1979)

333 West Main Street

The first recorded structure built on the plot of land at 333 West Main Street was a residential property constructed in 1820 and expanded sometime between 1833 and 1840. It was remodeled as a dry goods store for the first time in 1853, and in 1890 Mr. George P. Inge bought the building for $3,000 to open a grocery store at the age of twenty-eight. The store only changed hands once in its eighty-eight year history, and that was in 1946 when the senior Inge turned the business over to his youngest son, Mr. Thomas Inge. By the time Inge’s Grocery closed its doors for the last time in 1979, it had become a local landmark and source of pride for many African American residents as one of the oldest Black-owned businesses in Charlottesville. Many of them remember the store as a place where they purchased penny-candy and sodas as children.

In its prime Inge’s Grocery was the only location in Charlottesville where locals could buy fresh fish, and the store supplied this product to the Clairmont Hotel, the Hotel Gleason, the Dolly Madison Inn, the University Hospital, and boarding houses around the University of Virginia. The building was also the Inge family home, and served as a rooming house for visiting African Americans dignitaries who were not allowed to stay in other facilities due to segregation policies. Among these men were the Gloucester Country lawyer T. C. Walker, Dr. Robert R. Martin, and the most famous, Booker T. Washington.

Situated at the top of the Vinegar Hill neighborhood, 333 West Main Street was initially slated for demolition as part of the federally funded Urban Renewal project that razed the area bordered by Preston Avenue, West Main Street, and Fourth Street NW. Thomas Inge successfully fought for his family’s store and Inge’s Grocery was one of the few structures on Vinegar Hill to be spared by Charlottesville’s Urban Renewal. The store continued to operate until 1979 when Thomas Inge retired after facing increasing competition from chain supermarkets that began to appear in the 1940s and increased in numbers and influence throughout the decades.

Ownership of the property was transferred to Leslie LaFon in early 1980, who had plans to almost double the size of the building house within it an upscale restaurant and a number of small retail shops. LaFon had hoped to benefit from the federally funded Small Cities revitalization efforts focused on the Starr Hill neighborhood, but after considerable controversy over the renovations and restoration the building was not expanded. Named after the space behind Inge’s Grocery where the family had kept a milk cow, chickens, and geese, the Bull Alley restaurant opened for business in 1983.

Due to a lack of fire stops in the building’s original 19^th century construction, a fire at the Bull Alley restaurant in early 1989 destroyed much of the structure’s interior. The event was not a total loss: the façade survived and damage to the floor on the entry level was not repaired to give the space a more open feel. 333 West Main Street is currently occupied by another restaurant, West Main.

Sources

Audrey Ross, “Fire Destroys Historic Downtown Landmark,” The Daily Progress, 19 January 1989. “Businesses – Inge’s Store – West Main St.” Vertical File, Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, Charlottesville, Va.

David A Maurer, “Neighborhood Grocery Bygone Home of Service and Trust,” The Daily Progress, 21 January 1990. “Businesses – Inge’s Store – West Main St.” Vertical File, Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, Charlottesville, Va.

Granquist, Charles L. to Members and Friends of Old Charlottesville, 20 July 1982. “Businesses – Inge’s Store – West Main St.” Vertical File, Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, Charlottesville, Va.

Johnson, Jack. Interview by Naomi Jacobs and Cynthia Terrell Richardson, 09 April 2010, Personal Collection, Charlottesville, Va.

Libby Wilson, “Former Slave and His Son Nurtured Thriving Grocery,” The Daily Progress, 26 February 1984. “Businesses – Inge’s Store – West Main St.” Vertical File, Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, Charlottesville, Va.

Lugo, Alicia. Interview by Naomi Jacobs and Cynthia Terrell Richardson, 16 April 2010, Personal Collection, Charlottesville, Va.

Members of the Albemarle County Historical Society Publications Committee. “Tour F: West Main Street/Ridge Street Driving Tour.” In Historic Charlottesville Tour Book: 10 Tours of Charlottesville, Virginia, edited by Frank E. Grizzard, Jr, 43-51. Charlottesville’s Historic Resource Task Force in conjunction with The Albemarle County Historical Society: Charlottesville, Virginia, 2002.

Observer Staff, “Inge’s Faces Another of Many Changes,” The Observer, 19 November 1979. “Businesses – Inge’s Store – West Main St.” Vertical File, Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, Charlottesville, Va.

Paul Richter, “Milk Was 7 Cents A Quart on Bull Alley,” The Daily Progress, 06 June 1977. “Businesses – Inge’s Store – West Main St.” Vertical File, Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, Charlottesville, Va.

Progress Staff, “Jefferson’s Travelogue: Inge’s Store,” The Daily Progress, 08 August 1972. “Businesses – Inge’s Store – West Main St.” Vertical File, Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, Charlottesville, Va.

