William Tuck was a pragmatic kind of Virginian. He grew up on a tobacco farm in Halifax County and developed into a canny lawyer and politician, becoming Governor in 1946. His red-clay origins may have given him a conservative and no-nonsense attitude, especially concerning labor relations, but Bill Tuck knew a bad idea when he saw one.
The financial situation with the State government was becoming
increasingly serious early in Tuck’s term.
In 1947, he wrote to the heads of State agencies, directing them to
report any unspent funds and outlining what these agencies would do to help
with a growing budget deficit. These
agencies were warned that there may be revenue shortfalls for the next two
years.
Governor William M. Tuck (1896-1983).
From the collection of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library.
Despite the budget problems, Tuck was faced with the demand for more space for State offices. The economic boom that occurred at the end of World War II had to be served by a growing number of public servants, departments, and bureaucrats and the traditional seat of government in downtown Richmond was running out of room. The Richmond News Leader reported that “Some departments such as Taxation, Purchasing and Printing, Health and Agriculture, are so crowded that workers are almost sitting in each other’s laps.”
On August 17, 1948, Governor Tuck and the State’s Public
Building Commission revealed a secret plan that had been under development for
months. “Reliable sources said this
proposal was advanced more than a year ago by at least two men high in State
government,” reported the Richmond News Leader, “…and that it received
some support from some influential outside sources.” There is just the slightest whiff of
conspiracy about the initial identification of this site as suitable for the
new Capitol, and the mention that the property had recently been surveyed did
nothing to dispel this idea.
The approach to the 1948 Capitol complex would have run
straight through the site of today’s Epiphany Lutheran Church at 1400 Horsepen
Road.
A tract of land at the far end of Monument Avenue was proposed as the site of a completely new Capitol complex, which would stand on a slight rise called Fort Hill. The existing Capitol would be repurposed as a “Shrine to the South” museum, an institution described as, “a Southern museum without equal in the old Confederacy.” The old Capitol Square would be connected to the new seat of government 6.5 miles to the west by a “parkway” that is today’s Monument Avenue.
A plan in the collection of the Library of Virginia shows
the State Capitol and the new seat of government 6.5 miles away at the
intersection of Horsepen Road and Monument Avenue.
In this detail of the proposed new “Capitol Hill,” the State
buildings are shown in red. Note the
Civil War-era earthworks still on the “Fort Hill” site. Notations show approaches from various points
around Virginia.
As planned, Monument Avenue would cross Horsepen Road and turn into a series of looping drives around multi-story buildings. A new airport was mentioned as one of the features of the plan, which could have resulted in the revival of a nearby airfield that was built in 1941 but soon abandoned. The Shockoe Examiner profiled that airport earlier this year.
This newspaper photo illustrating an automobile accident
shows the undeveloped condition of what is now the West End of Richmond. This view is looking east from the
intersection of Libbie Avenue and Monument Avenue. The Richmond News Leader,
March 31, 1948.
The design of the new “Capitol Hill” would have taken
Monument Avenue into the heart of the Fort Hill neighborhood. The campus would have consumed the area now
occupied by hundreds of suburban houses and a portion of the Henrico Doctors
Hospital site.
The plan for the new Capitol was hardly an amateur effort, as
the principal architect was Merril C. Lee, the respected creator of numerous
major Virginia buildings. Consulting
architects included a “Who’s Who” of prominent Richmond architects: Baskervill
and Son, Carneal & Johnston, and Marcellus Wright & Son. Cost estimates for the complex of buildings
were not released, but it would mean an expenditure of millions of Virginia
taxpayers’ dollars, and Governor Tuck knew it.
The Richmond News Leader headline announcing “Tuck
Reveals ‘Capitol’ in West End” ran on August 17, 1948. The following day, an equally large headline
read, “Tuck Gets Barrage of Protests on Plan to Move ‘Capitol Hill.” Governor Tuck made no secret of how he felt
about this remote Virginia Capitol but apparently felt obliged to hear all
proposals for expansion of State offices. For Tuck, a strong advocate of fiscal responsibility, the price tag was
too much, and the tidal wave of immediate and vocal opposition must have been
impressive. The Governor probably enjoyed
being near the Capitol and State offices where they were: a five-minute stroll
instead of a twenty-minute commute up and down Monument Avenue from the
Governor’s Mansion.
With the cost, the inconvenience, the overwhelming public
sentiment for keeping Virginia government where it was, the project had a swift
end. On August 18, the News Leader concluded,
“Indications were today that the West End idea would die aborning.”
Without Tuck’s support, the “Capitol Hill” in the West End
disappeared without a ripple. All the
architects involved stood down from what might have been one of largest and most
significant design and building programs the Commonwealth had ever seen. Instead, the following year, Virginians
contented themselves with an inexpensive beautification plan for Capitol
Square, with new planting and walkways. No
more was said about ranks of massed office buildings looming over the West End.
The plan for the new Capitol complex was added to the
collection of the Library of Virginia, the repository of several ambitious (and
failed) plans for Capitol Square. The
Shockoe Examiner explored one of the more vivid plans in 2014.
-Selden
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