Loudoun Street Pedestrian Mall

Transcription

May 20, 2013
Page C1
Loudoun Street Mall
2013: A NEW LOOK FOR OLD TOWN
JEFF TAYLOR/The Winchester Star
Participating in the ribbon-cutting to rededicate the Loudoun Street Mall on Friday are (from left) John Tagnesi, City Council; Jennifer Bell, downtown manager; Rick McClendon, Old
Town Development Board; Dale Iman, city manager; Jeffrey Buettner, City Council; Milt McInturff, City Council; Elizabeth Minor, mayor; John A. Willingham, City Council; John Hill, City
Council; Ben Weber, City Council; Evan Clark, City Council; Stan Corneal, Old Town Development Board; Mark Lore, Old Town Development Board; and Lauri Bridgeforth, Old Town
Development Board.
Loudoun Street Mall gets
a $7.1 million renovation
By VIC BRADSHAW
The Winchester Star
WINCHESTER
T
he Loudoun Street Mall is only 1,600 feet
long, but it has been described as the city’s
“living room,” the heartbeat of historic
downtown.
When it was created in 1974, the Loudoun Street
Mall was the first pedestrian mall in Virginia — a
concept that was popular across the country in the
late 1960s and early 1970s. In their heyday, pedestrian malls could be found in 200 to 300 communities in
the United States. Today, less than 50 still exist. In
Virginia, only Winchester and Charlottesville have
them.
But while the urban planning experiment failed in
other places, it succeeded in Winchester, so much so
that $7.1 million has just been spent renovating the
downtown attraction.
The improvements, which began Jan. 2 and took
about four months to complete, included replacing
aging water and sewer mains and adding aboveground amenities such as gateway entrances, a
splash pad and a public restroom.
A grand reopening was held Friday and Saturday.
The aesthetic changes aren’t dramatic, but they
do help better define the Loudoun Street Mall as a
dining, entertainment and shopping destination. The
area itself has been a vital marketplace since the
city’s founding more than 250 years ago.
“We have spruced it up,” City Manager Dale Iman
said. “We encourage people to look at downtown as
our living room and to bring company here, show off
what we have to offer here in Winchester.”
‘A sense of place’
Thirty-nine years ago, the Loudoun Street Mall
was created when the city closed a stretch of
Loudoun Street from Piccadilly to Cork streets to
traffic. The transformation from street to pedestrian
walkway took seven months to complete and cost
$587,000, including stormwater management improvements. The goal: preventing urban decay in the
city’s core.
RIGHT: People instrumental in
the Loudoun Street Mall
renovation enjoy the city’s “living
room” quite literally on
furnishings courtesy of Patton’s
Furniture, a longtime business on
the mall. Seated on the ground at
left is Perry Eisenach, public
services director; seated on the
ground at right is Will Moore, city
planner and former interim
downtown manager. Seated on
the furniture are (from left) Lauri
Bridgeforth, Old Town
Development Board (OTDB)
chairwoman and OTDB Design
Committee chairwoman; David
Smith, former OTDB chairman,
Dave Spence, former OTDB
Design Committee chairman;
Jennifer Bell, downtown manager;
and Dale Iman, city manager.
Index
A difficult jobsite .......................... C3
Map of Old Town businesses........ C4-5
New public restroom, splash pad ... C7
Photos: Start to finish .................. C8
A look back .................................. D1
Changing the face of downtown ... D3
Downtown though the centuries ... D4-5
Saving the old Taylor Hotel .......... D6
A place to park it......................... D7
“We encourage people
to look at downtown as our living
room and to bring company here,
show off what we have to offer
here in Winchester.”
— City Manager Dale Iman
In the nearly four decades since then, there have
been informal talks about tearing up the pedestrian
mall and reopening it to vehicular traffic, but nothing
ever amounted from those discussions.
“A sense of place is what it comes down to, first
and foremost,” Winchester Planning Director Tim
Youmans said. “When you look at any literature that
promotes Winchester, whether it’s tourism or economic development, it’s necessary to have an image
of the Loudoun Street Mall.
“It defines us like Charlottesville’s walking mall
defines them. It is the center of our universe in the
lower Shenandoah Valley.”
And with the new improvements, the hope is that
the mall will continue to define the city for decades
to come.
Below the surface
Contrary to what some might think, the city did
not tear up and replace the Loudoun Street Mall just
to give it a facelift.
The reason was feet deeper and perhaps six
decades older.
Perry Eisenach, Winchester’s public services director, said the project had to be done because the
utility infrastructure underneath the pedestrian mall
was failing.
Some of the water main was more than 100 years
old, he estimated, and was the source of numerous
See Vision, Page C2
SCOTT MASON/The Winchester Star
Officials from the City of Winchester and general contractor HRI Inc.
watch the splash pad in April after it was turned on.
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LOUDOUN STREET MALL
MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013
THE WINCHESTER STAR
Vision
from Page C1
Did you know?
breaks over the past
decade. Old sewer main also had caused multiple
sewage backups.
“It was past time to replace them,” Eisenach said.
Storm sewer and cityowned mall electric lines also were replaced as part of
the $7.1 million project, and
conduit was installed for future needs.
Tearing up the pedestrian mall to replace infrastructure provided an opportunity to make long-desired
aesthetic changes to the
mall and freshen its look.
And a new look it has.
Gateways mark the
north, south and central entrances to the mall. Water
features greet visitors at the
north and south gateways,
and a splash pad was added
to the south end of the
mall.
Bricks and pavers replaced the former all-brick
walking surface, and new
lighting and landscaping
have been installed. Stone
planters are tall enough to
be used for seating.
The renovation also addressed a basic need merchants have requested for
years — a public bathroom.
Long planning process
Plans for the mall’s
above-ground improvements weren’t finalized until late 2012, but preparations began years ago.
Discussions about potential changes started in
2004, according to Karen
Helm, former executive director of the Old Town Development Board (OTDB),
a city advisory panel focused on the vitality of the
downtown’s special taxing
districts. In 2007, the OTDB held public input sessions and a design charrette.
“That’s when we heard
loud and clear what a lot of
people wanted,” Helm said.
The OTDB’s Design
Committee, comprised of
board members and other
downtown stakeholders, began meeting in 2010 to decide what changes should
be made.
City staffers and Design
Committee members visited Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall (which Virginia
Department of Housing
and Community Development staff members think
is the only other pedestrian
mall in the state) and
renowned Old Town
Alexandria (like Winchester, also part of a historic
district) to see those areas
and learn from them.
Dave Spence, an agent
with Winchester-based
Colony Realty who was the
Design Committee’s chairman at the time, said the
group came away from the
trip to Alexandria with the
idea that uniform standards
needed to be set for restaurant cafe areas because “if
you had one different it
would take away from the
cor ridor.”
A splash pad fountain
was seen elsewhere and
brought to the committee’s
attention, he said, and Eisenach determined that it was
a viable option.
The planning process
was driven by the city’s engineering staff, the OTDB
and the project engineers,
the Manassas office of
Michael Baker Corp.
City Council was kept
apprised of the design process through its OTDB liaison, but OTDB members
said the elected leaders
largely stayed out of the
planning effort.
The only real design
change was a last-minute
switch to a straight walkway design instead of a serpentine pattern, which
would have restricted the
use of public space in front
of some buildings.
“They were pretty supportive of the whole project,” said David Smith, coowner of Village Square
Restaurant and Village Market and Bistro on the
Loudoun Street Mall and
the chairman of the OTDB
during the project planning
process. “The Old Town
Development Board and
City Council worked closely
together, keeping them
abreast of things more than
we previously had.”
The gateways, splash
pad fountain and public
bathrooms accounted for
$700,000 of the project’s
cost. The OTDB will have
$50,000 deducted from its
budget for the next 14
years to cover the expense.
The remainder will be
paid for with water and
sewer rate increases.
Defining the destination
Each of the mall’s new
features has a purpose.
Public restrooms have
been longed for by mall
merchants for some time,
and they were considered a
1,776 linear feet of
new water main pipe
was installed as part of
the Loudoun Street
Mall renovation. Total
weight of the pipe:
approximately 46,530
pounds.
ber, a member of City
Council and former OTDB
member.
“The underground damage from roots was hurting
our mixed-use programming with second- and
third-floor living.”
Communication key
City of Winchester engineer Robert Brown (from left), inspector Cameron Metzger, facilities director Corey MacKnight
and engineer Kelly Henshaw helped see the $7.1 million Loudoun Street Mall renovation to fruition. The bulk of the
project entailed replacing infrastructure underneath the pedestrian walkway, including water and sewer mains. The mall
also was resurfaced with new bricks and pavers, and gateway entrances were added to the mall’s north and south
ends. A splash pad and a public toilet are among the other additions.
bar rier,” she said. “We want
visitors to come, but we
don’t want them driving on
the mall.”
And the kid-friendly
splash pad fountain, Helm
said, was placed on the
south end of the mall to be
close to churches with
preschool programs,
venues with arts classes
and the Shenandoah Valley
Discovery Museum, a
hands-on children’s museum that is located on the
mall but will soon move to
its new home nearby on
Cork Street. The goal was
to create a family zone.
Lastly, 51 new planters
were built to a height to
provide additional seating
for visitors. Helm said they
also provide a space for colorful flowers along the mall
and soften its look.