Ray McGrath, “Inge’s Store Has a Place in Main Street’s History and Future,” The Daily Progress, 11 November 1979. “Businesses – Inge’s Store – West Main St.” Vertical File, Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, Charlottesville, Va.

The Virginian Restaurant Company. <http://www.virginianrestaurant.com/Company/About.html> (accessed 23 April 2010).

Old Albemarle Hotel

Hotel Gleason/Old Albemarle Hotel

617-619 West Main Street

“This is that last survivor of many inns and hotels that once stood along the road

between downtown Charlottesville and U.Va. Built in 1896 as the Hotel Gleason and enlarged c.1911-1913 , it was the city’s premiere hotel for a quarter century. Renamed the Albemarle Hotel in the 1930s, it continued in operation until the mid-1970s. The recessed loggia with four Corinthian columns once held rocking chairs for hotel guests. A small second-story portico-in-antis has a Palladian window and an elaborate pressed metal entablature.”

Gaslight Restaurant

615 West Main Street

Attached to the Albemarle Hotel was the Gaslight Restaurant and Coffeehouse, opened in the early 1960s by John Marshall Tuck. Even before desegregation, local residents remember the Gaslight as a place of unique decor where blacks and whites mixed freely. The Gaslight also served as a place where and students, visitors, and residents alike came to socialize to eat, drink, and listen to music. The venue hosted many popular names, such as the Supremes, Muhammad Ali, and Bob Dylan. During the late 1970s the Gaslight went out of business, later to become the Blue Bird Café. This space is currently occupied by an upscale restaurant, the Horse and Hound Gastropub.

Sources

Members of the Albemarle County Historical Society Publications Committee. “Tour F: West Main Street/Ridge Street Driving Tour.” In Historic Charlottesville Tour Book: 10 Tours of Charlottesville, Virginia, edited by Frank E. Grizzard, Jr, 43-51. Charlottesville’s Historic Resource Task Force in conjunction with The Albemarle County Historical Society: Charlottesville, Virginia, 2002.

Barry, Rey. Charlottesville’s Gaslight Restaurant. The Freeware Hall of Fame Reminiscence. February 12, 2010. http://www.freewarehof.org/gaslight.html

Johnson, Jack. Interview by Naomi Jacobs and Cynthia Terrell Richardson, 09 April 2010, Personal Collection, Charlottesville, Va.

House of Ebony

The House of Ebony

731 West Main Street

The House of Ebony originated as a restaurant, but had evolved to become the only Black oriented nightclub in Charlottesville when it caught fire in the early morning hours of August 20, 1975. The club had only been in operation for two years, but it had managed to draw the ire of local officials because of the crowds of people who would overflow onto West Main Street on busy nights, as it was the only institution of its type within walking distance of the Black community. One day into the initial investigation, the fire department announced in The Daily Progress that evidence indicated arson was responsible for the blaze. [The limited scope of this project did not allow us to determine the final conclusion of city officials.]

The exterior of the building survived the fire, and soon after the event an unknown person painted the figure of a fireman in blue on the 8^th Street side of the remaining structure. The man pictured is said to be watching as fire destroys the club, as rumor has it the firefighters did when they first arrived on the night of August 20, 1975 before putting out the blaze. Although faded with age, the blue figure can still be seen today.

The fire at the House of Ebony coincided with an increase in crime and racial incidents along West Main Street in the mid-1970s. The Daily Progress, The Charlottesville-Albemarle Tribune, and The Cavalier Daily reported on many of these events, with some writers attributing the rise in crime to the national recession experienced during the 1970s. In the summer of 1975, Charlottesville residents created the Citizens Task Force on Crime in an effort to alleviate the city’s problem with crime but this was not enough to keep major businesses such as the Sears store on Eleventh Street or the Safeway on Ninth Street from moving to suburban locations. Continued out migration of commercial establishments added to the decline of the West Main Street area.

Presently, 731 West Main Street is home to the West Main Design Company, which specializes in hair and beauty care.

Sources

Danny Barkin, “Conflict, Crime Plague City,” The Cavalier Daily, 03 September 1975.

Douglas Pardue, “City Night Club Gutted By Fire,” The Daily Progress, 20 August 1975. “Fires.” Local History File, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.

Douglas Pardue, “Night Club Destroyed: Arson Charged,” The Daily Progress, 21 August 1975.

Johnson, Jack. Interview by Naomi Jacobs and Cynthia Terrell Richardson, 09 April 2010, Personal Collection, Charlottesville, Va.

Preservation Studio (Walker C. Johnson, AIA Instructor with students). Charlottesville 2020: A Thirty Year Vision Balancing Development and Preservation on West Main Street and the Mall. University of Virginia, Charlottesville. Spring 1988.

Tribune Staff Reporter, “Local Crime Fight Seen As Expensive Item,” The Charlottesville-Albemarle Tribune, 18 September 1975.

Tribune Staff Reporter, “Taking a Look at Local Crime,” The Charlottesville-Albemarle Tribune, 28 August 1975.