Author: Carol Diggs

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The Downtown Mall: Past & Present

Conceptualized 50 years ago, Charlottesville's Downtown Mall endures. Photo by Stephen Barling.

The Downtown Mall is a central feature of life in Charlottesville—a place where residents, locals, and students alike head for shopping, meals, drinks, and entertainment. But there’s more: At eight blocks, it’s one of the longest pedestrian malls in the country. Of about 200 pedestrian malls built in the 20th century, ours is one of only 30 that survive. It’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s also (word has it) the most popular tourist spot in the area, after Monticello. 

And the Mall is a huge income generator for Charlottesville. According to Chris Engel, director of the city’s Office of Economic Development, an analysis from 2013 showed 17 percent of the city’s tax revenue from business license, meals, and sales taxes was derived from the Mall, which is only 3 percent of the city’s commercial area. “It’s reasonable to assume the percentage is similar in 2024,” he says. 

But these are just data points. As the Mall approaches its 50th anniversary, I set out to explore its story.

Growing, growing, gone

There are still plenty of residents who remember the pre-Mall, small-town Charlottes­ville that in the 1950s saw people—and their dollars—heading to the suburbs. The new Barracks Road Shopping Center and others like it siphoned off the city’s shoppers and a large chunk of its tax revenues.

By 1959, the downtown business community knew drastic change was needed, and over the next decade various groups developed revitalization proposals which were hotly debated and repeatedly rejected. It’s a measure of how dire the situation must have been that in 1974, the Charlottesville City Council took a make-or-break decision: It approved a $4.1 million proposal to radically redesign the town’s heart. (The vote was a less-than-rousing 2-0; three of the councilors abstained due to opponents’ cries of potential conflict of interest.)

The proposed design was the work of internationally known landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, the designer of Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco, the groundbreaking pedestrian/transit Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis, and many other landmarks. Halprin’s human-scaled designs featured a free pedestrian flow combined with spaces for gathering, carefully placed trees to both shape and shade the walkway, and the use of water features and participatory fountains. It’s a tribute to the city’s business community and planners that a small college town took this ambitious step. 

On July 3, 1976, the Downtown Mall was opened with the placement of a commemorative brick in front of the Central Place fountain. But that didn’t mean instant prosperity—the downtown area couldn’t be insulated from changes in consumer habits or national economic trends. By the 1990s, department stores Miller & Rhoads, Roses, and Leggett had moved, and Woolworth’s had gone out of business. Gradually, the Mall morphed from a business district (banks, law offices, stores) into an entertainment/cultural space. 

The Mall evolves

Renowned landscape architect Lawrence Halprin created the proposed design for the pedestrian mall. Photo by Willi Walker.

In 1980, the first sidewalk café, The Muse, opened. The following year, Miller’s became the Mall’s first music venue and the city installed six steel sculptures by University of Virginia professor James Hagan. In 1988, the first Fridays After Five concert was staged; and six years later, the expansion of the Mall’s eastern end created a permanent stage for that event and others. The 1996 opening of Regal Cinemas (now Violet Crown) and the Charlottesville Ice Park (replaced by the C.O.D.E. Building) developed the Mall’s western end and drew more evening and weekend visitors.

It’s hard now to imagine that in the Mall’s early years, the Paramount Theater sat shuttered in its very center. The theater, a downtown feature since it opened in 1931, shut down in 1974. Julie Montross, the Paramount’s executive director, credits a 12-year effort by committed members of the community, working with the city government, to restore and reopen the old theater in 2004 as a nonprofit community cultural space. “It’s a huge benefit for our mission to be in the heart of things,” says Montross. (Andy Pillifant, the Paramount’s director of communications, maintains that the Paramount’s blade sign, finally restored in 2015, is the third most photographed object in Charlottesville after Monticello and the Rotunda. Hard to prove, but believable.)

Another Mall success factor: By the 1990s, Halprin’s trees had matured. Mall observers credit that overhead canopy with creating a real sense of place—as well as shade that made people want to linger.

Speed bumps

This is not to say there weren’t ups and downs along the way. Convenience and habit kept most UVA students on the Corner, and until West Main was revitalized, there was no real connection between Grounds and the downtown area. Linnea Revak (a UVA grad, class of 2010) who now owns Darling + Dashing on the Mall, says, “When I was an undergrad, students never walked up Main Street.”

Beth Meyer, an architecture professor at UVA, was involved in the 2008 debate over how to renovate the Downtown Mall. Photo by Sanjay Suchak/UVA University Communications.

By 2008, 30-plus years of wear and tear on the area’s lighting, water features, and pavement was showing. The Council’s consideration of a $7.5 million renovation project led to heated debates about time, cost, and the nature of the Mall itself. Beth Meyer, a professor in UVA’s School of Architecture, was one of those who got drawn into the debate. 

“Halprin’s design was so brilliant, minimalist with its flowerpots and lights and trees. It’s an outdoor living room,” she says. “Some people understood Halprin was important; others thought [honoring the original design] was a huge waste of money.” 

Meyer and others argued for restoring some of Halprin’s features that had been cut—the large fountain, play spaces for children—but in many instances, budget won over design. Re-laying the brick pavement, after another protracted debate, was done in sections over the winter of 2008-2009 so as not to close the Mall entirely. Unfortunately, the project coincided with a national recession, and many businesses were hit hard. 