The renovation has resulted in a few unplanned
benefits as well.
A number of trees had
to be removed from the
mall because they were in
the way of utility lines or
would suffer root damage
during the construction
work and likely wouldn’t
sur vive.
With the trees gone,
Bell said she has heard
from people who have noticed businesses they had
overlooked, while others
have noted that the mall’s
architecture is more visible.
The utility improvements also have made it
easier for owners to renovate upper floors for apartments, because the water
and sewer service is more
reliable.
“The number one thing
some people noticed was
our stunning buildings and,
quite frankly, some that
need work,” said Ben We-
A key component to the
success of the mall renovation was communication between merchants and property owners, city officials
and officials with HRI Inc.,
the State College, Pa., company that was the project’s
general contractor and coordinated the effort from
its Winchester office.
Will Moore, the city
planner who served as the
interim downtown manager
before Bell arrived, acted
as a liaison before the project started, either helping
merchants get questions
answered or assisting city
utilities staff with disseminating information.
When the project began,
the city held weekly
progress update meetings.
Information from those
meetings was posted on the
city’s website.
Bell added a promotion
element when she moved
into the liaison role. She
worked to make sure people knew that the mall’s
more than 70 businesses
were open throughout the
project and came up with
promotions designed to
bring people downtown
when it was a construction
zone and afterward.
Occasionally, however,
there wasn’t time to go
through a liaison.
Drew Brady, the city
construction inspector who
was onsite throughout most
of the project, has been
called “the most helpful
person in the city that
they’ve ever encountered”
by some downtown busiSee Vision, Page C6
Winchester City Manager Dale Iman (left) and Mayor
Elizabeth Minor address a crowd of dignitaries Jan. 4 at
the First Friday Dig on the Loudoun Street Mall, two days
after renovation construction began. The project took
about four months to complete.
Irvin Shendow
Scott Shendow
To meet the May 1 construction deadline, crews often
worked into the night under spotlights. Workers are shown
here digging up the mall on Jan. 10.
must-have by most.
“They had to be somewhere,” said Lauri Bridgeforth, chairman of the OTDB and owner of Full
Frame Photography on the
Loudoun Street Mall. “I
have opened my door to
many a parent with a dancing 3-year-old.
“You’ve got to make families comfortable, and that’s
what we needed to do.”
Downtown Manager
Jennifer Bell, who started
her job on Jan. 3, a day after the mall renovation project began, said having a
public restroom will encourage people to “stay and
linger downtown as opposed to having to make a
quick run home.”
The cost to use the public bathroom is 25 cents.
The gateway entrances
were a key addition.
Helm said the desire to
have them emerged in 2002
during discussions about
the need for wayfinding
signs to Old Town and
something to let visitors
know they had arrived at
their destination.
“That’s one thing we
heard loud and clear,” she
said. “There was nothing
real special about the north
or south end of the mall.
We wanted to create a
sense of place.”
Bridgeforth, whose business is located near the
mall’s south entrance, said
she was a proponent of the
gateways because she’s often seen unwitting drivers
headed up or down the
mall.
“The gateways are very
important to create a visual
Stephen Shendow
Wardrobe
Consultants
“Very seldom does a customer walk into a clothing store
today and find second- and third-generation expertise”
BellsFineClothing.com
Historic Downtown Winchester | 540.667.1430
Mon-Fri 9:30 - 6 | Sat 9:30 - 5
LOUDOUN STREET MALL
THE WINCHESTER STAR
C3
A difficult job site
Crews, businesses had to coexist in construction zone
By VIC BRADSHAW
The Winchester Star
H
The biggest
challenge for the
general contractor
was maintaining
public access
to businesses
along the mall.
WINCHESTER
RI Inc. completed
the Loudoun Street
Mall’s $7.1 million infrastructure replacement project in just
four winter months, but work began well before construction
crews descended on the pedestrian mall on Jan. 2.
To meet the project’s tight
deadline, the State College, Pa.based firm was busy getting
ready.
Jason Lemire, operations manager for HRI’s Winchester office,
said preparation is critical for
such a project. Advance planning
sessions and meetings with city
staff allowed HRI to set a plan of
action to get the job done on time.
Just as important was the
physical work done in 2012, including preparing construction
zone barricades and building
planters that would be added to
the mall.
“Being able to pre-construct
certain items,” he said, “allowed
us to start fast.”
But the main credit, Lemire
said, goes to the men who
worked up to 16 hours a day,
sometimes in temperatures in the
teens and sometimes late into the
night, to replace utility lines and
piece together Winchester’s renovated pedestrian mall.
“For their dedication and
working through all kinds of
weather,” he said, “they’re the
ones who deserve the most credit
for getting this project done successfully.”
In addition to the utility work
and installing a new walking surface, crews built a public bathroom facility, put up gateway entrances and added a splash pad
water feature. New planters now
hold trees, shrubs and flowers.
Perry Eisenach, the city’s public services director since October
2007, called the project the “most
challenging” of his tenure because of the need to complete the
project within four months so it
wouldn’t interfere with the main
events of the 86th Shenandoah
Apple Blossom Festival May 2-5.
The bulk of the work also had
GINGER PERRY/The Winchester Star
Jason Lemire (from left), operations manager for State College, Pa.-based HRI Inc.; Kurt Reese, HRI
superintendent; Drew Brady, construction inspector for the City of Winchester; and Bill Weicenburg, HRI
superintendent, look over blueprints for the Loudoun Street Mall project at the HRI office on Boscawen
Street. The stuffed bear seated in the background wearing a hard hat showed up on the jobsite as part of a
practical joke and became the project mascot.
LEFT: Standing on the Loudoun
Street Mall in the midst of
construction are Jason Lemire
(from left), operations manager
for HRI, and Bill Weicenburg and
Kurt Reese, HRI
superintendents.
to be done in the winter.
HRI had a May 1 deadline to
finish construction and a May 31
deadline to finish landscaping,
and the company more than met
both.
“They’ve been fantastic,” Eisenach said of HRI. “They’ve done a
great job throughout the whole
project.”
Crews worked in two shifts —
up to 16 hours a day, three to four
days in a row — to get the work
done. Lemire estimated that at
the project’s peak, about 75 HRI
employees and subcontractor
workers were on the jobsite.
Meanwhile, the project’s two
superintendents generally worked
all day the entire week. Curt
Reese said he usually handled office duties, and Bill Weicenburg
was in the construction zone.
Reese said the mall was a difficult jobsite — only 45 feet wide,
with few access points. On a scale
of one to 10, with 10 being the
most difficult, he rated the project
a nine.
He credits Weicenburg with
figuring out how best to manage
it.
“[Weicenburg] spent a good
month going through the nuts
and bolts of it and figuring out
what we needed to do to build it,”
Reese said.
The biggest challenge, Weicenburg said, was maintaining public
access to businesses along the
mall. He said property owners
were “great” throughout the pro-
cess, while a few pedestrians became frustrated by the sometimes
confusing temporary fencing used
to keep them out of the work
zone while the new surface was
laid.
City officials were very cooperative whenever problems arose,
Reese said, and the business owners were extremely supportive.
“For every one complaint we
had 50 compliments,” he said,
“and with us being right up
against the businesses for the duration of the project, you’d think it
would be the other way around. It
was really nice to have people tell
us how good we were doing on a
daily basis.”
Communication was key to
keeping downtown merchants
content, Lemire said, especially
notification of when access to
their business would be limited.
“It helps the business owners
to know when work is going to be
done so they can plan for it,” he
said.
Lemire said he’s very pleased
with the project and that HRI employees and subcontractors who
worked on it have plenty to be
proud of.
“Not just the complexity of the
project,” he said, “but also to be
part of a project that’s such a signature for the city is something
that will stay with our guys for a
long time. There’s satisfaction in
doing that high visibility of a project as well.
“I’m very proud of the project
we’ve constructed and the teamwork between us and the city and
our subcontractors. There’s a lot
of credit to be given to everybody
involved.”
— Contact Vic Bradshaw at
[email protected]
C4 MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013
THE WINCHESTER STAR
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THE WINCHESTER STAR
Loudoun Street Mall
Here are some
of the faces behind the
more than 70 businesses
and two churches on the
Loudoun Street Mall.
Theresa Hoover, owner of the
Colonial Wig Room and
South End Barber Shop
Stephen Shendow, co-owner
of Bell’s Fine Clothing
Lauri Bridgeforth,
owner of Full Frame
Photography
Rae Carter, owner of All
Seasons Racing and Gifts
Pastor Mark D. Kennerly,
Impact Christian Center
Marilyn Finnemore, owner
of Bright Box
James T. Riley,
certified public accountant
❞
❞
❞
The walking mall is
a true city center, a
true downtown. And
in this age of sprawl
and chain stores,
it’s rare and
precious indeed.
The mall looks and
feels more open
and spacious.
This is a view
looking south
down the
Loudoun
Street Mall
from
Boscawen
Street in
early March.
New planters
were added
as paving
work
continued.
Lori Thompson,
owner of 147 North
Artist Eugene Smith
looks out the second
floor window of his
studio in January to
watch a piece of
excavating equipment
dig up the mall to
replace underground
infrastructure. Some
of the pipes were
estimated to be 100
years old.
