Richmond, Virginia in the 1960s: Capturing Tumult and Transformation Through Stunning Photos

Munsch was head of the Downtown Retail Associates' campaign to promote shopping downtown.

That month, 207 newcomers arrived on campus, bringing the college’s student population to 595 women. Westhampton officially opened in 1914 and celebrated its centennial last year.

While the rain-swollen river didn’t crest as high as originally feared, it did reach more than 4 feet above flood stage at Westham and about 5 feet above flood stage at the City Locks.

The photos depicted old and new – such as a horse hitching post next to a parking meter and, above, worn-down houses against the Richmond skyline.

To promote the event, a small tugboat and a sailboat visited Shields Lake at Byrd Park. The sailboat was a new “bantam” model, only 9 feet long by 4 feet wide and just over 100 pounds. The lake demonstration showed how easily children could handle the boat.

After protesting there, the group went to City Hall to discuss the matter with City Council. Despite their efforts, the high school was razed that fall.

Many employees worked in the First and Merchants National Bank building at Ninth Street downtown, which was partially owned by C&O. The building has been converted to First National Apartments.

Teamed with Hermitage Country Club pro Mac Main, Palmer lost the exhibition to 17-year-old local amateur Lanny Wadkins and his partner, U.S. and British Amateur champion Bob Dickson. Palmer admittedly paid more attention to entertaining the crowd than to his play.

Sheltering Arms, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year, now serves as a rehabilitation facility.

Johnson, who was met by Virginia Gov. Lindsay Almond (left), spoke at Byrd Airport, in Hopewell and at a Young Democrats rally at the Arena in Richmond.

Among examples was a new pedestrian plaza at the Willow Lawn shopping center.

Though she gave the trophy to the runner-up because she and her husband had sponsored the race. Still, she had eight trophies, her husband had nine, and their kids added 10 more to the family tally, though they had been racing for only about six months. They were so enthusiastic about the hobby that they built a practice track in their backyard.

This building, on the west side of the shopping center, is now home to American Tap Room, Zoë’s Kitchen and VCU Health System offices, with Travinia Italian Kitchen & Wine Bar set to open there in September.

The school opened with 29 students and a staff of two priests in 1911. After 100 years at its original location in Richmond’s West End, Benedictine College Preparatory moved to Goochland County in 2013.

Here, students occupied all 74 stools in the G.C. Murphy department store’s whites-only lunch area for several hours. The store, as several others did, decided to close at about 1 p.m.; it reopened at 4 p.m., with the lunch counter roped off.

The Chesapeake & Ohio Railway had applied for the first license to serve. Here, waiter Wilfred Wilson Sr. poured some of the first legal drinks in the state – in the C&O’s Food-Bar Car No. 1610, parked at the railroad’s Newport News station. With him were Kenneth S. Cox (left), superintendent of the C&O’s passenger food service, and James A. Milburn, district manager in charge of passenger sales in Richmond.

Temperatures quickly warmed into the 40s and 50s, so the Richmond snow was short-lived. 2-10-1961: Monroe park from top of the Mosque.

The playing of taps brought ranks of American Legion members to attention during the ceremony. The observance concluded with the laying of a wreath at the Shrine of Memory.

The children (from left) are Dorothy Jane, 13; Bill, 12; Sarah, 11; Fishel, 3; Mike, 9; Steve, 8; Rickey, 7; Paul 5, and Selma, 2. The two oldest children – Alex, 16, and Gene, 14 – could not be there because they were working. The group checked out 77 books that day.

The hotel, which earlier announced a $500,000 renovation, planned to use space on the second and third floors of the acquired building. 6-2-1960: Security Federal Savings and Loan Association building at 6th and Franklin acquired by the Hotel John Marshall. No change in first floor tenants planned.

Law served the General Assembly from 1944 until he died the night before the opening session in 1960.

This site now houses the 17th Street Farmers Market, but its history as a public gathering place and market dates to the 1700s. Over time, it hosted Confederate soldiers, Union troops, political speeches, a police station and religious revival meetings in addition to farmers’ wares.

At the time, police and fire were stepping up enforcement against double-parking, saying customers’ cars were blocking the streets and fire hydrants. Ultimately, shoppers were allowed to briefly double-park to make and load a purchase.

In June 1968, the theater reopened as The Towne and operated until 1983. It has since been restored again and now hosts concerts.

In November 1961, a $150,000 project removed the circle, added islands and traffic signals, and diverted some traffic around the busy intersection. City safety official John Hanna called the intersection the “most complicated we have had to redesign and signalize in the past 14 years.”