Once again, the Mall’s fortunes recovered—and then came August 11 and 12, 2017, when a deadly white nationalist protest struck the city. Those shocking events did spur a rallying of the community to support Mall businesses. But the trauma made itself felt in years of city government dysfunction.

The next punch was COVID-19. With the pandemic shutdown, businesses on the Mall had to pivot. Retail moved online, restaurants launched takeout, stores started delivery services. The Paramount was one of the few that stayed open. “It was important to us that the lights stayed on,” says Pillifant, so the theater hosted small-group events or created social distancing by taping photos of past performers to nine out of every 10 seats. 

The shutdown resulted in a series of closings, especially among smaller businesses, and created an impression among many residents that the area was struggling. In fact, according to the City’s semiannual survey, the January 2024 vacancy rate for the Mall’s street-level businesses was about 3 percent, down from almost 6 percent in July 2023. “Anything 10 percent or under is a healthy figure, and the Mall has never been above 10 percent” since the survey was started in 2008, says Engel.

Rapture owner Mike Rodi says lunchtime traffic hasn’t been the same since the pandemic. Photo by Stephen Barling.

Post-pandemic, staffing is still a challenge—some Mall restaurants have cut back on hours or days open. And the pandemic’s work-from-home trend and resulting office closings had a big effect on the Mall’s activity level. On the lovely spring day I interviewed Rapture owner Mike Rodi, there were people strolling, but only one couple was lunching at his restaurant’s outdoor seating. “Lunch traffic hasn’t recovered,” claims Rodi. “Before the pandemic, on a day like this we would have had a waiting list.” 

But perspectives vary. “The Mall is livelier than it used to be,” claims Darling’s Revak (whose sector, vintage clothing, is booming). Lily Garcia Walton, chief people officer and general counsel of tech firm Silverchair, whose offices occupy the top two floors of the Hardware Building, says that on any given day, about 20 percent of its hybrid work force chooses to work on site. “They love being on the Mall for its vibrancy, and because of the venues they can go to after work,” she says.

Ellen Joy of Alakazam Toys, who purchased the business in 2019 from its retiring owner, thinks much of the business turnover may be generational. She credits the Mall’s resilience to its sense of community: “When I got here, the Mall was still reeling from August 11 and 12, and everybody came together to reclaim it.”

Recurring debates

Photo by Stephen Barling.

So is the Mall a city asset? “Because the Downtown Mall is such a powerful symbol [of Charlottesville], it’s always an argument,” says longtime local journalist Sean Tubbs. And one thing Charlottesville residents have plenty of is opinions. 

One of the persistent gripes is about parking. The City claims there are 1,710 public parking spaces, largely in the public parking facilities adjacent to the Mall. But every Charlottesville driver has horror stories about the mish-mash of signs and designations along the surrounding streets.

Another complaint: The Mall, a public space, had no public bathrooms. For a while, restrooms were available in the Downtown Transit Authority and in City Hall, but the pandemic shut down access to them. Finally, in 2022—45 years after the Mall opened—the city leased space in York Place for public facilities.

Then there’s the seating issue. Halprin’s design specified 150 moveable public seats. In the 2009 renovation, the city installed 30 fixed benches but removed the ones in Central Place because of complaints about vagrancy. In the meantime, more restaurants leased space outside for expanded service, which advocates for Halprin’s vision called encroachment on the public’s space.

The biggest threat to the Mall’s success, however, is a growing perception that it’s not a safe place. Over the decades, there have been complaints about vagrancy and panhandling, but in the last few years, concerns about physical and verbal assaults have ballooned. 

“The Mall is absolutely a safe place to go,” says Chief of Police Michael Kochis. Department statistics show 115 incidents of Part 1 (violent or serious) crime in the last 12 months, compared to 102 in the previous 12—“and larceny is a driver,” says Kochis. Pulling out incidents of gun violence, the figures are two incidents in the last 12 months compared to two incidents in the preceding 12. In those same periods, shots fired incidents (not considered Part 1 crimes) have decreased from nine to three.

“Are there challenges? Absolutely,” Kochis says. “It’s important not to let the data cover up how people are feeling.” He acknowledges an increase in the number of unhoused persons on the Mall, who gather there since Charlottesville has no 24-hour shelter. Of this population, “there’s a small number who are in crisis and that can cause issues. We’re trying to identify them and get them help.”

The good news is that that department, on track to be fully staffed again by summer, has assigned an officer to the Mall four days a week (weekends are covered by officers on shift). Having an assigned officer provides an ongoing law enforcement presence, builds relationships with the businesses, and enables the officer to recognize the unhomed regulars and keep an eye out for those who may be in crisis. All officers are now going through crisis intervention training, says Kochis. In addition, the new city budget includes funding for the development of “anchor teams,” made up of a law enforcement officer, a paramedic, and a mental health clinician, to respond to situations that require a broader response.

These initiatives are badly needed. But Kochis points out that city government—and the Charlottesville community—need to have in-depth conversations about law enforcement staffing levels, mental health support and services, and community housing. 

Whither the Mall?