I just like being
downtown. It has a
post office, places
to eat, and it’s a
nice place to walk.
SCOTT MASON/
The Winchester Star
A worker from HRI
Inc. builds the
foundation for the
splash pad in March
on the mall’s south
end.
GINGER PERRY/
The Winchester Star
Scott Shendow, co-owner of
Bell’s Fine Clothing
SCOTT MASON/
The Winchester Star
101
125
123
121
117
115
111
49
41½ 41
39
33
29
21
17 15 13 11
7
North Indian Alley
1
1
7
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 21 23
25 27 29
101 103 107
South Loudoun Steet
126
106
54
48
40
38
28
24 22 16 14
10
6
4
2
116
W
S
E
South Loudoun Street Addresses - West Side
115
The Taylor Hotel
131
N
100
112
116
118 120 122 126 128 130 132
North Loudoun Street Addresses - West Side
101 Wisteria House
2 Village Market & Bistro
38 The Hair Company/Echo Vintage
1 El Centro Mexican Food & Drink
15 Bright Box Theater
147 147 North
7 Wilkins’ Shoe Center
111 Awabi Sushi
4 Second Skin
40 RBC Wealth Management
7 Polka Dot Pot
21 Giovanni’s Restaurant & Bar
149 SEArenity Massage
115 Judy Bowen’s Hair Design & Tanning
6 Swirls
48 Once Upon a Find
25 Eugene B. Smith Gallery
151 Olde Towne Armory & Heirlooms
13 James R. Wilkins & Associates
117 Virginia Retirement Specialists
(VRSI)
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
27 Fashion Worthy
159 Snow White Grill
29 JBC Limited Co.
161 Old Town Stained Glass
29 Howard J. Manheimer
165 Espresso Bar & Café
17 The Early Birds
21 Harrison & Johnston Attorneys
29 Patton’s Furniture
33 Imagination Gallery
39 An Affair to Remember
41 Our Children’s Closet
41½ FROG - Families Reaching
Out Group
49 Hable’s Real Estate
HRI Inc. workers
Kevin Moore
(left) and James
Bookwalter tap
holes for water
service in an
8-inch diameter
water line that
was installed
underneath the
Loudoun Street
Mall to replace
an old 4-inch
diameter line.
SCOTT MASON/
The WInchester Star
123 Law Offices of Christian J. Griffin
123 Enid McConnell Design, LLC
125 Studio 125
125 Full Frame Photography
54 Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum
14 Bangz Salon
106 Tech Team Solutions
16 Posh Pets
106 Old Town General Store
22 Bruce, Renner & Co. BRC
116 First Presbyterian Church
24 Thai Winchester
126 Hill’s Keep
28 Godfrey Miller Home & Fellowship
Center
136-142 Donegal House
129-131 Design Concepts –
Tim Machado, AIA
137 Beyond the Fringe
141 Luciole
134
The Bright Center
Affordable Massage
Bright Cowork
Covenant Real Estate Management
Karen Holman
Mediation Partners, LLC
Rachel Heberle, LPC
Strategy Bridge International
Sanaa Gallery
SIPA
Small Business Development Center
The Hearing Health Care Center
The Scylla Group Inc.
Virginia Premier Health
Wire & Web, #203
150 152 156 158 160
Old Court House Civil War
Museum
100 BB&T Scott & Stringfellow
112 BB&T and JV Arthur Insurance
118 Winchester Masonic Temple
101 Union Jack Pub & Restaurant
167 Murphy Beverage Company
103 Village Square Restaurant
173 The Floor Shop
107 V2
181 Violino Ristorante Italiano
111 Incredible Flying Objects
185 Winchester Book Gallery
115 The Potomac Bead Company
131 Old Warsaw Galleries
135 Runners’ Retreat
145 Dollar General
Pictured are pieces of the old 4-inch diameter water
line dug from the Loudoun Street Mall.
146
116 The Door Mouse
LEFT: A pedestrian
barricade goes up on the
north end of the Loudoun
Street Mall on Jan. 2 as
renovations to the walking
mall get under way.
142
20
11 Main Street Fare
121 James T. Riley, CPA
165
167
173
181
185
168
186
North Loudoun Street Addresses - East Side
1 Make Nest Interiors
15 The Black Rose
157 159 161
20
South Loudoun Street Addresses - East Side
10 Scarpa Alta
135 139 145 147 149 151
North Loudoun Street
East Boscawen Street
136
East Cork Street
142
111
East Piccadilly Street
137 129 131
West Piccadilly Street
South Indian Alley
141
BUSINESSES
West Boscawen Street
West Cork Street
OLD TOWN
RIGHT: An HRI Inc. worker
attaches a crosspiece to
the gateway entrance on the
mall’s north end on April 24.
SCOTT MASON/ The Winchester Star
122 Bell’s Fine Clothing
126 Abija Blue
128 Richard’s Jewelry
130 Sensel Signs Inc.
132 U.S. Post Office
134 Impact Christian Center
142 The Dharma Studio
146 Red Fox Creamery
150 Handworks Gallery
152 Old Town Silversmiths
156 RealiteaZe Hair Designs
158 Patsy’s Pastry Pizzas
160 Blind Faith Enterprises
168 Brewbakers Restaurant
186 Virginia National Bank
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LOUDOUN STREET MALL
THE WINCHESTER STAR
Vision
from Page C2
ness owners, according to Smith.
He said Brady did everything
from keeping people informed
about when work would be done
in front of their buildings to getting a welder to repair cafe railings damaged after the city removed them from the mall in December.
A downtown with a vision
The visible changes to the mall
get the most buzz, but the underground work is even more important to some people.
Eisenach said the improvements will result in more reliable
water and sewer service for years
to come. Stormwater drainage also should be much better.
Part of the mall, however, is in
the Town Run flood plain (the waterway actually flows underneath
the southern part of the mall),
and the improvements won’t prevent flooding, Eisenach said.
Local developer Jim Vickers
has redeveloped multiple buildings in the city’s downtown, and
he said the infrastructure project
sends the right message to people
looking to invest there.
“I think one of the things that’s
been overlooked with the project
infrastructure replacements is
that they will last us another 50
years, and that’s just huge,” said
Vickers, CEO and chairman of
OakCrest Cos. “For an investor
and property owner downtown,
it’s crucial to know the city has a
vision to enhance city properties
and allow investments to be put
back into the community.
“For me, that makes it very
easy to begin the process of starting to think about the next renovation project downtown with the
city making the investments it’s
making. I’ve already set up design
teams, already identified other
buildings I might target.”
Jeffrey Buettner, a member of
City Council since 1998, said the
governing body never really
formed a complete plan for downtown renovations.
But in piecemeal fashion, it has
spent $18.3 million in just the last
four years on utility and improvement projects along Braddock
and Cameron streets ($8 million),
Piccadilly Street ($2 million), Indian Alley ($1.2 million) and the
mall.
“After we did Cameron and
Braddock, after we changed them
to two-way streets, downtown became much more of a focal point
for council,” he said.
Council President John Will-
Shane Nickleson, owner of SkyView Tree Experts LLC of Augusta, W.Va., cuts top branches off a tree on the
south end of the Loudoun Street Mall as work begins on the renovations. Forty-six trees had to be removed
to make way for the changes. Local woodworkers reclaimed some of the wood for artisan projects.
ingham, who has served on the
body since 2009, said councilors
want Old Town to become a place
where people want to live, work
and shop.
“Delivering infrastructure
downtown was extremely important to us,” he said. “I think Old
Town is a way for us to differentiate ourselves from other localities, and it shows business owners and property owners that
we’ve made a significant investment in Old Town.”
Showing it off
With so much public investment, downtown will become
even more of a focal point in the
city’s marketing efforts, according to city officials. They want the
pedestrian mall to be the image
people remember when they
think of Winchester.
“It’s authentic,” Youmans said
of downtown. “People can come
here and not see somebody’s attempt to recreate an atmosphere.
It retains so much integrity and
isn’t fake.”
Buettner said everyone has
malls and strip shopping centers
with big-box stores, but an area
like the Loudoun Street Mall is a
HRI workers dismantle the fountain on the Loudoun Street Mall Jan. 4.
Its new home will be at the Our Health campus on North Cameron
Street.
jewel few localities possess.
“As we’re trying to market and
brand Winchester as a destination
point,” he said, “I think downtown
has to be that cornerstone.”
Jim Deskins, the city’s eco-
Local artists were invited to create murals to dress up the green construction barriers that
were erected along the mall to keep people out of the construction zone.
nomic redevelopment director,
agrees.
“Winchester’s largest and most
effective branding image is that
walking mall area,” he said. “It becomes etched in the minds of all
the people who visit Winchester
as the picture of what Winchester
is.”
A key component in Old
Town’s future health is the continued development of apartments
and condominiums in underused
space. Deskins and Vickers said
demand for quality downtown
housing remains insatiable, and
the area commands the highest
rents in Winchester.
Jeff Sadler, manager of the Virginia Main Street program, said
continued development of upperstory housing and adding familyfriendly amenities like the splash
pad fountain are important for
thriving downtown areas.
The restaurants and cafes, he
added, also have proven to be big
draws.
“The emphasis on the al frescodining is something pedestrian
malls have a long history of,”
Sadler said, “and because of a
change in people’s preferences,
there seems to be renewed excitement around them as revitalization tools in commercial districts.”