The building was being razed to make way for development of the new Civic Center; the new high school opened in North Side the previous year.

In the distance is the Centennial Dome, which was constructed as a visitor center for the 1961 Civil War Centennial. It then served for decades as the Jonah L. Larrick Student Center at the Medical College of Virginia.

Designed by theologian Robert Lewis Dabney, who was Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s chief of staff and biographer, the church is still used today.

Wearing derbies, fancy vests while carrying canes, they were responsible for distributing schedules and brochures as well as promoting the comfort and convenience of rail travel to the public.

In August, one-way traffic on First through Fifth streets downtown was to be reversed to accommodate the increased traffic from the nearby Interstate 64/95 interchange. The change also required the rerouting of 11 bus lines.

While many U.S. tobacco farms began to use harvesting machines and curing racks at the time, Virginia still largely used hand labor and mules.

This image shows many of the 175 individuals who gathered in Farmville and prayed on the lawn in front of the Prince Edward County courthouse.

In 2004, the Richmond school merged with nearby Armstrong High, keeping the Armstrong name.

The effort was organized by several litter-prevention and beautification groups and was supported by Gov. Albertis S. Harrison.

This was the year that Richmond Professional Institute merged with the Medical College of Virginia to become Virginia Commonwealth University.

The Vees, part of the International League, played in Richmond from 1954 to 1964 and were the AAA affiliate of the Yankees for much of that span.

The first lady was on a two-day tour of Virginia attractions, in part to promote the beautification of public places. Her trip began with the dedication of the first highway rest area in Virginia on Interstate 95 at Dumfries. After Monticello, she traveled to Abingdon and attended the Barter Theatre.

The winner was “Little Joe” Weatherly of Norfolk, who later turned to stock car racing and won NASCAR titles in the 1960s before being killed in a race accident in Riverside, Calif., in 1964.

An accompanying article reviewed population trends among Virginia’s Indian tribes; there were 22 Mattaponi and Pamunkey children attending the school at the time.

The pilot for the flight, Capt. R.D. Tyler, and stewardess Margaret McLaughlin held the ribbon.

But the Advertising Club of Richmond planned a follow-up appeal to city residents to join the local fight against litter.

She recently had been voted best dressed at the school, which is affiliated with the University of Richmond.

The purchase included the National Theater and other properties; tenants continuing to occupy their quarters included Stein’s men’s clothier, Pat’s Record Shop and Stonestreet Brothers Jewelers. An idea of putting hotel on the site never materialized.

The system was leased from the National Cash Register Co. and was “likely to meet our needs for at least 10 years – and maybe forever,” the center’s manager said at the time.

The hotel, adjacent to Capitol Square, was established in 1904 by Adeline Atkinson at the location of the former St. Clare Hotel.

Bakery in Church Hill in Richmond. Their relatives started a small baking operation in the 1890s, and by 1950, three area Nolde plants produced almost a million loaves per week to be sold nationally. Nolde closed in 1977.

That fall, Daisy Jane Cooper became the first African-American student to integrate the junior high school; the following year, she made similar history at Thomas Jefferson High School.

The ninth annual festival, sponsored by Federated Arts of Richmond Inc. and coordinated by the city parks department, lured about 52,000 people to 13 concerts and eight stage productions during the summer.

The airport in eastern Henrico County was nearing the end of an extensive expansion to the main terminal.

Florman was the granddaughter of Mrs. Richard S. Reynolds; the plaque pictured cited Reynolds’ role in restoring Hardgrove Cottage on North 24th Street.

The strike involved about 300 members of the United Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union, which was seeking a roughly 15-cent per hour raise over two years for some workers. The union said the

average hourly wage for the employees, most of whom were women, was $1.35.

Eleven boys and four adult supervisors participated in the five-day journey, with only paddles and tide to propel them. The 50-mile trip badge the boys would earn would move them one step closer to becoming first-class Scouts.

For decades, Richmond was the center of Donovan’s numbers operation; he pleaded guilty to multiple counts of failing to pay wagering taxes.

In a profile about the rising first family of Virginia, the three shared that they enjoyed playing bridge together, and Toni said she liked playing golf with her father while quizzing him about political affairs.

The school’s Corps of Cadets was established in 1915 – it was the first military training program in a public school in Virginia – and disbanded in 1971.

The Town School elementary building was on the left and the high school on the right. In 1960, the Town School and the Country Day School merged, operating on the campus off River and Mooreland roads in Henrico County. It remains the location today.