All things considered, is the Mall a success? “Yes,” Engel says without hesitation. “It’s one of the few pedestrian malls that remains. People from other cities come here to observe [what Charlottesville has done].” But clearly, making sure the Mall continues to thrive will require a more proactive approach to its long-term management.

Greer Achenbach is the executive director of the Friends of Charlottesville Downtown volunteer group. Photo by Stephen Barling.

So whose task is that? The City owns the Mall’s right-of-way (the streets and sidewalks), but there has never been a single-point person for its needs, and there is no single line in the city budget for Mall funding. Maintenance and repairs are handled by the Public Works Department and Parks & Recreation; long-term projects fall under the city’s Capital Improvement Plan. 

The buildings along the Mall, however, are privately owned. What most visitors think of as “the Mall” are the restaurants and retail outlets—most of them tenants, whether for 15 years or five months. Over the years, several volunteer groups have taken on the role of speaking for that business community; hopes are high for the newest version, the Friends of Charlottesville Downtown, set up in 2021.

One advantage for this new group, explains Greer Achenbach, the organization’s executive director, is that it’s a nonprofit 501(c)(3), funded by private philanthropy, which means it can hire full-time staff. The Friends wants to promote all of downtown Charlottesville, but recognizes the Mall is “a unique asset.” Achenbach sees her charge as promoting the businesses—through marketing, media, and special events—while working with the city to create an environment that draws both visitors and residents. Perhaps the Friends’ most noticed contribution so far is artist Eric Waugh’s “Music Box on Main Street,” a multi-part mural wrapping the abandoned Landmark Hotel building, but more special events like the holiday train and the recent open-air flower market are in the works.

“Some of the downtown’s issues are out of our area,” says Achenbach, “but we’re trying to be the energy/driver to keep things from getting stalled. We’re able to speak with one voice for business, tourists, and local users.”

Recognizing this complexity, a year ago, City Council appointed a 19-member Downtown Mall Committee representing a range of stakeholders: property owners, business owners, and residents as well as the historic preservation community and visitors. With staff support from the city, the committee’s monthly meeting examined issues from the Mall’s design and lighting to access, seating, and parking. 

The committee is scheduled to present its report to Council later this month. Several observers believe its recommendations will include naming a point person in city government for coordinating the Mall’s maintenance, operation, and long-term budget needs. 

More change will be coming. The city recently commissioned a management plan for the Mall’s trees. Many of the willow oaks lining the Mall are aging out; others have been damaged by pollution, accidents, or vandalism. In the meantime, the stumps of several trees that had to be removed have been decorated with sculptures made from their trunks by local chainsaw carver artist Brad Brown.

“It’s clear the Mall needs some investment, some TLC,” says Engel. “It’s a special place—it needs some regular funding source.”

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Fight fire with practice

Albemarle County Department of Fire Rescue trainees learn how to fight fires during classes that mimic conditions at both commercial and residential structures. Photo by Justin Ide.

Earlier this month, area wildfires were in the headlines, but fire season is year-round in Albemarle County. “There are seasonal factors—more brush fires in summer, more chimney fires in winter,” says Matt Ascoli, battalion chief for the Albemarle County Department of Fire Rescue. “But we can be called out any time.”

That’s why on a recent rainy Wednesday, Ascoli and his latest crop of trainees were out at the county’s “burn house,” on a lot next to the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, setting fires and learning to fight them.

The burn house was built in the mid-1980s to give firefighters a place to practice. It’s a large concrete block building, designed to mimic fire conditions for both commercial and residential environments. Its walls are marked with the smoke stains of innumerable fires, its windows covered with plywood panels. Its external stairway is much wider and sturdier than the usual fire escape, since firefighters in full gear run up and down these stairs for periodic three-day recruit trainings, as well as the annual refresher all firefighters go through.

The day I’m observing, there are two groups of trainees—four recruits who have fire rescue experience (either paid or in a volunteer company), and 14 with no firefighting background. The less-experienced recruits gear up first and head into the burn house to learn how fires start and spread, and the proper techniques to apply at each of the four stages (incipient, growth, fully developed, and decay). In this case, the fire is three wooden pallets and a bale of straw, carefully set and monitored by a professional firefighter.

In the next session, the experienced recruits will be assessed on their skills in fire attack and search while the less-experienced team observes. Part of this exercise is seeing how quickly the team gains entry into the building, something that’s important in instances of locked garage doors, secure buildings, or illegally blocked fire doors. This time, the team is up against a large free-standing metal fire door labeled THE CHALLENGER. One firefighter starts in on it with a crowbar, but it will take three guys with fire axes to get through and into the burn house.

“These scenarios give our personnel experience with actual fires, and opportunities to practice real-time decision-making skills,” ACFR Public Information Officer Logan Bogert tells me. Over the next two days, the newbies will work through fire attack, search, and ladder placement in residential fires, and a technique called vent-enter-isolate-search, looking for a known victim in a known location, often using an entry point other than the main doors.

This class is ACFR’s largest to date, thanks to a $7 million Federal Emergency Management Agency SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) grant that enabled the agency to hire, train, and deploy 30 full-time firefighters. ACFR has received three of these grants since 2020.