All those factors seem to be
keys to the success of pedestrian
malls, he said, and Winchester appears to have chosen a good time
to update its mall.
Deskins said he could see the
mall essentially becoming downtown’s food court. Diners would
head to the mall and check out
what specials restaurateurs were
offering before deciding where to
eat, much as is the case in an area
like the Georgetown section of
Washington.
He said he’s also optimistic
that the downtown will achieve
enough residential density to
draw a grocery store or food cooperative that people can walk to.
Those days, however, are still
ahead. What Winchester has right
now is a renovated, authentic centerpiece attraction that’s ready to
draw locals and tourists alike.
“Downtown is the living room
of our community,” Iman said.
“Just like your living room, when
you’re going to have company in,
you want to spruce it up, want to
get it looking good.”
[email protected]
Did you know?
About 7,440,000 pounds of
new concrete was placed
under the mall’s new bricks
and pavers.
LOUDOUN STREET MALL
THE WINCHESTER STAR
C7
New additions: Public toilet, splash pad
One amenity is practical, the other is just plain fun
By CYNTHIA CATHER BURTON
The Winchester Star
O
WINCHESTER
ne of the additions to
the Loudoun Street
Mall is a talking, selfcleaning public toilet
that costs 25 cents for
people to use.
“Welcome to Exeloo,” the restroom greets customers in English and Spanish.
“It’s a ver y polite thing,” Jim
Scardino joked on a recent afternoon as he programmed the automated toilet for use.
Scardino works for Atlantabased Public Facilities & Services
Inc., which is a distributor of Exeloo restrooms in the United
States. The brand is based in Auckland, New Zealand.
Exeloo — short for excellent
loo — has supplied and installed
more than 1,000 public toilets in
Australia, New Zealand and the
U.S. over the past 20 years, according to the company website, exeloo.com. It was recommended by a
city official who had seen the brand
while traveling overseas.
The city toilet is on the mall’s
southern end in a 27-foot-by-13-foot
stone building. It cost $300,000 and
sits behind the new splash pad and
contains two unisex bathrooms —
one on either side of the structure.
Her e’s how it works: After a
“customer” inserts a quarter, the
bathr oom’s stainless steel door
slides open and a recording of a
m an ’s voice begins of fering instructions on how the automated
restroom works.
Everything inside is operated
by sensors and is touch-free —
from the flushing of the toilet to the
dispensing of toilet paper. The toilet flushes once the customer
washes his or her hands. Music
plays while the bathroom is in use,
and a baby-changing station is
available.
After ever y 30 uses, or two
hours, the bathroom cleans itself,
which it announces by saying
somewhat urgently, “This public
toilet will soon be cleaned and sanitized with detergent. Please leave
immediately.”
The cleaning doesn’t start until
the sensors no longer detect motion inside the bathroom.
Soap then shoots from a nozzle
above the toilet, while water shoots
from another nozzle aimed at the
toilet and five other nozzles spray
water on the floor. A jet drier then
comes on and blows the water
across the slightly slanted floor into a drain.
The frequency of the cleanings
can be adjusted, according to city
facilities director Corey Mac
Knight, whose staff also will help
maintain the facility and its supplies.
Though the voice emanating
from the toilet is polite, it gets testy
when a customer is approaching
the maximum 10-minute time limit.
It encourages the customer to finish up, but, after the third warning,
the stainless steel door slides
open.
Despite its automation, Scardino said it’s impossible to get locked
inside the toilet. The door has a
magnetic lock, and if the power
goes out, the lock releases. He
added that there’s a groove on the
inside of the door that a person can
use to pull it open. A touch of the
hand also keeps the door from closing.
Housed in the center of toilet
building between the two bathrooms is a mechanical system for
the $150,000 splash pad — an attraction with three “dance” settings for the water and three light
settings.
“With the touch of a button, we
can change either,” MacK night
said.
Perry Eisenach (left), city public services director, and Corey MacKnight, city facilities manager, stand in front of the new public toilet on the
south end of the mall. The restroom cost $300,000 to build and costs 25 cents to use.
ABOVE: Employees of Patton’s
Masonry in Edinburg work on the
foundation of the new public
restroom on Jan. 6. First
Presbyterian Church — one of
two churches on the mall — can
be seen in the background.
Corey MacKnight gives a tour of the new restroom. The stone building
houses two automated unisex toilets and a pump/control room for the
splash pad.
The splash pad’s more than two
dozen fountains shoot water into
the air, and the water is re-circulated and treated with chemicals like
swimming pool water.
“I like the water,” 6-year-old
Mikiah Diggs of Stephens City
shouted as he ran through the
erupting fountains on a recent afternoon, his shoes and clothes
soaking wet. Right behind him was
his 4-year-old sister, Jada, who
squealed with delight as she tried
to figure out which fountain would
spout next.
Though their mother, Erin, had
two wet children to take home, she
didn’t seem to mind.
“I love the fountain,” she said. “I
think it’s really pretty.”
A loader pours gravel into the
new public restroom while a
worker spreads it on March 12.
v
Hours of operation for the splash
pad are 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday to
Thursday and 8 a.m. to midnight Friday to Sunday.
The toilet is open daily from 8
a.m. to 9 p.m.
— Contact Cynthia Cather Burton at
[email protected]
A worker pours concrete for the
splash pad on March 14.
RIGHT:
MacKnight
demonstrates
the handsfree hand
washing area
of the
restrooms.
GINGER PERRY/
The Winchester Star
ABOVE: The water to the splash pad is turned on April 26.
LEFT: Workers from HRI Inc. lay the groundwork for the splash pad.
C8
LOUDOUN STREET MALL
THE WINCHESTER STAR
The renovation: From start to finish
Januar y
ABOVE: Heavy equipment operators from State College, Pa.-based
HRI Inc. drive their excavating equipment in parade fashion on Cork
Street as they travel from City Yards to the Loudoun Street Mall
construction site on Jan. 3.
RIGHT: The northern section of the mall remained intact Jan. 14 as
crews worked on the $7.1 million infrastructure replacement project.
Construction began Jan. 2. The project involved replacing
infrastructure along the mall, in addition to adding a public bathroom,
gateway entrances, and a splash pad. This view shows North Loudoun
Street looking south.
Februar y
ABOVE: An equipment operator digs around storm drains and water
and sewer pipes on the mall on Jan. 8.
ABOVE: Sewer replacement work had reached the intersection of North Loudoun and Piccadilly streets by
Feb. 20.
March
ABOVE: The mall’s construction zone is shown looking south from the
third floor of the Winchester Hiram Lodge No. 21 on Feb. 25.
April
ABOVE: Attorney Anne M. Williams walks to her office on the Loudoun Street Mall on March 15 after the
new bricks, pavers and planters had been installed.
ABOVE: Renovation work to the mall’s northern end neared
completion April 10.
ABOVE: Construction workers take a lunch break on the Loudoun
Street Mall on March 26.
ABOVE: Karen Helm, former
Old Town Development Board
executive director, stands at
the north entrance to the mall
off Piccadilly Street. Behind
her is a new gateway flanked
by illuminated fountains. This
picture was taken at night.
ABOVE: This is a March 31 view of construction work on the mall
looking south.
May
LEFT: This view shows the
new entrance to the mall’s
south end off Cork Street on
May 10.
May 20, 2013
Page D1
Loudoun Street Mall
1974: A LOOK BACK
A child listens to a speaker that
was installed on the Loudoun
Street Mall in 1974. The
downtown sound system no
longer exists.
A sign welcomes people to the
Loudoun Street Mall in 1974.
A worker constructs the mall
fountain, which was moved as
part of the 2013 renovation. Its
new home will be at the Our
Health campus on North Cameron
Street.
The switch from street to mall
eliminated traffic, allowing
people to sit on a bench or take
a stroll.
How did this happen? A water
fountain on the mall is toppled.
A dedication ceremony is held for the new Loudoun Street Mall in 1974. When it was built, it was the first
pedestrian mall in Virginia. The project, which cost $587,000 and took about seven months to complete,
transformed 1,600 feet of Loudoun Street into a walkway.
Shoppers look for a store on a
map of the downtown mall.
A bold plan for downtown
In creating the mall, city leaders looked to the future
By VIC BRADSHAW
The Winchester Star
L
WINCHESTER
ike many great things,
it all started with a fourhour lunch. The discussion at that midday
gathering in the fall of
1963 was downtown Win chester,
specifically how to prevent the
city’s core from decaying when its
major stores bolted for the shopping mall that would inevitably
come to the area.
The idea three men conceived
that day would gestate for 11
years before yielding its desired
outcome — the Loudoun Street
Mall. When it opened in November 1974, it was the first pedestrian mall in Virginia.
Nearly four decades later,
some of the downtown’s key business owners from that era say the
decision to close a 1,600-foot section of Loudoun Street to traffic
has been a wise one.
James R. “Jimmy” Wilkins Jr.,
who then operated his family’s
Wilkins Shoe Center at 7 S.
Loudoun St., said city leaders —
his father among them — saw the
importance in drastically changing what was the region’s main
shopping district.
“Winchester built the mall
when we didn’t have a problem,”
said Wilkins, who still has an office overlooking the Loudoun
Street Mall as the vice president
of the Wilkins Companies, a development firm. “Winchester was
proactive. Our downtown was
packed; it was busy.
