460

77

81

64 64

66

95

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Richmond

Roanoke

Suffolk

FincastleFincastle

HamiltonHamilton

KilmarnockKilmarnock

EmporiaEmporiaSuffolk

Charlottesville

AshlandAshland81

LexingtonLexington

AccomacAccomac

FarmvilleFarmville

STAUNTONSTAUNTON

Down Home in

by Deborah Huso, Contributing Writer

down home series

Again in the year 2004, we’re making our way around the region, each issue visiting a small town and meeting some of the folks who make up the heart of electric co-op country.On this year’s thirdstop, we’ll be ...

Ask Sergei Troubetzkoy, executivedirector of the Staunton Conventionand Visitors Bureau, why this

bustling city of 24,000 has drawn so muchattention in recent years, and he’ll tell you,“You can get a real taste for old-fashionedAmericana here.”

He’s right. With its brick sidewalks, ironlamppost-lined streets, and eclectic architec-ture, Staunton has certainly rejuvenated itsmoniker of “Queen City” of the ShenandoahValley. With a thriving downtown shopping

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district, five National HistoricDistricts, and an ever-growinglist of historic and culturalattractions, Staunton earned the2002 Great American MainStreet Award from the NationalTrust for Historic Preservationand was earlier named one of America’sDistinctive Dozen Communities.

But it hasn’t always been this way.Thirty years ago Staunton’s downtown,

like those of so many American cities and

towns, was in serious decline — emptystorefronts, residents fleeing to outlyingsubdivisions, businesses relocating to thebusy corridor along I-81. The city’s beauti-ful collection of brick and granite 19th- and20th-century buildings, ranging in stylefrom Italianate to Victorian, was falling intoneglectful disrepair.

“Things really hit the wall,” saysStaunton city manager Robert Stripling,“when VDOT planned to put a major high-way through downtown, tearing down thehistoric buildings in the Wharf District.”

Staunton residents rallied, creating theHistoric Staunton Foundation (HSF) in1971, in an effort to stop the planned high-way and other urban-renewal projects onthe table that were resulting in the destruc-tion of the city’s historic structures. “Local

Sergei Troubetzkoy, executive director ofthe Staunton Convention and VisitorsBureau (far left) and Robert Stripling,Staunton city manager.

Cooperative Living/March-April 2004

DEBORAH HUSO PHOTOS

Staunton At A Glance ...

Population: Approximately 24,000

Square Miles: Approximately 20

Founded: In 1797 as county seat

Fun Facts: Birthplace of PresidentWoodrow Wilson. City-manager formof government originated in Stauntonin 1908.

developer Vic Meinert was an earlyinvestor in the preservation effort,” saysStripling. “He bought the railroad stationdowntown.” Today the station houses one

of the city’s most popular restaurants,The Pullman, and is also home to asmattering of gift shops. Amtrakmakes regular stops at the station,dropping off visitors from the metroDC area.

But this kind of transition hasn’tbeen easy. HSF has played a signifi-cant role over the last three decades inrevitalizing Staunton’s historic areas,helping lead the way for the NationalRegister of Historic Places designa-tion of five Staunton districts andhelping property owners downtownrestore and rehabilitate their build-

ings. The city of Staunton and HSF alsopartnered to put utilities underground torestore the downtown area’s historicappearance and installed fiber-optic cable tohelp attract more businesses. The city coun-cil, Stripling says, invested more than half-a-million dollars to create a more attractivestreetscape and to build a parking lot next tothe train station. Even City Hall has madeuse of the old downtown Leggett’s store,renovating it to house city offices.

“I really believe preservation is one of ourmain economic engines,” says HSF executivedirector Frank Strassler. “You have to usethe resources that you have, and Staunton’s

In addition to its recreations of Europeanand American farm life, the FrontierCulture museum also hosts special eventsthroughout the year.

Sunspots, a studio and gallery of glass andmetal crafts, is located in Staunton’s revi-talized historic district. The shop receivesabout 40,000 visitors a year.

March-April 2004/www.co-opliving.com

Among the city’s notable structures is the birthplace of President WoodrowWilson on Coalter Street (left). Mary Baldwin College, established in 1842 as theAugusta Female Seminary, is on the city’s walking tour.

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resource is its architecture. There’s a definiteenergy downtown now.”