An extra, unintended benefit: SAFER funding has enabled ACFR to develop its own recruit training program, so it can accept trainees with no previous firefighting experience, thus widening its recruitment pool. In today’s training, I see several women and minority recruits, and I’m told a recent class included a grandmother in her 40s. Recruits have to go through medical screening and physical agility testing before they start learning how to work while wearing 40 to 50 pounds of personal protective equipment.

Which brings up the question of who wants to be a firefighter. Ascoli says many of the new recruits have parents or relatives who are in the field, but most of them, career or volunteer, are seeking a way to give back to their community. “We got a lot of recruits after COVID,” he says. “They want to have a way to serve.”

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Rooms with a view

Photo: Gordon Gregory Photography

Architect Rosney Co. Architects  Builder Greer and Associates Interior design Jennifer Stoner Interiors  Landscape architect Waterstreet Studio

As soon as I came up here and saw the view, I called my wife and said, ‘I’ve found the place,’” recalls Hugh Shytle. “I felt like I was on top of the world.” 

Shytle and his wife Doreen had lived in New England and raised their children there, but when it came time to build their forever home, Hugh was drawn to central Virginia. As a remote-working partner in a Richmond-based real estate development firm, Hugh was familiar with the area, and the couple homed in on southern Albemarle County close to Charlottesville. When a colleague of Hugh’s called about a lot in Blandemar, he came to check out the site, took in the 360-degree view from the hilltop over rolling hills and the Ragged Mountains, and was hooked. 

Photo: Gordon Gregory Photography

Hugh had already been networking with colleagues in the Charlottesville area for a design team. By the time the Shytles had closed on the site, they had an architect (Rosney Co.); a builder (Greer and Associates); a landscape architect (Waterstreet Studio); and an interior designer (Jennifer Stoner Interiors) lined up. “We had never built a home before,” Doreen says, “so it helped that we had a great team.” 

Having the full team involved from the start “is really our preferred approach,” says Rosney Co. architect Keith Scott. And the site was a plus—not only for its “outstanding” views, but because working on the flat hilltop made construction easier (“steep sites are a budget killer,” he says). Scott says Hugh’s experience in the real estate business helped prepared the Shytles for the hundreds of decisions they had to make—and the many blips that can cause delays or changes in plans. 

Photo: Gordon Gregory Photography

The couple had also given lots of thought to their forever home. Hugh, in fact, had a 10-page document listing everything the pair wanted. Top of the list: “maximizing the view with lots of windows.” Other have-to-haves: two home offices at opposite ends of the house (“Doreen doesn’t want to hear me on conference calls,” Hugh laughs); an owner’s bedroom suite on the first floor; lots of fireplaces; and a large screened porch. Doreen wanted a shingle-style house and a large open kitchen with a pantry; Hugh wanted geothermal heating, an outdoor kitchen by the pool area, and a barn. And, of course, room for their two children and family to visit. 

Photo: Gordon Gregory Photography

As the design progressed and “forever” choices had to be made, the original plan for 5,000 square feet ended up at almost 7,000. The Shytles hadn’t originally asked for a full basement, for example, but “we were glad to have that [workout room] when COVID hit,” Doreen recalls. (The couple came to Charlottesville in June 2017 to oversee construction, and moved into their new house in January 2019.)

Photo: Gordon Gregory Photography

The finished home feels comfortable and human-scale, both spacious and well-organized, and the stunning views are everywhere. The main entry’s back wall is the staircase silhouetted against a two-story window. The wing to the left is the owners’ suite: a calm and private bedroom with fireplace and large windows west and south; a couple’s bathroom with separate vanities and a makeup table, heated floors, a walk-in shower, and a free-standing tub; his-and-hers dressing rooms with loads of cabinets and clothing spaces (including shelves for Hugh’s hats); a laundry room with built-in storage drawers, drying racks, and even a step on which to place the laundry basket.

To the right of the entry, past the formal dining room, is the high-ceilinged great room featuring a fieldstone fireplace and a two-story southwest-facing window. The comfortable furnishings are warm neutrals, with accents of wood, and nature-themed contemporary artwork. “Our house in New England was a colonial, with dark wood furniture,” Doreen says. “We decided to get rid of almost all of it.” (They did keep several lovely bedsteads and dressers for the upstairs guest rooms.)

Photo: Gordon Gregory Photography

Off the great room is the large open-plan kitchen with its own dining area and spacious windows running along both sides. This is Doreen’s domain: “I wanted a large but well-organized space, white but not sterile.” So the expanse of white cabinets is lightened up by opaque patterned-glass inserts, the counters are gray-streaked honed Montclair Darby marble, and the cabinet under the island is a neutral lined oak. One side of the island’s large counter is a half oval that gives people gathering on the bar stools more room. The handmade range hood of burnished nickel from Thompson Traders is set off by the chevron-patterned tiles in shades of gray on the backsplash. Tucked away off the kitchen are additional working spaces—a pantry/appliance room, and a butler’s pantry/staging area across from the dining room. And, as with any country home, there’s a good-sized mud room full of coat hooks and cubbies.