“Those business leaders anticipated what things were going to
be like 10 years in the future,
when there’s more shopping centers and a [shopping] mall. We
went through vacancies downtown, but we never had that
boarded-up look.”
A plan for downtown
A general outline of the luncheon discussion that started
Winchester moving toward a
pedestrian mall was published in
a February 1974 special section in
what was then the Winchester
Evening Star.
Jack F. Davis, The Star’s general manager and executive editor
for many years, broke bread that
day with John Larson, a marketing vice president with what was
Historic photos from Winchester Star files
The downtown shopping district had a new look and feel once the pedestrian mall was completed.
To build the Loudoun Street Mall
in 1974, general contractor
Howard Shockey & Sons had to
make some changes
underground. Ralph D. Shockey
(left) said recently that while the
existing water, sewer and
stormwater lines weren’t
touched, some water inlets and
manholes had to be moved and
some service lines to buildings
had to be replaced.
then the Northern Virginia Power
Co., and local architect C.
Thomas Cooper.
Afterward, the trio and some
of the power company’s planners
spent months analyzing the downtown’s strengths and weaknesses.
That led to the publication of the
data-intensive “Downtown
Progress” on Feb. 12, 1964, in
The Star.
The report prompted the formation of the Winchester Parking
Authority to acquire and manage
property for parking — the report
cited a lacking of parking as a
downtown weakness — and the
creation of the Downtown Development Commission (DDC) to
study other ways to improve the
city’s core.
The Parking Authority, funded
by downtown merchants and
property owners, went to work
quickly. It began acquiring land
on which surface lots and eventually a parking garage could be
built.
The DDC, whose members included Davis and Wilkins Sr., proceeded at a deliberate pace. It
studied downtown for three years
before its “Loudoun Street Corridor” recommendations were published in the newspaper on Feb.
23, 1967.
The plan developed by the
DDC called for Loudoun to be-
come a one-way street with no
parking. However, pull-off areas
for cars to load and unload would
alternate sides of the street, creating a serpentine-looking passageway.
Rouss Avenue would be closed
to traffic, too, creating a one-block
pedestrian mall alongside Rouss
City Hall and the Frederick County Courthouse, now the Old
Court House Civil War Museum.
The hope was that parking lots
and streetscape improvements
would lure shoppers and diners
downtown.
“It was all about appealing to
the customer,” said Julius Armel,
who was assistant manager of the
Leggett department store on
Loudoun Street and later a DDC
member. “That was the main attraction.
“We were looking at it from a
retail merchant standpoint, what
would be the most appealing,
what would customers like.”
Lots had to be done before
that could
happen,
though.
That included
adding
parking, a
mission
that was
accomplished in
November 1972
when the
Braddock
Jack F. Davis
Street Autopark
opened with 303 spaces.
The time it took to get everything else in place, it now appears, was fortuitous.
The plan changes
Once the parking situation was
improved, Irvin Shendow said,
the DDC could focus on Loudoun
Street.
A co-owner of Bell’s Fine
Clothing, then and now, Shendow
was appointed to the DDC in 1971
and immediately chosen as its
chairman.
Shendow recalled that Ray Jennings, head of design for Rubbermaid Commercial Products in
Winchester, had joined the DDC
and recommended a pedestrian
mall. The idea took off from
there.
While delivery vehicles still
needed access to Loudoun Street
to service businesses, closing off
the mall to general traffic was the
best move because of the width of
the corridor, which was only 45
feet.
“Your main street (Loudoun)
was so narrow that your sidewalks were narrow,” Wilkins remembered. “It’s hard to mix vehicle and pedestrian traffic, particularly when you have children and
strollers and things like that.
“We wanted to keep our doors
open (at the Shoe Center), but we
didn’t because we were afraid a
child would run out in traffic.”
The DDC only had about
$10,000 at the time, and Shendow
said the money was spent to hire
F. Eugene Smith Associates from
Bath, Ohio, to design a pedestrian
mall.
See Look back, Page D2
D2
LOUDOUN STREET MALL
THE WINCHESTER STAR
Look back
from Page D1
DDC members visited pedestrian malls in places such as Salisbury, Md., and Cape May, N.J.,
and downtown historic districts to
see what they liked and didn’t like
about them, and their ideas were
incorporated into the design.
The response to the pedestrian
mall concept was positive from
city leaders, merchants and the
public, John Lewis recalled.
“It just seemed to make sense
at the time,” said Lewis, who
owned radio station WINC and
was a DDC member. “There were
little problems, individual things
that had to be worked out.
“But I don’t remember any real
dissent. I just remember a community united to improve the
downtown.”
However, Wilbur Feltner, then
the chairman and CEO of
Farmer’s and Merchants Bank,
whose headquarters were on
Loudoun Street, remembered
some apprehension.
“The merchants that I talked
to,” he said recently, “felt that it
would hurt their business if they
had no traffic on Loudoun Street.
“Public acceptance was a gradual process. When it first started
off, the mall was pretty slow, but
as time went on and people became accustomed to it, it gained
new life and now it’s pretty vibrant.”
A pedestrian mall is born:
paying for it, building it
Gaining city approval for the
pedestrian mall was the easy part.
Funding was another matter.
“City Council loved the concept,” Shendow recalled, but with
a condition. “That’s when the
council said, ‘We like the idea, but
we don’t have the money. Find
the money.’ ”
The DDC didn’t have the money, either, so Shendow came up
with the idea of creating a special
downtown tax district, with the
extra money collected by the tax
going to pay off the project’s
bonds. The tax was used to pay
half of the $587,000 total project
cost, with the city picking up the
tab for the remainder.
“We felt at the time that it was
something that was really necessary because we were going to require additional services and
needs and that was going to cost
money,” said Bob Bartley, whose
family operated Bartley’s Shoe
Repair and Orthopedic Shop
“The mall was good some
40 years ago and is now,
as evidenced by the
restoration project. Yes,
the project did prevent
downtown decay.”
— Former City Manager
Wendell Seldon
downtown for 60 years.
Shendow got more than 70
percent of downtown property
owners to agree to the special tax,
only to learn that legislation had
to be passed by the Virginia General Assembly for it to be enacted.
He and Wendell Seldon, Winchester’s city manager from January
1967 to June 1986, convinced
state Sen. William Truban of
Woodstock to carry a bill that allowed Winchester — and only
Winchester — to establish such a
tax district.
City Council approval of the
new taxing district followed. Published reports indicate that property owners along Loudoun Street
from Cork to Piccadilly streets
would pay an additional 58 cents
per $100 of assessed value to support the pedestrian mall.
To build the mall, general contractor Howard Shockey & Sons
of Winchester had to make some
changes underground. Ralph D.
Shockey said recently that while
the existing water, sewer and
stormwater lines weren’t touched,
some water inlets and manholes
had to be moved and some service lines to buildings had to be
replaced.
The biggest construction problem in 1974, not unlike 2013, was
maintaining access to businesses.
The transformation from a street
to a pedestrian venue took seven
months.
“People going into stores had
Former Winchester Mayor Charles Zuckerman (from left) and downtown businessmen James R. “Jimmy”
Wilkins Jr. and Wilbur Feltner pose on the newly renovated Loudoun Street Mall. Wilkins said city leaders in
the late 1960s and early 1970s saw the importance in drastically changing the region’s main shopping
district to keep it vibrant. But Feltner admitted the new pedestrian mall took a little getting used to.
Ultimately, they say, the experiment succeeded.
to make their way over planks
and gravel and plywood,” Shockey, now 92 and the company’s
chairman of the board emeritus,
said recently. “Trying to keep
those people going in and out of
those buildings was quite a task.
“We just went out of our way to
try to work with all the merchants. It’s amazing how all the
stores were kept open and were
able to work around it.”
The construction itself actually
became somewhat of an attraction, something that apparently
was good for some businesses.
Shendow said he asked the
owners of nine different types of
mall businesses to report to him
weekly throughout the project
whether their sales increased or
decreased during the week when
compared with 1973 sales. His
recollection is that six of the nine
reported sales increases over the
length of the project.
“It was attracting people down,
for sure,” he said. “People were
interested. It was going to be the
first pedestrian mall in Virginia.
I’d never experienced the construction of a pedestrian mall, and
neither had anyone else.”
The Loudoun Street Mall,
Shockey said, is the only pedestrian mall the company ever built. It
cost $587,000 to construct — an
amount that was split evenly between the downtown property
owners (via the special tax) and
the city, which paid for the
drainage improvements.
Preserving history
While creating a pleasant shopping atmosphere was the goal for
most downtown merchants, others looked at the pedestrian mall
as a way to preserve the corridor’s history and architecture.
Loudoun Street was part of the
original layout of Winchester,
which was founded in 1744 and
officially established in 1752. The
city essentially grew up around
that area.
Betsy Helm, who served on
the DDC for years before becoming Winchester’s first female mayor in 1988, said those involved in
the founding of Preservation of
Historic Winchester saw the mall
project as an opportunity to protect the area.
She recalled preservation experts from places like Charleston,
S.C., Savannah, Ga., and Pittsburgh being brought in to “let
council know what a jewel we had
in the central business community. They were able to enlighten us
on things people in the community always had and took for granted.”