The enclosure, which required a large excavation, was designed to accommodate up to six people during a nuclear attack. The horizontal steel tank was 7 feet in diameter and 16 feet long. Once installed, the only elements about ground would be a domed entrance and air filter and exhaust pipes.

Sections of the store had been approved to house up to 8,700 people in case of a disaster, and the store was stocked with a two-week supply of food and water, plus medical and radiation measuring equipment. From left are naval engineer D.R. Dorsey, store President William B. Thalhimer Jr. and city safety director William L. Groth.

The company was located in Jackson Ward; the plant, with its unique milk bottle façade, is now an apartment building.

The machine was developed by a crab meat packer in Oriental N.C.

The saw blade, which was studded in industrial diamonds, cost $185 (about $1,500 in inflation-adjusted pricing in 2016).

At the time, the local parking board recommended the corner for a parking garage to help expand capacity in the area.

The sale was part of an auctioneer contest during the annual meeting of the Livestock Marketing Congress, which met in Richmond for the first time. Twenty-seven auctioneers from across the U.S. competed over the weekend.

The rickety wood and metal span was nearly a century old and required frequent maintenance, such as chiseling out wood that smoldered after motorists tossed cigarette butts from car windows – in the summer of 1966, there were more than 100 fires. The bridge was replaced in 1972.

The automated machine cost eight times the price of a regular drill press. West Engineering designed and built machinery for packaging and synthetic fiber manufacturing.

The post office blocked off a lane and stationed an employee to assist people rushing to beat the midnight filing deadline.

The building was the first in the city to use the lift-slab process, in which floors were cast and then lifted by hydraulic jack so crews could work between slabs. The 80-unit hotel cost about $500,000 and including parking for about 100 vehicles.

The heads originally were part of a set of 42 that adorned the public market at Sixth and Marshall streets. Many were sold off in 1964, but two were rediscovered in city storage. Restoration was led by Virginia Commonwealth University art conservationist Laurence Pace.

The cleaning, which didn’t involve the higher-level brick work, was performed by a New Jersey company at a bid price of $2,310.

The 4-H Club featured summertime instruction to youths on agriculture, hands-on learning, personal development and other subjects. Brooking and two other statewide winners from Henrico earned trips to the 4-H national convention in Chicago that fall.

The group, founded in 1956 by students at George Wythe High School, had units focusing on chemistry, engineering and electronics. The members built rockets of all shapes and sizes and aimed for new heights with each launch.

The delivery represented the “piggy-back” form of transportation, in which one mode of transport arrived on another. Railroads increasingly were delivering cars and small trucks at the time.

An accompanying story about the era’s growing technology described how “obsolescence, while not planned, is almost inevitable” as data processing expanded.

The photographer used a Graflex 4x5 camera with a 14-inch lens.

From left are Mrs. David Wilburn, Mrs. Emmett Rollison, Mrs. Leo Gilman, Mrs. J.H. Spraker, Mrs. Jess Young, Mrs. Raymond B. Robertson and Mrs. Marvin Heckel. The group had just competed in a tournament at the Richmond Country Club.

The RAMAC featured a hard disk drive, which was a significant development in modern computing and storage.

An accompanying story noted the eccentricities of the building, including that basins were installed in nearly all offices during construction in the 1890s (in part so that workers could wash their hands after tending to fires).

This was the first Eastern flight at the airport since a strike had put the carrier’s local service on hold for two months. Eastern planned to return to a full schedule by the end of the next month.

An accompanying story noted how some carriage houses in Richmond’s Fan District were finding new life as apartments or, in Kendrick’s case, an artist’s studio. His was on the second floor of a carriage house on West Franklin Street.

The one-story building, designed by renowned architect Philip Johnson, had opened a year earlier and welcomed more than 17,000 people on tours. It was made of concrete and featured what Johnson called “punched holes” for windows – rounded-corner rectangles that offered views of the Shockoe area and downtown.

An accompanying story noted: “Visitors will learn how Girl Scout camping is more than swimming, hiking and a suntan. … The girls learn to use their own resources and gain a spiritual experience of living close to nature.” A two-week camp session for Girl Scouts cost $46.

The $3,000 project was aimed at roadside beautification and runway security: The fence was expected to discourage spectators from walking across the airfield to watch takeoffs and landings.

Abbott was among many in the area who welcomed visitors to Buckroe, which was a popular destination for Richmonders in the first half of the century as railroads offered direct trips to the area.