The Shytles got their other must-haves as well. Hugh’s and Doreen’s offices are on opposite ends of the second floor—with a guest bedroom suite, two bedrooms and a full bath, and a game room in between. The large screened porch, with its shingled columns, fieldstone fireplace, and large-screen television, functions as an all-season outdoor gathering space. Beyond the pool area (designed by Waterstreet and built by Pool Designs by Schultz in Lexington) is a two-acre wildflower garden with beehives from which the family harvests its own honey. And yes, Hugh got his barn.

“We had our list of what we wanted, and the team brought it to life,” says Hugh. “People ask what we would have done differently, and it’s really very little.”

Photo: Gordon Gregory Photography

Incorporating contemporary into classic

To prepare for decorating her new home, Doreen Shytle “spent hours on Pinterest,” she recalls. “I wanted a feeling of calm, light, airy.” Her research online led her to interior designer Jennifer Stoner.

“Doreen knew she wanted a Hamptons shingle-style house, but [for the interior] we started from scratch,” says Stoner. “I took them down to [the showrooms in] High Point, North Carolina, and she started gravitating toward more contemporary styles.”

Stoner keyed the design to the home’s stunning views: “I tried to bring in the greens and blues from nature, and focused on a warmer palette.” Choices like veined marble, textured glass, and patterned tiles in the kitchen, butler’s pantry, laundry room, and baths added warmth and texture (Cogswell Stone supplied all the stone in the home, and the patterned tiles came from Sarisand Tiles). In smaller spaces, like the butler’s pantry, the mudroom, and the powder room, Stoner and Doreen used tans and warm dark blues for the walls and cabinets.

Choosing light fixtures “was one of my favorite parts of the process,” says Stoner. Centered in the great room’s vaulted ceiling is a hanging fixture of interlocking gold-toned circles from Currey & Co. The dining room chandelier is a modern metal take on a classic candelabra, with matching wall scones in the adjoining entry. The stairway features large vertical wall scones and an unusual straight-line hanging fixture from Visual Comfort. Doreen admits she was hesitant at first, but has grown to love how they fit the space.—CD

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Organic luxury

Photo: James Baigrie Photography

The renovation of Keswick Hall gave new owners Molly and Robert Hardie a chance to rethink every aspect of the luxury hotel, including moving the resort’s spa from the members-only clubhouse to its own building. The result is a reimagined facility with more service rooms, a more private setting, easier access for hotel guests and the local community, and a whole new ethos.

The new Keswick Hall Spa takes full advantage of its setting on a side road away from the main hotel. While the building was designed by the same firm that did the resort’s renovation (Hart Howerton), its look and feel are completely geared to its “away from the world” identity, beginning with its exterior—warm fieldstone, dark seamed metal roof, and large windows, as distinct from the creamy stucco and terracotta tiles of the Italianate main complex.

Photo: James Baigrie Photography

“The materials inside and out were chosen to be reflective of the setting,” says spa director Molly Flora. The interior palette created by Howerton designer Philippe Gozlan echoes the greens, blues, and browns of the natural environment that’s visible through all the large windows. There’s even a meditation walk of tan gravel and slate borders set in the grounds nearby.

The entrance/reception area says “spa” right away—light filled, creamy neutrals and blond wood, soft chairs. For guests stopping by to shop, the boutique is just off the lobby. Big windows, a vaulted ceiling, and muted lights show off the skin and hair-care products—­“all organic and natural,” says Flora—plus sleep and lounge wear from local designer Gillian Valentine.

Across the lobby is a waiting area with manicure stands and private rooms for pedicures and hair treatments. Here too the setting is soft furnishings and carpets, toss pillows, calming blues and grays. The fabrics and art are natural themes, including several stunning depictions of flowers created by Richmond paper artist Daphne Lee. 

Patrons enter the service areas through the women’s and men’s locker rooms, where the hallways and bathrooms feature heated stone floors, smooth marble counters, muted lighting, and arrangements of fresh flowers. Both infrared saunas and steam rooms are available, as are individual dressing rooms for those who want privacy. Guests then emerge into an octagonal midnight-blue foyer with tiny lights like stars winking in the ceiling. Beyond, is The Overlook, where guests wait to be fetched for their individual services. 

The Overlook is the heart of the spa. One end is a two-story window, as though guests are ensconced in the surrounding meadows and woods. Chairs with plump ecru and beige pillows and daybeds with lush blankets are positioned to take full advantage of the views. The walls are pale cream, with only a few nature-themed abstract art works; the vaulted ceiling is slatted wood paneling in a warm tan; the pendant lamps are golden teardrop-shaped glass. The abstract patterned area rug, manufactured in India, uses the same cream, blue, green, and gray shades as the ones in the foyer, waiting room, and boutique, “but each pattern is a little different,” Flora says. The hallways leading to the service rooms are screened by panels of leaded glass roundels. 

One of the benefits of creating a spa from the ground up is that the service rooms can be designed for the needs of both guests and service professionals. One room is specifically geared for couple’s services (with its own two-person shower), and another for ADA access. Every service room has those touches that make for a luxury experience—counters with plenty of drawers to keep products accessible but out of sight; wall panels that enable quick and soundless adjustments to lighting and music; a warming rack for the guest’s robe. The massage table’s face cradle is gel-filled “so you don’t get that pressure on your sinuses,” says Flora.

And, of course, there are fresh flowers here, too.