Lewis Ebert, a former DDC
member who worked in The
Star’s advertising department at
the time, agreed that historic
preservation was a goal.
“Our thinking on that mall was
to use the aesthetics of the city,
its history,” the 82-year-old recalled recently. “You walk down
there now and look at the cornices of the buildings and they’re
beautiful.”
Many of the building facades
along the pedestrian mall have
been frozen in time. That’s something Winchester can claim that
few other cities can.
“We probably have one of the
more authentic [pedestrian] malls
from a preservation perspective,”
Helm said. “Some have gone to
the point that they’re kind of plastic.”
And, she added, probably one
of the most successful.
Added attractions
The switch from street to
pedestrian mall drastically affected how the corridor was used.
With vehicles barred, people
were free to stroll and shop there.
Harold Patton, the 92-year-old
founder of Patton’s Furniture, remembered coming with his family
to Loudoun Street on Saturday
nights as a child.
“They had all the retail merchants and everything,” said Patton, who moved his business to
29 S. Loudoun St. in 1967 after its
showroom on North Cameron
See Look back, Page D3
LOUDOUN STREET MALL
THE WINCHESTER STAR
D3
Changing the face of downtown
The right people at the right time
By VIC BRADSHAW
“I was scared.
I was scared I was
going to fail.
I didn’t want to have
egg on my face.”
The Winchester Star
W
WINCHESTER
hen Irvin Shendow walked into
his first Downtown Development Commission
(DDC) meeting in late 1971, he
didn’t know he’d wind up playing
a key role in forever changing the
face of downtown.
It was at this meeting that the
newly appointed Shendow — to
his recollection the youngest person in the room at age 33 — was
selected as the DDC’s chairman.
The group’s unenviable task: figure out a way to prevent the decay that would occur when major
retailers left downtown for the enclosed shopping mall that would
come to Winchester.
Whether the group saw potential in their newest member or
longed for fresh ideas or just
thought he was naive enough to
accept the post, city leaders say
history has proven that they
found the right man.
Shendow, now 75 and still coowner of Bell’s Fine Clothing on
the Loudoun Street Mall, is the
man most people credit for turning discussion about what to do
about Loudoun Street into action
— specifically the creation of the
pedestrian mall. His success in
doing so was driven by a most basic emotion.
“I was scared,” he recalled recently. “I was scared I was going
to fail. I didn’t want to have egg
on my face.”
Parking a key component
Dozens of people took active
roles in the projects that created
downtown Winchester as it exists
today, and dozens more — the
majority of the property owners in
the city’s core — bought into and
paid for the revolutionary
changes.
The Winchester Parking Authority, created to obtain the lots
and build the garages necessary
to eliminate parking on Loudoun
Street, was funded privately by
downtown property owners. They
later agreed to pay an additional
property tax to cover the cost of
— Irvin Shendow,
chairman of the Downtown
Development Commission
in the early 1970s
John Lewis (from left), Betsy Helm, Irvin Shendow, Julius Armel and Lewis Ebert were some of the members
of the Downtown Development Commission that laid the groundwork for the mall. The group’s unenviable
task in 1971: to figure out a way to prevent the expected decay that would occur when major stores left
downtown for the enclosed mall that inevitably would come to Winchester. Their response was the creation
of the Loudoun Street Mall, which was completed in 1974. They are pictured here on the newly renovated
mall in 2013.
creating the mall.
While Shendow is the man
credited with bringing the mall
project to fruition, the late Jack
Davis is touted for making downtown redevelopment a priority.
Though the idea wasn’t wholly
his, Davis used his position as the
executive editor and general manager of what was then the Winchester Evening Star and preached
the need for change on the newspaper’s pages.
Lewis Ebert, who worked in
advertising at The Star from 1953
to 1981, said Davis brought a
much-needed outsider’s perspective when he joined the paper after working as bureau chief for
the Associated Press in
Charleston, W.Va.
“Jack had a plaque on his desk
that said, ‘When you’re through
changing, you’re through,” Eber t,
now 82, reminisced.
Though the original plan
called for reducing, not eliminating, traffic on Loudoun Street, the
idea from the beginning was to
remove parking. To do that, however, other accommodations had
to be made.
The Parking Authority was
created to handle that mission,
and the late Richard Martin was
its driving force from the beginning.
“He was very enthusiastic
from the Parking Authority standpoint,” Jimmie Shipp, Winchester’s assistant city manager
from 1971 to 1989, said about the
manager of the downtown J.C.
Penney.
Ebert said Martin was “a gogetter.”
James R. “Jimmy” Wilkins Jr.’s
family owned Wilkins Shoe Center at the time, and his father was
an early Parking Authority member. He recalled Martin as a
strong, effective advocate for im-
proved parking.
“Dick Martin provided leadership,” said Wilkins, who later
served on both the Parking Authority and City Council. “He had
a high energy level, and as a
downtown retail business owner,
he pushed City Council that we
needed to build these parking
garages.”
Seldon, Shendow led the way
While Martin touted improved
parking openly and often, City
Manager Wendell Seldon worked
quietly to help maintain momentum.
Wilkins said Seldon “prefer red
a behind-the-scenes role” as a
manager, making suggestions behind the scenes on whatever issue the city was facing.
“He worked for the citizens of
Winchester, he worked for the
City Council and he worked for
the mayor,” Wilkins said. “To me,
Look back
from Page D2
Street burned. “It was busy
every Saturday night.
“I don’t know if they improved (Loudoun Street),
but it’s a very comfortable
place to shop if you want to
walk and take it leisurely.”
The street closing also
allowed the public space in
front of buildings to be
used by business owners,
which eventually led to it
becoming more of a dining
district with some eateries
adding outdoor seating.
“The mall is the thing
that enabled the restaurants to come downtown,”
Helm said. “We had some
restaurants downtown, but
they were more places to
go for breakfast and lunch.
“The restaurants really
attract people, tourists and
local people, and people
who live downtown near
the mall and can walk
there. That’s important.”
Dining wasn’t the only
new use for the mall. It has
become the location of
choice for many events.
Bartley later was appointed to the Downtown
Development Board (formerly the DDC and now
known as the Old Town
Development Board) and
served as its chairman in
the 1980s.
During his tenure, the
board pushed many programs aimed at improving
the city’s core. They included a $1 million streetscape
project, establishing
wayfinding signs, and providing design assistance for
facade improvements.
He also helped bring the
Bluemont Concert Series to
the mall. The free summer
concerts draw people
downtown who shop or
dine or just are reminded
about Old Town’s offerings.
Jimmie Shipp, Winchester’s assistant city manager from 1971 to 1989, said
“just provides a sense of
community, a town center.
I’m very pleased to see the
apartment development
starting to occur now, getting people down there
around the clock.”
‘The Heart of
Winchester’
Did the pedestrian mall
prevent downtown from decaying? To find out the answer, local business owners
suggest looking at downtowns along U.S. 11, the old
Valley Pike.
Shendow said that when
was created, he never envisioned the vibrant evening
activity that its restaurants
and stores generate now.
The mall, he said, “created a platform or venue that
let regular entrepreneurs
with capitalistic instincts
take place, and it’s morphed into what we see
now.”
Bartley said the downtown tax base has remained strong, a sign of a
good business district, and
Winchester’s core is
sounder than some of its
neighbors.
“The appearance is
much better, the buildings
are better maintained, and
there are less vacancies
than in many cities,” Bar t-
ley said. “I was in Martinsburg (W.Va.) recently and
when I walked down main
street there I was very,
very surprised to see so
many vacant and unkempt
buildings, boarded up
buildings.”
Seldon thinks the only
evidence needed to know
that the pedestrian mall has
benefited the city is the fact
that it was redone this year
instead of torn up and reopened to traffic.
“The mall was good
some 40 years ago and is
now, as evidenced by the
restoration project,” he
wrote in an email. “Yes, the
project did prevent downtown decay.”
And that’s the way it
should be, as far as Charles
Zuckerman is concerned. A
14-year member of City
Council and mayor from
1980 to 1988, he called the
mall “the heart of Winchester.”
“There’s just so much attraction there,” Zuckerman
said, “and I don’t think the
mall will ever, ever go
away.”
That would be fine by
Wilkins, who served on
City Council during Zuckerman’s mayoral tenure.
“I think the mall is the
greatest thing that’s happened to Winchester,”
Wilkins said. “Downtown is
like an antique — we’re
older but we’re cherished,
we’re special. We’re a place
people want to come to.”
vbradshaw@
winchesterstar.com
Winchester
Mayor
Elizabeth
Minor talks
about
construction
on the
Loudoun
Street Mall
during the
First Friday
Dig
ceremonies
on Jan. 4.
SCOTT MASON
The Winchester Star
Wendell Seldon is the definition of
what a city manager should be.”
Ultimately, Shendow said, Seldon was effective.
“Wendell wanted to see the
city progress. He thought [the
plan for downtown] was a good
idea, and Wendell was the type of
individual that when he spoke,
people listened to Wendell,” he
said.
Once the parking was in place
and other details had been
wrapped up, all that remained was
to decide what to do with
Loudoun Street. It was time for
Shendow to move front and center.