Doug and Caroline Sheridan are amongthe downtown business owners who havetaken advantage of Staunton’s revitalization.They opened Sunspots, a studio and gallery ofglass and metal crafts, on Lewis Street adja-cent to the Wharf District in early 2001. Theirbusiness is located in the 1929 Klotz building,once home to a reclamation business. “We’dbeen living in Staunton for awhile,” saysCaroline, “and we really liked this building. Italso qualified for historic tax credits.” TodayCaroline estimates that Sunspots, which hasglass-blowing demonstrations seven days aweek, receives about 40,000 visitors a year.

The Historic Staunton Foundation hasbeen particularly instrumental in helpingbusiness owners like the Sheridans getstarted, providing free advice and assis-tance on historic design and restoration,and helping business owners qualify forfederal and state rehabilitation tax creditsto help offset the cost of restoring oldstructures. Strassler says HSF maintainsan archive of original architecturaldesigns for hundreds of the city’s build-ings. More than 250 buildings have beenrehabilitated in the last 30 years.

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The best way to exploreStaunton is on foot. Pick upa self-guided historic walk-

ing tour brochure at the city’s vis-itor center at the New Streetparking garage. Staunton has fivehistoric districts, all on the regis-ter of National Historic Places.The Wharf includes the traindepot as well as a variety of oldwarehouse buildings and the 1901 AugustaCounty Courthouse.

Newtown is Staunton’s oldest residentialneighborhood and is home to Stuart Hall, TrinityChurch, and the Stonewall Jackson,Staunton’s first public school. Beverly makesup Staunton’s main drag through downtown andis home to one of the city’s most identifiable land-marks, the Marquis Building, a RomanesqueRevival structure with a turreted corner entrance.

Gospel Hill, at the corner of Beverly andCoalter streets, is home to nearly 20 structuresspanning the entire 19th century, including theWoodrow Wilson birthplace and the statelyGreek Revival Virginia School for the Deaf andBlind. Adjoining the campus of Mary BaldwinCollege is the Stuart Addition, a hilly neighbor-

hood with Victorian row houses and the Italianate for-mer Staunton Military Academy.

For more information on Staunton’s historicdistricts or downtown lodging and dining, contactthe Staunton Convention and Visitors Bureau at1-800-342-7982.

if you go ...

Cooperative Living/March-April 2004

Blackfriars Playhouse

On New Street, one block off Beverly, is theBlackfriars Playhouse, where audiences can expe-rience Shakespearean plays as they were originallypresented with all the lights on throughout the the-ater, sparse sets, and actors playing several roles andeven switching genders. “We make the theater a

March-April 2004/www.co-opliving.com 39

And that’s important for a city so steepedin history. Staunton is one of the oldest citieswest of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Thearea was first settled by Scots-Irish in the1730s. The first Augusta County courthousewas built here in 1745, and Staunton’s citystreets were laid out as early as 1747. From itsbeginning, the city was an important center ofcommerce, located as it was along the GreatWagon Road and later the Valley Turnpike. In1854, The Virginia Central Railroad camethrough Staunton. The railroad madeStaunton an important Confederate supplydepot during the Civil War.

Unlike many Virginia cities during theCivil War, Staunton escaped massdestruction. When Union General DavidHunter assumed control of the city in June1864, he made an agreement with then-mayor Nicholas Trout to spare the town’sbuildings with the exception of the rail-road station, warehouses, and other struc-tures of importance to the Confederatewar effort. As a result, Staunton is a treas-ure trove of historic architecture from thelate 1700s through the early 20th century.

Among the city’s notable structures isthe birthplace of President WoodrowWilson on Coalter Street. Wilson was born

communal experience,” says Jane Goodman ofShenandoah Shakespeare. “We even have seatson the stage, so monologues often become dia-logues with the audience.” For tickets or moreinformation, call (540) 851-1733, or visit onlineat www.shenandoahshakespeare.com.

Beyond the downtown area is Gypsy HillPark, which was established in 1889. This love-ly hilly park is home to a much-beloved duckpond, biking and walking trails, swimming pool,tennis courts, a train for kids to ride, and a band-stand that hosts regular free concerts.

Along the I-81 corridor is the FrontierCulture Museum. In addition to its recreations ofEuropean and American farm life, this outdoormuseum also hosts special events throughoutthe year, including an annual Oktoberfest andHoliday Lantern Tours. For more information,call (540) 332-7850, or visit the museum onlineat www.frontier.state.va.us.

This year Staunton will host its 6th annualVictorian Festival April 23-25, which willinclude historic home tours, ghost walks, horse-drawn carriage rides, a Victorian street faire, agrand ball, and the American Magic LanternShow. Running simultaneously will be theVirginia Hot Glass Festival. For additional infor-mation on festivities, call 1-800-332-5219 or goonline to www.stauntondowntown.org.