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Planting the seeds

Photo by Eze Amos.

Devin Floyd has made his knowledge of, and love for, the Piedmont into a personal vocation by working to restore it in all its ecological diversity.

Floyd is the executive director of the Center for Urban Habitats, an environmental education, research, and consulting group that he created in 2012. But its mission really began decades ago, with a young boy raised in the Blue Ridge.

When Floyd was about 6, the family moved to the mountains of northwest North Carolina, eventually settling in southwest Virginia, in a log cabin in the Mt. Rogers area. “We lived in the woods,” Floyd recalls. “My parents made a living making crafts and working with plants, and my grandmother encouraged me to engage with nature. I spent every day outside, and absorbed so much about the animals and plants.”

Floyd earned a baseball scholarship to James Madison University and a degree in prehistoric archaeology (with minors in geology and art). He got a job as an archaeologist at James Madison’s Montpelier in Orange, and then at Oatlands in Leesburg, where he also did work as a freelance technical illustrator. Archaeology, Floyd says, requires a skill at reading landscape, which came naturally to him, given his upbringing. In addition, concentrating in this one region of Virginia was deepening his knowledge of the flora, fauna, geology, and ecological niches of this area.

His environmental interests led Floyd into a collaboration with nature-lovers, hikers, educators, and scientists in the Mount Rogers area. The result was the Blue Ridge Discovery Center, near Marion, Virginia. The nonprofit, which Floyd co-founded in 2008, has a mission to combine environmental research, education, conservation, and stewardship in a multi-faceted approach to learning about and living with the natural world.

By this time, Floyd and his wife had settled in Charlottesville. Floyd was working at Monticello on a major project, a plantation survey of Tufton, one of Thomas Jefferson’s farm holdings bordering Monticello. But Floyd’s interests were evolving.

“I became increasingly aware that people saw [the landscape] as here to manipulate,” Floyd says. “But I was reading it as plants responding to the geology, the soils, all the inputs of their environment.” He began looking for the areas that were still free of modern human degradation—and he saw a whole new world.

The Piedmont, a geological area that stretches from Alabama to the Hudson River Valley, is the most populous ecosystem in North America, Floyd points out, and has been through centuries of human habitation and activity. “But even here, all over are little pieces of ground that are undisturbed, like finding a little time capsule.” He calls these pockets “remnants,” areas that have never been developed, never been sprayed or treated with herbicides, never even been plowed.

With this personal epiphany, says Floyd, “everything changed.” He started using his environmental and botanical knowledge to create landscapes using plants specific to that particular microhabitat. His first project was designing the plantings for a homeowner’s patio; instead of the usual Virginia native or rock garden plants, he selected species that fit the site’s particular geology and microhabitat—in this case, a Piedmont mafic barren (mafic referring to the underlying rock types and barren meaning that natural plant growth is sparse).

To meet the needs of clients who wanted more detailed ecological assessments of the habitats, plants, and animals across their properties, Floyd began finding and collaborating with others in the Charlottesville area who were equally devoted and knowledgeable about this area’s ecology.

In 2014, he left his Monticello job to concentrate full-time on the Center for Urban Habitats, a group of like-minded environmentalists and educators (including his wife Rachel), with specialties from plants, birds, and insects to landscape restoration, publications, and web design. The organization’s mix of environmental research, conservation, and education was like that which spurred the Blue Ridge Discovery Center, but instead of the wilder area of southwest Virginia, CUH’s focus was the more domesticated landscape of Charlottesville and its surrounding counties. If he was going to educate folks about their natural world, Floyd thought, “Let’s go to their backyard.”

Many of CUH’s first projects were as much educational as environmental. The Wildlife Garden at Clark Elementary School was designed as a hands-on way for children to learn ecological basics, using native plants specifically adapted to the site and exceptionally supportive for wildlife. Jackson-Via Elementary School’s Owl Magnet, which students helped build and now study as it evolves, created a habitat with the right mix of plants, insects, and animals to make a perfect hunting habitat for owls. A native pollinator sanctuary in Friendship Court (now Kindlewood) was part of a community garden project led by the Urban Agriculture Collective of Charlottesville and other community organizations. Most recently, CUH helped design and build an outdoor living classroom for science and art at Nelson County Middle School.

These and other projects—including a native plants garden in Court Square, pollinator plantings on the curb extensions along Hinton Avenue, and a path and meadows project still under construction at Ix Art Park—were created in cooperation with community partners and funded by local and state agencies, donations, and grants.

Armand and Bernice Thieblot turned to Devin Floyd to transform the derelict soapstone quarry on their Schuyler property into The Quarry Gardens, which now includes 14 ecozones, seven conservation areas, an education center, and walking trails. Photo by Tom Daly.

Floyd was increasingly sought out by private landowners seeking to return their property to its more native state. One of CUH’s best-known and most ambitious projects grew out of a 2014 presentation Floyd did about the Ix Art Park project for a master gardeners group, which included Bernice Thieblot who, with her husband Armand, owned a large ridgetop tract near Schuyler that included a derelict soapstone quarry. Inspired by a visit to British Columbia’s Butchart Gardens, extensive formal gardens created a century ago in a former limestone quarry, the Thieblots wanted to build an exhibition garden of native plants, and Bernice saw Floyd as “just the right person.”

