Postcard of the factory, ca. 1940s
Richmond’s industrial downtown is disappearing. Erased by a new generation of high-rise
office buildings, the factories and manufacturing centers that once sent out
tons of goods by rail and truck are all but gone. Tobacco Row, the factories on the eastern
side of Shockoe Valley, still stands although are largely residential now,
turned into condos and apartments.
The building
as it appeared until recently.
A recently departed building at South 7th Street and
Canal Street and was known as The Plaza Building. Originally constructed around 1925, the
former Liggett & Myers factory was a cast concrete structure with brick
infill on the exterior between concrete piers and floors. Its principal architectural feature was an
entry for railroad cars on the corner of the building. The rail doorway was surrounded by simulated
voussoirs (the wedge-shaped stones that define and support a stone arch) but
which were actually cast into the concrete.
The former Liggett and Myers factory under
demolition late 2016.
For decades this building served Leggett and Myers as
factory and warehouse, turning out such now-vanished brands of cigarettes as
Chesterfield, Lark, and L&M. Tons of
cigarettes made their way out the corner loading dock, through the streets of
Richmond in rail cars and across the country.
Chesterfield’s great modern factory.
The massive voussoirs were the only thing to survive the alteration of the former factory in 1975. All original character of the building was
lost after the addition of concrete panels to the sides of the building and the
windows linked with anodized spacers, creating a textbook example of drab, 70s
office architecture. Only the railroad
entrance and loading dock hinted at the factory’s former function as
“Chesterfield’s Great Modern Factory.”
Proposed 20-story office towers for Dominion Virginia Power.
Dominion Virginia Power demolished the Liggett and Myers
factory and intends to build a twenty-story office tower on the site. Today, Richmonders no longer wait in traffic
for a train to shuttle boxcars in the streets, and factory workers no longer
throng the stores and shops of downtown.
Richmond’s industrial past bows to glass and chrome and a once-vital
portion of our past continues to fade with the removal of old factories like
the Liggett & Myers building.
- Selden.
4 comments:
You guys beat me to it! Kudos to you for capturing the demise of this long-lived public building.
For decades this building served as host to several Va. state agency computer centers, a couple of which I worked at. It was a really great location back in the '70s, '80s, and '90s for "downtown office workers" like me. I'll miss it.
I worked the summer of '76 shoveling the gravel off the roof with about 12 other guys. Can't remember if we finished before I had to go back to school. The highlight was me finding the original brass name plaque off the original water tower. It was made by Pittsburgh Des Moines Steel Co. and was dated 1920. Great times!
I worked in this building for over 15yrs. It was great for when there was something going on down to Browns Island for concerts because we could park on our deck. Also, my Aunt Bessie and her husband my Uncle Ikey worked there when it was Liggett and Myers back in the 1940s.
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