After Ray Jennings, who headed design for Rubbermaid Commercial Products in Winchester,
opined that a pedestrian mall was
a better idea for the narrow corridor, DDC members flew to places
such as Salisbury, Md., and Cape
May, N.J., to see their walking
malls, with Shendow serving as
their pilot.
“Irv was the one who kind of
headed the things, planning and
getting information on the other
areas that had pedestrian malls,”
said Julius Armel, then the assistant manager of the downtown
Leggett department store and a
DDC member. “He did a lot of
legwork.”
Shendow, however, said the
best thing he did was surround
himself with “good people” willing
to work to better downtown.
“We had people who, when we
asked them to do something, they
got out and did the work,” he remembered.
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D4 MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013
THE WINCHESTER STAR
THE WINCHESTER STAR
Loudoun Street Mall
A PLACE TO SEE AND BE SEEN
A street
named for
a war hero
OVER FOUR CENTURIES
1700s
1800s
Since the city’s earliest
days, Loudoun Street has
been the heart of Winchester,
a place for shopping and parades — a place to see and be
seen.
v
Loudoun Street was one of
two streets — the other being
Boscawen Street — drawn by
Winchester founder James
Wood in 1744 in his initial
plans for Winchester, who
named the town for his hometown of W inchester, England.
The town was officially established by an act of the colonial legislature in 1752.
A circus parade with horse-drawn floats and people watching from the sidewalk goes down
Loudoun Street in 1892.
On March 9, 1744, James Wood laid out the town’s first 30 lots, each containing half an acre.
v
Loudoun Street is named
for John Campbell, Four th
Earl of Loudoun, a hero of the
French and Indian War, according to Garland R. Quarle s’ book “Winchester, Virginia: Streets, Churches and
Schools.” Since it was the primary business district of the
city, residents began referring to the street as Main
Street. In 1926, Dr. William P.
McGuire pushed the City
Council to pass a resolution
restoring the original name of
the street, according to Quarles’ book.
Boys play in the floodwaters in 1906 at Loudoun and Boscawen streets (then called Main and Water
streets, respectively). This photo was taken looking east on Boscawen Street.
1900s
Two brave souls ride horseback along North Loudoun Street after a blizzard in February 1899.
Survivors of Company I, 116th Virginia Infantry (Winchester’s National Guard), 29th Division,
march on North Loudoun Street in a World War I Victory Parade in August 1919.
Raylass Department Store at 134 N. Loudoun St. after the natural gas explosion in 1948.
Merchandise can be seen piled on sidewalk and firefighters on ladders.
2000s
Children and their bikes pose in front of the Montgomery Ward store in the late 1950s. Notice the
boy on the left wearing a coonskin ”Davy Crockett” cap.
Preschoolers watch workers move a stone building from Cork Street to the south end of the Loudoun
Street Mall on Sept. 15, 2004. First Presbyterian Church moved the structure onto the mall to make
way for a new fellowship hall. The new location is just a few feet from the former Cork Street site.
Band members stand in front of the Colonial Theatre on Dec. 7, 1930.
Girls ages 5 and
under, compete
on May 28, 2012,
in the Loudoun
Street Mile. The
run, which
benefits the
Laurel Center, will
again by held on
Memorial Day
this year.
GINGER PERRY
The Winchester Star
Photos courtesy of
Stewart Bell Jr.
Archives of
Handley Regional
Library
The statue of the Confederate soldier that stands in front of the former Frederick County Courthouse
is unveiled in October/November 1916.
The Apple Blossom Parade draws a crowd in this photo taken around 1926.
D5
D6
LOUDOUN STREET MALL
THE WINCHESTER STAR
Saving a piece of the past
Rebirth of former Taylor Hotel part of downtown revitalization
By VIC BRADSHAW
The Winchester Star
T
WINCHESTER
he building has
been vacant for
years, a decaying hulk casting
a shadow over
the northern end of the
Loudoun Street Mall.
But the former Taylor
Hotel is hailed as one of the
most important structures
on the mall, and, by the beginning of next year, it
should be resurrected.
Downtown merchants
and property owners are
elated that something finally is being done with the dilapidated structure at 119129 N. Loudoun St.
The $3.6 million project
to reclaim sections of the
heavily damaged building,
including the historic hotel,
began in November. The
project — slated to result in
restaurant, retail and residential space as well as a
farmer’s market and grassy
entertainment pavilion —
should be substantially
complete by the end of
2013.
Transforming the blighted property should help
businesses in the downtown dining and shopping
district. It could also return
the address to what it once
was — a focal point around
which much of Winchester
society revolved.
The Taylor Hotel’s storied past includes stints as
headquarters for both the
Union and Confederate
armies and as a hospital
during the Civil War.
Bushrod Taylor built the
front part of the structure
in 1846.
“I think the finished
product will be very valuable for the city,” said Jim
Deskins, executive director
of the Winchester Economic Development Authority
(EDA), one of the partners
in the redevelopment effort. “The hotel building
and outdoor entertainment
venue will be very critical
for the vibrancy of downtown, and the farmers market also will be a very positive thing.”
Sending the
right message
The old Taylor Hotel almost didn’t make it,
though. A partial roof collapse in 2007 hastened its
already advanced demise,
and a planned redevelopment project languished
during a prolonged economic recession that followed.
City Council twice declared the building blighted, which could have led to
its demolition. In May 2010
it was placed on Preservation Virginia’s list of the
most endangered historic
sites in the state.
“It would have left a gaping hole in the streetscape
of the mall,” Frank Wright,
president of Preservation of
Historic Winchester, said of
the prospect of the building
being razed. “I cannot image the mall without at
least the remnants of the
Taylor Hotel that now
stand.”
In addition to the visual
impact, Wright said the loss
of the building — best
known as Confederate Gen.
Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s temporary headquarters when he arrived in
Winchester in November
1861 to plan his defense of
the Shenandoah Valley —
would have been a strike
against the community. He
said the only building on
the mall that rivals the Taylor Hotel in historical im-
Courtesy of Stewart Bell Jr. Archives of Handley Regional Library
The Taylor Hotel, circa 1869
Courtesy of Stewart Bell Jr. Archives of Handley Regional Library
The Taylor Hotel property as J.G. McCrory Co.
5- and 10-cent Store, circa 1935
Eric Wishneff (left) of Taylor Plaza LLC and Jim Deskins, executive director of the
Winchester Economic Development Authority, stand in front of the former Taylor Hotel on
the Loudoun Street Mall. The dilapidated property, built in 1846, is undergoing a
massive renovation. The end result will be a mixed-use building with restaurant, retail
and residential space.
The $3.6 million
project to reclaim
sections of the
heavily damaged
structure, including
the historic hotel,
began in November.
portance is the 1840 Frederick County Court House,
now the site of the Old
Court House Civil War Museum.
“What that would have
said about Winchester is
that we don’t care, the town
and the citizens don’t care
about our history,” Wright
said. “That would have
been entirely the wrong
message to send.”
‘All I saw was
oppor tunity’
In June 2010, a private
developer with a penchant
for historic preservation
made public its interest in
buying the Taylor Hotel.
Nine months later, the EDA
joined Taylor Plaza LLC in
a public-private effort to
save and redevelop it.
“We had already been
working in Winchester,”
said Erik Wishneff of the
Washington office of
Roanoke-based Brian Wishneff & Associates, a partner
in the Taylor Plaza group,
“and every time I was walking down the mall, looking
over at the Taylor, all I saw
was opportunity. Given its
central location on the
walking mall, it seemed like
a great opportunity, and
given our interest in rehabilitating historical buildings, it was a natural fit.”
For City Manager Dale
Iman, the former Taylor
Hotel building is “such an
integral part of our history
that it’s worthy of preservation. It has splendid architecture.
“Think of the sheer history of the site, the stories
attached to the site and the
economic prosperity that
resulted from that site. It’s
an example of how location,
location, location drives
economic success.”
City Planning Director
Tim Youmans said the Taylor Hotel project represents
“a good marrying of land
use, transportation and historic preservation.”
The apartments, restaurant and retail space represent solid mixed-use principles. Transportation is aided by the demolition of a
one-story addition on the
building’s south side that
widens the alley connecting
Indian Alley and the Braddock Street Autopark to the
pedestrian mall.
The pavilion will provide
green space downtown, and
people will mingle at the
entertainment venue and
farmers market.
“We talk in the [city’s]
Comprehensive Plan about
being environmentally, socially and economically sustainable,” Youmans said.
“It’s going to green up
some space, the farmers
market and entertainment
space will spark social interaction. Once the project’s
done, it should be economically sustainable for a long
time.”
Model project
Bill Wiley, the OakCrest
Commercial Real Estate
agent who’s listing the commercial space in the rede-
veloped space, said the Taylor Hotel’s condition has
had a negative impact on
surrounding properties for
years. But he thinks the
proper ty’s renovation can
be a positive influence that
ripples through the community.
“It serves as a model, if
you will, for other investment opportunities in the
downtown market,” said
Wiley, chairman of the
Winchester Planning Commission. “It represents
what can be done with tax
credits.”
Deskins agrees.
“With this project, as
well as the work on the
mall,” Deskins said, “it’s
very evident activity is happening, there’s work under
way, and activity begets activity.”
vbradshaw@
winchesterstar.com
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Lutheran Church
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July 8-12
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ALL ARE WELCOME!