“Our site is unusual,” Thieblot explains. “It’s right on the edge of both the Piedmont and the Blue Ridge [ecoregions], and the soapstone bedrock means our soil is very pH basic, which is unusual in this area. It’s also hilly, with lots of wet and dry areas. Devin came out to take a look, and was intrigued.”

Over the next year, the CUH team came out every few weeks to survey the site and its existing biota, design a plan to restore the microhabitats there, and develop a comprehensive plant list. Site work and planting began in the spring of 2016, and The Quarry Gardens opened in the spring of 2017. It now includes 14 ecozones and seven conservation areas, as well as an education center that offers exhibits on both the local ecology and the history of the soapstone industry, general and specialist tours, two miles of walking trails, and speakers on topics from native plants to geology, spiders, fungus, and moths. And because the work is never done in a garden, the CUH team leads volunteer work days every Friday morning.

The 40-acre Quarry Gardens was a massive challenge, but Floyd and CUH were willing to take on smaller, backyard projects. In 2018, a recent retiree from northern Virginia bought an Albemarle County house with a backyard that was “a disaster—the former owner had used it for doggie day care.”

Over the years, the new owner became more and more interested in native plants, and Floyd became well known in native plant circles. She invited him to take a look at her yard, and “he came out in the freezing cold, and got all excited. He told me I had the kind of soil that Jefferson and Madison had come here to farm,” she says.

CUH developed a four-zone garden plan, and preparing and planting the yard took a couple of years. At that time, the homeowner recalls, “native plants were hard to source, and expensive.” Getting a grant from a local government conservation program helped (see sidebar), but she’s still happily investing in her piece of ecological heaven. “You should see the difference. The wildflowers I have, and the birds I get here … I get hawks hunting in my yard. As they say, if you build it, they will come.”

While gardeners’ knowledge about and demand for native plants was increasing, Floyd found the ones on sale at nurseries weren’t always the same plants he was finding in unspoiled habitats. Many plants have developed specific genotypes adapted to their individual environmental microhabitats. To meet that need, CUH is creating a network of local genotype native plant growers, including Twinleaf Native Nursery, Little Bluestem Nursery, Hummingbird Hill Native Plant Nursery, and private landowners.

The challenge of restoring the environment that was here originally is not all about plants. Perhaps one of CUH’s most unusual projects is the salamander crossing under Route 29 at Polo Grounds and Rio Mills roads. In the 1990s, local nature-lovers Bess and Jim Murray had located one of the largest colonies of spotted salamanders in the state, and the amphibians needed to migrate every spring from their wooded upland habitat to their mating grounds on the floodplains across the busy highway. Working with Albemarle County, VDOT, the Virginia Safe Wildlife Corridor Collaborative, and Riverbend Development, CUH was able to get a wildlife tunnel and guide walls constructed to allow salamanders (and other creatures) to cross safely under Route 29 and fulfill their life cycle.

While the need for more research, education, restoration, and conservation are unending, Floyd is also taking on a whole new aspect of recovering ancient landscapes. Among the remnants of the prehistoric Piedmont that Floyd has been identifying are a habitat that has been ignored: grasslands. It’s a common assumption that pre-colonial Virginia was one huge expanse of forest. In fact, he says, “50 percent of the Piedmont was savanna.”
CUH has already identified more than a thousand grassland remnants in central Virginia, and is beginning to identify patterns in their distinctive biota. Many of these plants are clonal (growing vegetatively, not by sexual reproduction), which makes them literally ancient. Floyd describes finding these old-growth habitats as “coming across an abandoned cabin in the woods.”

Savanna remnants may be tiny, but they aren’t rare. CUH has found at least 300 sites on roadsides throughout our area. “You could drive by one every day, within 10 miles of your house,” Floyd says. “There are some grassland areas at Preddy Creek Trail Park, along the paths in Hilltop Meadows. Look for green milkweed.”

Grassland remnants of a size large enough to support wildlife as well as plants are particularly rich and biodiverse. CUH has already gotten two grants from the Virginia Native Plant Society to study these savanna fragments, with a goal of conserving and protecting them for further research. In one of the study proposals, Floyd wrote, “Before we can make room [for] natural grasslands, or begin to inspire others to love and steward them, we must learn how to see them.”

Learning to see has been Devin Floyd’s life work.

When your yard needs a little green

Restoring a native plant community or creating a conservation-oriented landscape takes time—and money. The Thomas Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District has supported several CUH projects, including the Owl Magnet at Jackson-Via Elementary School and the above-mentioned backyard restoration.

Funding for the backyard restoration came through a grant from TJSWCD’s Virginia Conservation Assistance Program, a cost-share program for residential or other developed land uses. VCAP provides financial, technical, and educational assistance to property owners who adopt eligible “best management practices” in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The Albemarle Conservation Assistance Program and Charlottesville Conservation Assistance Program are similar,
with special funding from Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville.

Property owners and schools or places of worship at least a year old may
be eligible for assistance to treat and control stormwater runoff, control erosion, conserve water within the landscape, improve riparian buffer areas, and promote native vegetation and wildlife habitats.

For more information, go to tjswcd.org/best-management-practices-homeowners.