Liquor by the drink had become legal in Richmond the month before, and she was among about a half-dozen women who had recently taken local bartending jobs. Farmer previously worked as a bartender in Miami and New Orleans. “A lot of people who have read too many paperback novels think of a bartender as a low-class person without morals, but 90 percent of the girls I’ve ever worked with at a bar are happily married women with families,” she said.

The hospital had eight such vehicles to help employees get around the sprawling hospital, which had 8 miles of corridors. Before the scooters, nursing supervisors had to walk through all 23 wards.

Keith was elected as Southern regional vice president of the National Distributive Educational Clubs of America at a meeting in Chicago; McCuiston was named Miss FBLA of Virginia at the Future Business Leaders of America convention in Roanoke.

Originally from Pitcairn Island, a remote British territory in the South Pacific, the McCoys began a radio relationship with Meistroff three years earlier when he responded to an emergency plea and shipped medical supplies to islanders. The McCoys finally met Meistroff in person during a six-month trip to the U.S.

Flooding related to Hurricane Camille a week earlier caused significant damage in Richmond and claimed more than 100 lives statewide.

Franklin, a GE home economist, was visiting from Louisville, Ky., and her demonstration included thawing frozen strawberries in a microwave oven in just two minutes.

During that era, letting sewage flow into the river was one way to limit sewer backup and street flooding. Municipal and industrial waste were huge factors in river pollution in the 20th century.

The six-week course was reported to be one of the first in the country and drew national attention from newspapers and television. Crowell said his method of teaching the class was to emphasize that communism was not merely an economic system “but a way of life.”

The faux fur coat (left) was moth- and mildew-proof. The stylish raincoat (right) featured a leather collar. “Raincoats no longer must look like something a steamship captain would wear,” the accompanying article said.

Automatic car washes were fairly new to the area, with only a half-dozen sites in operation at the time.

A total of 76 homes were being moved out of the path of the Downtown Expressway. The Richmond Metropolitan Authority gave the houses to the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority, which moved them to locations around the city for lease and possible sale.

This dark gray suit, with lighter gray featured on the lapels, cuffs and blouse, was designed by Ben Gershel, who was known for his coats and suits.

The blast blew out the west wall of the building, and fire engulfed the rest. Fire officials determined that the explosion was caused by gases built up from a long-burning fire inside the building; the cause of the original blaze was not determined.

A total of 69 Virginians, 10 of them children, were part of the naturalization ceremony at the federal courthouse in Richmond.

Westfield was a fine-arts major at the Richmond Professional Institute; for school credit, the museum trainee spent about 12 hours each week conducting tours and helping with exhibitions.

In the lead was Fred Sibley, with Ted Austin close behind. The dragway was built in 1964 by the Weis family, which continues to operate it today.

R-Brave Dick Kelley delivered the first pitch to Dave May of the Rochester Wings, who won 3-2. The R-Braves came to town that year as the AAA affiliate of the Atlanta Braves.

The city was discussing a beautification program that, had it been approved, would replace the spaces with trees, shrubbery and grass.

The family had moved to the area two years earlier.

Members of the Commercial Telegraphers Union, including about 50 locally, walked off the job for several hours to dramatize their demands for pay raises. On the same day, the union and Western Union agreed to a one-week contract extension to avoid further disruptions while negotiations continued.

Over the decades, the station had various stints of closure or service – including during World War II, when Richmond’s airport was an Army airfield during. The local weather office was closed permanently in 1996, and operations were moved to Wakefield.

In lieu of a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the $23 million project, the lead car drove over a traffic counter cable.

Here, the organization’s Mrs. Samuel B. Taylor accepted a 50-cent payment from Deborah, a 4-month-old chimpanzee.

The building was constructed in the 1880s and was used as an elementary school until 1962 – it was once Stonewall Jackson School and West End School, and earlier, it housed the Richmond Normal School. The building was sold to a developer in 1980, and today, the space houses the Baja Bean Co. restaurant.

The Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles had just started a service to remind drivers that their three-year permits would expire by the end of July that year. The notification service, which would reach about 600,000 people per year, boosted the cost of driving permits from 50 cents to $1. Warfield estimated that Virginia had about 1.8 million driving permits in force at the time.

There had been about two dozen residential break-ins in the Washington Park, Ginter Park and Barton Heights areas in the preceding two months. Police initially recovered about $1,700 in stolen property (equivalent to nearly $14,000 today) and arrested five 14- to 16-year-olds and a 19-year-old in some of the burglaries.

Burley turned up the volume on his car’s police radio so that he could still monitor calls. (In 2016, long retired from the department, Burley completed his efforts to relocate a neglected Richmond police memorial from downtown to Byrd Park.)

