316 East Main Street - 1936

Here's the De Saussure House from Tuesday's post about 10 or 15 years later in 1936. In the photo at the bottom of the post, you can see the Great Depression took it's toll. The house looks largely abandoned, except for the used tire store (25 cents and up!) in the basement.

A few things I really like about this photo are the men hanging out on the side of the building:

The "ghost" man in front of the house:

And the dismembered ghost leg in front of the car:

Unfortunately, the house was demolished 4 years after this picture was taken.

Photo courtesy of The Library of Congress

316 East Main Street - 1920s

I'm going to try something a little different here: Over the next few posts I'll show the same house from two different time periods in the past. The De Saussure House was built in 1839 at 316 East Main Street (corner of 4th and East Main Street). The photo at the bottom of the page was probably taken sometime in the early 1920s. You might not notice it at first, but the side of the building is an Amoco gas station. Check out the great "American Gas" pump at the curb:

And it looks like the house next door at 314 East Main St was one of the first, if not the first home of the Richmond League of Women Voters:

Photo courtesy of The Library of Congress

State Theatre Grand Opening film - 1933

Keeping with the theme of my last post, here's a silent newsreel highlighting the grand opening of The State Theatre at 712 East Broad St. on October 25th, 1933.

This theater opened as the Broadway Theater in 1919, reopened as The State in 1933, and closed for good in 1981. The building was demolished when the Theater Row Office Building was built in the early 90s, but it almost looks like some of the facade survived...Or did they just mimic some of the facade from The Colonial that they saved? Anyone know?

Video courtesy of the Internet Archive

Colonial and State Theaters - October 1975

The Colonial Theater opened on the 700 block of East Broad St. in 1921. At one time this section of Broad was known as "Theater Row" because popular theaters like The National, The Bijou, The State, The Lubin and The Colonial all were within a few blocks. The Colonial Theater closed in the early 80s, and the building was mostly demolished in the early 90s, although the facade was preserved as part of the Theater Row Office Building that took it's place in 1993. Today, VCU occupies the building. Part of The State Theater can be seen at the left.

Photo courtesy of VCU Libraries

Open air 6th Street Marketplace - 1969 Architectural rendering

Happy New Year everyone! Vintage Richmond is back from a short hiatus, and I've got a ton of great stuff planned for 2011: Some before and after posts, videos, and more concert flyers and ads to name just a few.

We'll jump right into things with this architectural rendering of the "Sixth Street Mall" from 1969. It probably would have been better to go with an open air design, then the city wouldn't have had to spend all that money demolishing the enclosed mall (built in 1985) a few years ago. Or did they initially go with this open air design, then later build the enclosed mall? Anyone care to give some insight?

Thalhimer's - December 19th, 1909

Fur coats anyone? PETA would have a field day with this great full page Thalhimer's ad from the Times-Dispatch on December 19th, 1909: Sheep, Lynx, Fox, Chinchilla, Pony, Wolf, Seal, Mink, Opossum, Rabbit and even Skunk!

Rountree's Leather Shop - December 18th, 1910

100 years and two days ago--December 18th, 1910--this amazing full-page ad from Rountree's Leather Shop ran in the Times-Dispatch. Rountree's occupied part of the block on Broad Street where the new federal courthouse building now resides.