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Before there ever was a Carytown...
By Lisa Puster
Carytown, a unique and trendy shopping and dining destination today, has quite the interesting history. I have to admit, I was a bit shocked to find out that the eclectic area now known as Carytown has such an intriguing past that dates back thousands of years. Says Beth Marschak, Tour Coordinator at the Richmond History Museum, “What we know about the area,” she says, “is that way, way back it was a buffalo trail, leading to a spot in the state that ultimately became known as Buffalo Gap. Eventually, as with many buffalo trails, it became a Native American trail, then a roadway for the early (English) settlers. It was such a bad road that it was sometimes called ‘the Devil’s Featherbed’,” Marschak adds.
Marschak goes on to give us some later facts about Carytown, with which I will admit I am a little more familiar. “Carytown was a by-product of the streetcar system. After the Civil War, the streetcar system was developed and people began moving to areas west of the boulevard but were still able to go to work (downtown), thanks to the streetcars.” Marschak adds, “That was back in the early part of the twentieth century and, of course, the area wasn’t called Carytown then and there was no Cary Street. It was called Westhampton, and the Boulevard was known as Clover Street.”
So, how did the area known as Carytown get its start as one of Richmond’s favorite shopping locations? Marschak explains, “Mom and pop stores soon sprang up in the neighborhood and in the thirties, Cary Court Shopping Center opened, becoming the first true shopping center in the state.” The rest is, as they say, history.
Marschak, who says she has lived in the city since she was three, is fascinated with the Carytown area and its obvious she loves what she does. If you are interested in finding out even more about Carytown and the Richmond area, visit the Richmond History Museum. Walking tours of the area, conducted by Marschak, are also offered. The next tour is scheduled for September 7th from 2-4pm, with a starting point of Nacho Mama’s restaurant at 3449 W. Cary St. For more information, visit: www.richmondhistorycenter.com.
Carytown Then
 By Steve Cook
Why, I remember Carytown before it was called Carytown! There, do I sound like an old codger or what? When we decided to do an article on Carytown’s past, I had previously assigned the piece to one of our writers. Then it dawned on me. Having grown up, in the mid-fifties, on Cary Street, I knew the area as well as anyone. And, there’s nothing I enjoy more than regaling others with tales of my youth. So, sit down and relax. Because you’re about to be enthralled.
Cary Street (I don’t believe they started calling the area “Carytown” until the sixties), back in the day, was a street of wonderment. Of course, what generated wonderment to a five-year-old in 1954, would probably not do so with the kids of today. We lived in an apartment in the 3200 block of Cary Street. It’s a retail area now. But, in the fifties, there were mainly apartments on the block…apartments and Calvary Baptist Church. My mother had also grown up on the same block and she recalls roller-skating down the cement banisters on the staircase of the church. I was not so daring.
My big thrill was playing on top of the manhole on the sidewalk. The manhole is still there. When I was a kid, I assumed it was called a manhole because a man lived in the hole, somewhere down there, under the street. And, when I peaked through the opening in the cover, I could see the reflection of my eye in the water below. Okay, maybe it was pretty stupid to have believed I was seeing the “man in the manhole,” but, believe I did, and I kept him alive by feeding him cigarette butts, which I picked up from the street and shoved into the “peephole.”
Now, manholes weren’t the only attraction on Cary Street. No sirree, there was much more. For instance, there was the billboard right next to Buddy Long’s filling station. Today a 7-11 stands on the spot. It was great fun watching the billboard guys pasting long strips of advertising on the board. I could sit for hours just watching a new billboard ad going up. And, in those days, parents weren’t reluctant to let their young children play on the sidewalks of Cary Street all day. I’ll refrain from calling them the “good ol’ days.” But, truth is, they were pretty good. Between the manhole, the billboard, and my toy fire truck, life was very good, in fact.
And, that was just my immediate world. Down the street lay much more enchantment. The Byrd Theater of course, was a large part of that enchantment. On Saturday mornings, my Uncle Billy would take me to the kiddie show. Cartoons, a newsreel, maybe a Three Stooges short, and a good western with Roy Rogers or Gene Autry, and all for just a nickel.
And, in the same block as the Byrd Theater, there were other delights, such as the pet store. We always made sure my mother or grandmother took us in the back entrance so we could pass the fishpond. Just next door, or a few doors down, was Gary’s Record Store. Gary’s had listening booths, where the clerks would unwrap any album you wished to listen to and let you sample it.
