We look at Downtown Staunton and assume it was always that way, but it wasn’t, not by a long shot.
I remember my grandfather taking me to the old A&N store downtown on a Saturday afternoon in the mid-1980s, and aside from the choice of shoe – Dreams, the shoe of choice of Houston Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon – what sticks out is the sense that downtown was broken.
Smashed out windows, empty storefronts, a sort of seedy element – downtown just wasn’t a place you wanted to be.
“The city understood that they needed to make some improvements. Not just façade improvements, but things to improve the quality of life, to enhance Staunton as a place to live for everyone,” said Courtland Robinson, the assistant economic development director in Staunton.
Robinson joined us on Viewpoints on WVPT along with Amy Wratchford, the managing director at the American Shakespeare Center, which is celebrating the 15th anniversary of the opening of the Blackfriars Playhouse in Downtown Staunton this month.
The opening of the Blackfriars was a high point in the redevelopment of Downtown Staunton, along with the rebirth of the Stonewall Jackson Hotel next door.
But first things first.
“The ‘80s saw major façade improvements downtown and in the Wharf area, and then they quickly turned around and undertook what is now known as the Big Dig down West Beverley, which installed the fiber-optic utilities. Probably one of the biggest things that nobody notices is that they put the power lines underground. That made an enormous impact on the business climate in the city. It was a challenging time for businesses in the city, because it was such a large undertaking, but it turned out to be one of the best things the city ever decided to do,” Robinson said.
Blackfriars landed in Staunton in 2001, and immediately had an impact on the city economy. The playhouse has an annual impact on the Staunton economy of more than $10 million, and since its opening, Staunton has seen its tourism sector nearly double in size.
The appeal of Shakespeare has drawn national and international interest in the Queen City, and the city and ASC work together to make sure that the influx of visitors is beneficial to the downtown business sector as a whole.
“Sixty-five percent of our audience comes from over 100 miles away,” Wratchford said. “We want to make sure that they are not just driving into the parking lot, coming to our show, driving out of the parking lot. There’s so much to do in Staunton, and we want to make sure to point them that way.”
One other impact that a revitalized downtown can have on a community is in attracting industry to other parts of town.
“People can live anywhere nowadays, and companies and their employees are really driving a lot of the decisions these days,” Robinson said. “Staunton is in a really good place in that sense. We have a great team in the city that sees the value of that sort of voice.”
Story by Chris Graham
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