The former Taylor Hotel is shown in a photograph taken from the third floor of the
Winchester Hiram Lodge No. 21 on the Loudoun Street Mall in February 2013.
26 W. Boscawen St. • Winchester
www.gracewin.org
LOUDOUN STREET MALL
THE WINCHESTER STAR
D7
A place to park it
Winchester Parking Authority helped pave way for mall
Changing patterns
By VIC BRADSHAW
The Winchester Star
I
WINCHESTER
n the 1960s, city leaders
readily agreed that changes
should be made along
Loudoun Street to enhance
the shopping experience by
making it more pedestrian-friendly.
But there was one issue that
had to be resolved before anything could be done to Loudoun
Street — parking. There just
wasn’t enough. And the problem
would only be exacerbated by
making any changes that eliminated parking spaces.
“The one thing we didn’t have
at the time was really adequate
parking,” recalled James R.
Wilkins Jr., whose family ran
Wilkins Shoe Center on Loudoun
Street and whose father was an
early member of the Winchester
Parking Authority. “We had gravel
lots.”
That began to change in 1964
when the Parking Authority was
created by the Virginia General
Assembly at the behest of City
Council. Its charge was to acquire
and manage downtown parking
assets, and because it was an authority it could take on debt that
didn’t have to be carried on the
city’s books.
By the time the Loudoun
Street Mall opened in November
1974, the authority controlled 715
off-street spaces, including 303 in
the 2-year-old Braddock Street
Autopark.
The authority now manages
about 500 on-street and surfacelot parking spaces and more than
1,700 garage spots. Its garages
are the Braddock Street Autopark
at 30 N. Braddock St., the
Loudoun Street Autopark at 50 E.
Fairfax Lane, the Court Square
Autopark at 2 S. Cameron St. and
the George Washington Autopark
at 131 N. Kent St.
Parking is everything
Adequate, safe, easy-to-find
parking is vital for a business district, according to economic development professionals.
“Somebody can come to a
business district, drive around for
three blocks, find nothing, and
drive off and never come back
again,” said Terry Holzheimer, director of economic development
for Arlington County and a professor in practice in the urban affairs
and planning department at Vir-
How much do you
know about the mall?
Winchester Parking Authority Chairman Richard Helm and Winchester Parking Authority Director Samantha
Anderson pose on the seventh floor of the George Washington Autopark in the city’s downtown.
Adequate, safe,
easy-to-find parking
is vital for a business
district, according
to economic
development
professionals.
ginia Tech.
“You need good signage to
parking garages and information
about where other parking is.
People want to be able to find
parking quickly, they want to be
able to feel safe, and they want it
as cheap as humanly possible.”
Jim Deskins, Winchester’s economic redevelopment director,
agrees. He said downtown parking resources support the city’s financial district, government district, and legal and accounting
firms as well as the restaurants
and retailers along Loudoun
Street Mall.
“Parking’s ever ything for commercial space,” Deskins said.
“People are not going to come
downtown for our nightclubs and
restaurants if they don’t have a
place to park.”
City Manager Dale Iman has
seen a lack of adequate parking
inhibit the redevelopment of
downtown districts, especially in
Winchester Star file photo
Curbside parking was available for a few cars along Loudoun Street in
the 1960s. Knowing that these spaces would be eliminated with the
creation of a pedestrian mall, the city formed a Parking Authority that
built the city’s first parking garage and created more off-street parking.
Fayetteville, N.C., where he
worked before coming to Winchester. During his tenure there,
steps were taken to rectify a
decades-old parking problem.
“They’re undergoing a renaissance period,” Iman said, “and the
parking has helped.”
Wilkins, who has served on
both the Parking Authority and
City Council, said many people
don’t understand how parking
spaces are supposed to be used.
Garages are the best place for
long-term parkers because onstreet spaces should be left open
for quick stops.
“Your spaces are supposed to
turn over,” he said. “I don’t like
paying for parking any more than
the next guy, but the space in
front of your store should turn
over 20 or 30 times in a day.”
Questions
Answers
No. 1: The popcorn machine from the Palace
Theater, which was destroyed by fire in November
1969. The popper allegedly fell into the basement
as a result of the blaze and it was deemed easier
to bury than move. No. 2: The Bright Box at 9
and 15 N. Loudoun St. The escalator was part of
the Leggett Department Store that formerly
occupied the site. When the store moved to Apple
Blossom Mall in the early 1980s, the escalator was
left behind. It’s now a “funky” staircase, according
to Bright Box owner Marilyn Finnemore. No. 3: 10
mph. No. 4: A natural gas explosion destroyed
the building, forcing the business to close. No.
5:The Godfrey Miller Home at 28 S. Loudoun St.,
which was built circa 1785 as a private residence.
Today it operates as a senior center. No.
6:Excluding the steeple on the First Presbyterian
Church and the theater fly tower behind the former
Taylor Hotel, it’s the four-story Winchester Book
Gallery at 185 N. Loudoun St. No. 7: Two. First
Presbyterian at 116 S. Loudoun St. and Impact
Christian Center at 134 N. Loudoun St. No. 8:The
Town Run. No. 9: 1744 is when Winchester was
founded; 1752 is when it was officially established
by an act of the colonial legislature, No. 10:
George Washington. The 23-year-old was elected
on that date to the Virginia House of Burgesses
and served two terms as the Frederick County
representative. No. 11: William McKinley. A
plaque on the side of the Virginia National Bank
building at 186 N. Loudoun St. commemorates the
spot where McKinley became a Mason.
[email protected]
Under construction: Life on the mall
Test your knowledge about the
Loudoun Street Mall by answering
the following questions. The answers are at the end.
No. 1: An interesting artifact is
rumored to be buried beneath the
“Palace” parking lot on the mall’s
southern end. What is it?
No. 2: Name the only building
on the mall that has an escalator,
though it’s no longer in use.
No. 3 As a pedestrian venue,
the Loudoun Street Mall is closed
to traffic, but delivery trucks are
currently still allowed. What’s the
speed limit?
No. 4: What catastrophic event
happened in 1948 at the Raylass
Depar tment Store at 134 N.
Loudoun St.?
No. 5: What’s the oldest original building on the mall?
No. 6: What’s the tallest?
No. 7: How many places of worship are on the mall?
No. 8: What body of water
flows underneath the mall?
No. 9: Special manhole covers
on the mall are embossed with the
year 1744, while 1752 is listed on
the new gateway entrances. What’s
the significance of the two dates?
No. 10: What famous politician
began his political career on July
24, 1756, on the site of what is now
the Old Court House Civil War Museum at 20 N. Loudoun St.?
No. 11: What future U.S. president became a Mason on Loudoun
Street in 1865?
The city subsidized parking for
years, according to Richard Helm,
the Parking Authority’s chairman.
But in recent years the philosophy has shifted more toward having parkers carry the financial
load to pay for parking service instead of the greater taxpaying
public.
Deskins said the construction
of parking garages was necessitated because of the presence of
Winchester’s National Historic
District.
Old buildings can’t be torn
down to create surface lots, he
said, so garages have both met
the parking demand and preserved the architecture and character that draws people downtown.
Though the city’s four autoparks get heavy use each weekday, the garages only fill to capacity on the Friday and Saturday of
the annual Shenandoah Apple
Blossom Festival, according to
Samantha Anderson, the Parking
Authority’s executive director,
But usage patterns are changing. Anderson said more people
are using the garages while dining or enjoying entertainment
downtown, and the increased
number of downtown apartments
is boosting use by residents.
Iman sums it up like this: People are not going to come and enjoy what we have on the Loudoun
Street Mall if parking isn’t convenient or if they don’t feel safe getting from parking to the restaurants and shops.
“I see the parking structures
as a real asset for Old Town
Winchester. They’re strategically
located in that they provide access from a variety of adjacent locations.”
Helm, a commercial real estate
agent with the Virginia Property
Group, said parking seldom is an
issue for clients seeking commercial space downtown.
Some “old-school business
people” want to see spaces that
they control in front of their business, he said, but parking rarely
is an issue for most potential tenants from outside the area.
“Most of the folks who come
in are used to going to the big
malls, the big urban centers,”
Helm said. “They look around
and say parking around here is
not a problem.”
ABOVE: Monica Schultz of Winchester
and her daughter, Lillianna, 5, watch an
excavator move from a mound of gravel
on the Old Town Mall on Jan. 20.
RIGHT: Megan McIntyre stands in
front her home in the renovated
Solenberger Building in January.
LEFT: Luke
Bailey, 2,
gets a boost
from his
mother,
Megan
Bailey, to
get a better
view of an
excavator
on Feb. 7.
The Baileys
are from
Winchester.
SCOTT MASON
The Winchester Star
LEFT: Swirls restaurant
owner Stephen Furst hands
change across the fence on
the Loudoun Street Mall to
HRI worker Tony Gold after
Gold bought lunch from the
restaurant.
RIGHT: Mackenna Bell, 2,
and her brother, Jedidiah
Bell, 6, look over the fence
on the Loudoun Street Mall
on Jan. 4 to watch
construction workers.
Mackenna is held by her
father, Daryl Bell.
D8 MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013
THE WINCHESTER STAR
THANK YOU
CITY OF WINCHESTER
for allowing
to bring in the New
to the Old Town Mall!
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Loudoun Street Pedestrian Mall

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