One of my favorite places to visit on Cary Street was the Cary Court Shopping Center. I was fascinated by the walkway (I thought it was a tunnel) that ran down the middle of the shopping center and linked the front parking area to the rear lot. My grandmother’s home was just behind the rear parking area, on Ellwood Avenue, so I would venture through the tunnel quite a bit.
On a hot summer day, the Black and White Grocery, in Cary Court, was a great place in which to seek shelter from the heat. It was always cool, and remember, we’re talking pre-residential-air-conditioning days. My grandmother used to say on those sweltering, humid Richmond summer days, “It’s close outside today.”
Next to the Black and White stood one of my favorite places in all the world…Dot’s Bakery, featuring Dot’s rainbow-colored butter cookies. Dot and her cookies, I am sure, were instrumental in getting me started down the road that eventually led to my diabetes today. But, wow, what great tasting cookies.
Of course, it wasn’t just Dots that contributed to my being the picture of illness today. There was also the Beacon hamburger stand on the far western edge of what is today Carytown. There’s a gas station there now, at the corner of Cary and Thompson. The Beacon, which was kind of like a fast food stand, except it wasn’t all that fast, had the very best hamburgers in the world…even better than my grandmother’s, although I would never have told her that. If memory serves me correctly, the Beacon was housed in a little pink stucco building. But, keep in mind, I was only four or five years old at the time.
Across the street from the Beacon, where the Kroger is now, was a really cool spot for kids. It was the Ponyland Dude Ranch, where for a nickel (I think everything cost a nickel in 1954), you could climb up on a pony and a teenager would lead you around a circle for about five minutes.
When I started working on this piece, I spoke with Jimmy News, one of the areas favorite chefs and restaurateurs. News moved to the Carillon area in the sixties, and since my family had moved to Roanoke by then, he recalls some things I either never knew about or have forgotten.
One memory that we both share is the monkey in the basement of the drug store. When I was a kid it was the Standard Drug Store. Jimmy remembers it as the Peoples Drug Store, and today it’s the CVS. It’s in the shopping center with Ukrops. I bet that drug store was the only one in the Western World to house a monkey in its basement. “They also had a parrot down there,” Jimmy News recalls. I don’t remember the bird, but I do remember Bobo, the monkey (I think that was his name).
Another Cary Street attraction in the fifties was a kiddie amusement park. It must have been gone by the sixties because Jimmy doesn’t remember it. It was between the drug store and the grocery store (then the Colonial Store) and consisted of about five kiddie rides. As you can see, Cary Street of the fifties was virtually its own little Disney World. And, since there was no such thing as Disney World, or even Disneyland with which to compare, in those days, it was quite exciting.
Jimmy and I took a stroll down Memory Lane, and through Carytown recently and, like two old men, we swapped memories of our youth. He reminded me of the Golden Dragon Chinese Restaurant. Years later, when the restaurant closed down, he told me, he bought their chairs and tables for one of his own restaurants, the Patrick Henry Pub. Recalling his tour of the kitchen at the time, he says, “That was one dirty restaurant.” …I shudder to think of all the chow mein I consumed there.
On a somewhat less lighthearted note, Jimmy mentioned another Cary Street-related name that was buried so deeply in the recesses of my mind, I probably would never have thought about it on my own…Leo Koury. He pointed out the restaurant, in the 3100 block of Cary, where Koury, a bar owner and underworld figure, had allegedly murdered someone in 1979. He then, supposedly, fled the city. Koury evaded law enforcement efforts to capture him for over twelve years, remaining on the FBI’s most wanted list longer than anyone else in history. That’s what I have read, and even if it’s not true, it makes a great story. In 1991, Koury died in a San Diego hospital, where he had been admitted under the alias, William Franklin Biddle.
Jimmy recalled some other Cary Street names that were far les sordid…including one I hadn’t thought about in years…that of a Cary Street shoe merchant, Hyman Hyman Hyman. Right next to Hyman’s shoe store, Jimmy’s father had operated an office supply store (Capital Office Supply) for many years. The elder News had been instrumental, in the sixties, in helping to revive Cary Street and turning Carytown into the popular shopping and dining district it is today.
There are many other stories Jimmy and I shared…many more memories…many names and tales, some of which I’d be reluctant to share here. One thing about getting old, you have a lot more memories, and between Jimmy News and myself, we could probably write a book about our Carytown memories. If you promise to buy a copy, maybe we will.
But, enough about the past. On to Carytown today.
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