Wilson created and starred in a nationally televised Saturday morning show, “The Magic Land of Allakazam,” and was in Richmond as a featured guest at a magician conclave. The gathering brought together almost 200 magicians for two days of training.

Although the chance of snow was months away, preparations for winter weather were made far in advance.

At left are damaged vines from that season, compared to normal ones at right. The first commercial peanut crop in the U.S. was grown in Sussex in the 1840s, according to an industry marketing association.

At the time, a junkyard occupied the block bounded by 20th, 21st, Cary and Dock streets downtown.

The two-day competition, organized by the Greater Richmond Woman’s Bowling Association, drew almost 80 teams. The Security Industrial Loan team won.

The restrictions targeted smoke and open burning as well as dust and fumes from industrial areas. Other regulations were in the planning stages to deal with odors and motor vehicle emissions.

The exhibit highlighted the talents of Richmond public school students – the Valentine had been staging a biennial student spotlight for more than 25 years.

School Board Chairman Frank Calkins and Vice Mayor Winfred Mundle crossed East Broad Street in front of Old City Hall in downtown Richmond en route to the groundbreaking for new City Hall across the street.

The area had just been rezoned to permit commercial development along both sides of the Chamberlayne.

It was co-sponsored by the Women’s Golf Association and Miller & Rhoads.

Many of the 1,600 inmates at the time worked in various areas of the prison’s operations, including the print shop, metal fabrication shop, license plate manufacturing, furniture building, electrical work and plumbing. Inmates received 15 cents a day as basic pay and could earn an extra 25 cents for good work. The penitentiary, which once occupied 17 acres around Byrd, Spring, Belvidere and Second streets downtown, closed in 1991.

About 20 children participated in the activity that was part of Parents’ Appreciation Day at a private home on Seminary Avenue. The Follow Through program was sponsored by the Richmond Public School system.

The new pharmacy occupied 500 square feet on the Broad Street side of the store.

The state Supreme Court declared Virginia’s blue laws unconstitutional in September 1988. Merchants had argued that the “day of rest” laws hurt business.

The city was starting a monthlong campaign against meter feeding, which officials said was hurting business. According to an accompanying story, about 15 percent of downtown parking spaces near government offices were occupied all day by meter feeders – and the figure was 28 percent in the financial district. Officials said that on average, $22 in gross retail sales was lost for every 75 minutes a car remained parked at a meter.

Peanut picking usually was completed before then, but cold and wet weather had delayed the work.

The birds became part of the wildlife exhibit at Maymont.

Beauchamp was canning sterilized artesian water – primarily for stocking in fallout shelters – and had distributed a dozen cases to grocers in the Northern Neck area of Virginia. Beauchamp got the idea after hearing talk about fallout shelters – he figured the canned water would last about two years.

That location, along with several others in the city, extended evening hours at the request of City Council. The ABC board was to study hour-by-hour sales figures to determine any benefit of later hours.

The addition was part of a multimillion-dollar expansion of the bank’s facilities. The bank, which dated to 1865, eventually became Crestar Financial Corp. and then was acquired by SunTrust Banks.

Sunset Bowl, which opened on West Broad Street in Henrico County about a year earlier, was the first ten-pin center in Richmond.

The circular room at the center of the building had eight classrooms around it. Woodville was open after normal school hours, as well as on evenings and Saturdays, to support education and community engagement. Among its offerings were art, music, speech and reading classes.

Normally, Maxwell’s 1,200 hives yielded about 40,000 pound of honey, but a spring frost damaged the sourwood trees that promoted honey production by bees.

The area was known as the “hiring hall,” and men gathered daily in search of jobs ranging from painting to lawnmowing. “Whatever kind of worker you want … you can get it here. A lot of contractors stop by for men,” said Leslie Hill, who frequented the scene.

Several large office buildings were in the works in the area at that time.

Cox, who was a food service manager at Reynolds for 10 years and had a background in bacteriology, helped set up the kitchen in the packaging research division. She was testing foods to see how they were affected by the cans. Before joining Reynolds, Cox taught school and had performed chemical analysis in the shipyards in Newport News.

The new name is the Defense General Supply Center of the Defense Supply Agency, a new unit of the Department of Defense. Removal of the depot sign (standing at left) revealed its predecessor painted on the building and reading simply, U.S. Army.

In just four weeks of visits, the crowds increased from 70 in two hours to 600 during an extended three-hour stop. Funding had just been appropriated for a new library branch to serve this community.