Gypsy Hill Park

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in this stately Greek Revival home in1856 and spent his 54th birthday at thehome in 1912 during a much-celebratedpresidential homecoming. The house hasbeen a museum since 1941. A museum onWoodrow Wilson’s life is located nextdoor to the birthplace and houses Wilson’sbeloved Pierce Arrow Limousine as wellas the Presidential Library.

Staunton has also long been a center ofeducation, and its many schools are on thecity’s historic walking tour. Among themare Stuart Hall and Mary Baldwin College,both of which were built in the first half ofthe 19th century. Mary Baldwin was estab-lished in 1842 as the Augusta FemaleSeminary and Stuart Hall in 1844 as theVirginia Female Institute.

Troubetzkoy believes that Staunton’sbiggest draw is its historic buildings, whichnumber in the hundreds. He says he canwalk the streets of town any day of the weekand see visitors with the city’s self-guidedwalking tour brochure in hand. “People likeanything,” he says, “that combines historywith exercise.”

Tourism and Preservation

“We have more and more people comingto visit here all the time,” says Stripling.Troubetzkoy estimates that Staunton drawsmore than 100,000 visitors a year. He saysthe city’s proximity to the I-81 corridor playsa big role in tourist traffic as do the nearbyBlue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive, butStaunton is also coming into its own as atourist destination.

Today one of its biggest draws is thenewly constructed Blackfriars Playhouse onNew Street, which houses the internationallyrenowned theater group ShenandoahShakespeare. The Blackfriars is an exactreplica of William Shakespeare’s indoorElizabethan playhouse. “It’s the only recre-ation of Shakespeare’s indoor theater in theworld,” says Jane Goodman, ShenandoahShakespeare’s director of public relations.“People from all over the country and all overthe world come here.”

While Shenandoah Shakespeare wasstarted 15 years ago by James MadisonUniversity English professor Ralph Cohen,the troupe never had a home until 2001.“Staunton was looking for a destinationanchor,” explains Goodman. “They recog-nized an opportunity with us.” With the helpof funding from the city, private donors, andMary Baldwin College, the BlackfriarsPlayhouse was built. Today it seats 300 andhosts six different plays a year.

40 Cooperative Living/March-April 2004

“Shenandoah Shakespeare has been a bigpiece of what has made Staunton attractive tovisitors,” says Stripling.

Troubetzkoy says that in addition to thecity’s architecture and Shenandoah Shakes-peare, the downtown area’s many art gal-leries, Sunspots among them, have becomea big draw, as has the Frontier CultureMuseum along I-81. The outdoor museum,which recreates life on German, Irish,English, and Virginia farms in the 1700s and1800s, opened in 1987 and continues togrow. Executive director John Avoli, whoalso happens to be Staunton’s mayor, says,“We have adopted a master site plan thatwill allow us to grow threefold in the next

three years.” Among the planned additionsto the museum will be a West African farm,a Monacan Indian encampment, and a forti-fied English settlement.

Troubetzkoy says the city’s continuedemphasis on history and preservation willbe the key to Staunton’s continued growthas a tourist destination. “People from bigmetropolitan areas want to unwind on vaca-tions,” he says. “That’s why they come toStaunton.” Stripling says he hopes visitortraffic to Staunton will increase even furtherwith the restoration of the 1920s StonewallJackson Hotel, which is located adjacent tothe Blackfriars Playhouse. The city, alongwith private partners, plans to rehabilitate

the structure and make it into a 120-roomhotel and conference center.

In addition, HSF, the Staunton-AugustaArt Center, and the Augusta HistoricalSociety have recently entered into a partner-ship to restore one of the city’s historichotels and turn it into a public history-and-arts center. “That’s our big focus right now,”says Strassler. “What we’re really doing isproviding contemporary uses for the city’shistoric buildings.”

“Revitalization has increased our revenuebase,” says Stripling. “We have more andmore people coming to visit.” Stripling hopesmore people will also come here to live. “If afamily is looking for the ideal small-townenvironment, Staunton is the place,” he adds.“We have Gypsy Hill Park with regularmusic concerts, walking trails, a swimmingpool, and tennis courts, an authentic downtown with a movie theater. It’s a safe,interesting place with a variety of opportuni-ties for education and entertainment.” ■

March-April 2004/www.co-opliving.com 41