Upward Glances

Few people spend much time looking up.

After a meeting Saturday morning, Morris & I hopped in my car for a quick photo-blitz along a couple of blocks of downtown Grace Street in Richmond.

Most of these photos capture what's above eye-level. Some very fine decorative detail is generally ignored by people hurrying along the street on a weekday. Saturday morning the street traffic was almost nil, and the sidewalks were empty. The day promised to be hot, but the mercury hadn't climbed too high at mid-morning.

This area a few blocks west of the Capitol was a fashionable residential neighborhood in the mid-1800's. The townhouses that lined the street lost favor to properties farther out on more expansive grounds. As businesses encroached, many of the old homes were demolished to make way for exciting new 20th Century commercial buildings.

These blocks along Grace Street display many fine decorative architectural features.



After strolling around and craning our necks skyward, we were ready to look down at a plate of breakfast. Morris suggested Perly's at 111 East Grace Street.

Perly's has been there for years, and is a charming urban diner with excellent food.

I had an omelet with muenster cheese, old-fashioned grits (the real deal, not insipid instant grits; these had enough body to hold your spoon upright), and a homemade biscuit.

Perly's has daily lunch specials. Chicken 'n dumplings happen every Friday. They also serve lemon chess pie, made right there with fresh lemons. I love me some lemon chess pie, so I'm eager to give it a try.

Perly's is a laid-back, friendly place with good food at reasonable prices, which attracts a regular clientele.

After breaking our fast, it was time to take a few more pictures...





This section of the 200 block reveals its transition from residential to commercial life. The storefronts are shabby, and you can see how the retail additions were tacked onto the fronts of the original townhomes, obliterating the small front gardens. From this view, it's impossible to overlook the crumbling housefronts over top of the shops. Strolling the sidewalk directly in front of these businesses, the houses at the core of the storefronts do not exist in the minds of most pedestrians.

You get a clear idea of the precarious existence of these once-lovely old homes in the picture below. This house may have watched over a little boy getting a puppy for his birthday, a daughter waiting for her first date, parents receiving a telegram about their son during a World War. The joys and worries this house has witnessed are long forgotten. Now, from all appearances, no one watches over this house in its time of distress. A brief upward glance is all we can spare.

During the early years of the last century, people moved their households from this area to the suburbs, and came back here to shop. Two or three decades later, they moved the stores out to the suburbs, too. When I first came to Richmond, this part of town was forlorn by day and forbidding at night. I'm happy that downtown Richmond is turning in its tracks, and this section is showing early signs of new life. Vast empty spaces on the upper floors of many buildings are transitioning from commercial to residential. People are moving back to downtown Richmond.

The last two photographs are of a house that seems mostly intact, at least from the front. It is sandwiched between two commercial buildings, but the ironwork on the front porch is about as intricate as it gets. The Joseph P. Winston House was built in the 1870's.

This porch is indicative of the role Tredegar Iron Works played in Richmond's past. From its foundry on the banks of the James River, Tredegar supplied the required material to the armed forces of the Confederacy during the Civil War, and for the reunited nation during World Wars I & II.

Historians who know a lot more than I ever will say that, in total, Richmond's old neighborhoods have more decorative ironwork than either Charleston or New Orleans, and after exploring the city I can believe it. Street after street in neighborhoods all around town, homes with elaborate iron porches, entablatures, lintels, and balustrades abound. The entire fronts of some buildings are made of iron in the commercial districts.

That concludes our little tour of the decorative building arts in Richmond. I'm glad I took the time to get out of my car to walk, to look, and to look up.

See you around. Who knows where we'll end up next time as we explore the world.