Ed. note: This story has been updated to better clarify the details of Devin Floyd’s early life.

Categories
News

Free market

Last fall, Megan Salgado stopped by Reid’s Super-Save Market on Preston Avenue and was gobsmacked. “The shelves were almost completely empty,” she recalls. “I’d seen on Instagram that the store was in trouble, but it was worse than I thought.” In January, she decided to galvanize support for the long-standing neighborhood grocery store and put up a GoFundMe page to raise $10,000 to help it survive.

Reid’s GoFundMe page—which, as of this writing, has raised more than $20,000, twice the original ask—generated local media interest, and stirred up debate: Is the purpose of public fundraising efforts to get a failing business out of trouble? Or is the purpose of a community funding effort to raise all boats in the community, whether they are an individual, a nonprofit, or a store that’s a neighborhood institution?

The market’s supporters and donors clearly feel Reid’s is a special case; many regard it as part of “the old Charlottesville.” The original store downtown, then called the Stop ‘n’ Shop, was bought by Malcolm Reid in 1961 and renamed. When the building burned down in 1982, Reid sold his satellite store on Preston Avenue to employee H. Kennan “Kenny” Brooks. Brooks died in 2016, and his daughters Kim Miller and Sue Clements took over. Sue, who works full-time for the University of Virginia, has gotten more involved in the grocery store’s operation in the last few years. Her husband, Billy, who handles day-to-day operations, has worked there for more than 35 years, while Kim is more involved in running the satellite Reid’s in Dillwyn, which opened in 2015.

The first thing Sue wants to make clear is her commitment to keeping the store open. “My father was the kind of guy who, if you came in and said you didn’t have the money for groceries that week, he’d let you shop and pay him back later—that’s just the kind of man he was. We still have customers who will call and ask us to put an order together for them. We try to help our customers out—we had a community day here the year before COVID hit, and it was a huge success.”

Reid’s still has a large community posting board outside its entrance, with everything from concert ads and lost pet fliers to business cards and event notices.

But times and the neighborhoods have changed. “It used to be that 60 to 70 percent of our customers were from the neighborhoods [Rose Hill/Birdwood, 10th and Page, and Starr Hill],” says Sue. “Now it’s under 50 percent.” As the neighborhood population has aged, customers pass away and families move out; large family homes get sold off. Real estate values have soared as the Preston Avenue corridor has developed, but the people moving into the new upscale homes and apartments have new habits. “People don’t do all their grocery shopping in one place anymore,” Billy Clements notes.

The Clements acknowledge a confluence of factors that they should have noticed earlier. Troubles began well before the pandemic—which actually boosted sales, as people were reluctant to go into large grocery stores and were buying in bulk for fear of shortages. But then, when the shutdown eased, people stopped hoarding. Post-pandemic issues hit the store hard; as sales dropped, they had trouble making the payments to distributors to keep products in stock. By last October, Reid’s had a sign on the door letting customers know that in spite of empty shelves, the store was still open. “We own this building, and it’s valuable real estate,” says Sue. “It would be easy to sell, but our customers were saying, ‘Please don’t leave us.’”

The crisis spurred the Clements to re-examine their operations, realizing that business as usual wouldn’t suffice. (Sue says proudly that although they have lost some employees to attrition, “all our people have continued to get paid, and there haven’t been any layoffs.”) This is when Megan Salgado walked in and mentioned the possibility of a GoFundMe page to one of the store managers. Other customers had brought up the idea, but Sue and Billy said they were reluctant to put up a page asking their own customers for help. They were, however, open to the idea of the community taking charge.

A few weeks later, Salgado decided to go ahead. She had grown up in Charlottesville, and spent her middle school years in the Rose Hill neighborhood. “I would always run into people I knew [at Reid’s],” she says. After moving away from Charlottesville, she recently returned to live in the Woolen Mills neighborhood and would shop at Reid’s a couple times a month. “It’s a really good location for a grocery store, I would stop by on my way to somewhere and pick up things I need. Once it was a bundle of firewood—you can’t get that at a convenience store.”

But her reactions to Reid’s troubles went deeper than convenience and nostalgia. “In Charlottesville, we talk about being a community and keeping things local, but sometimes there’s a disconnect between the talk and what’s happening. How can we be better about that?” To Salgado, Reid’s is even more than a beloved community institution—“it’s a grocery store in the middle of a food desert. If Reid’s shuts down, who are the people who will be hurt by that?”

When Salgado put up the page, she set a goal of $10,000, a figure she picked randomly, “and I thought that would be a reach.” She posted the link to Reid’s Facebook page, and shared it on NextDoor and her Instagram account. “I was surprised at how quickly [the GoFundMe page] caught on—it’s apparent the store has quite a following.”

Of more than 200 donations, the majority range from $10 and $100—but there are many for $200 to $500. Notably, there are two $1,000 donations from fellow businesses: Bodo’s and The Markets of Tiger Fuel, both of which have stores across Preston Avenue from Reid’s.

“I see Reid’s as a community resource, and the well-being of their business is important to the community,” says John Kokola, co-owner of Bodo’s. “And they’re our neighbor, I want to help when I can. They represent the spirit of the neighborhood, and have deep roots in Charlottesville’s history. And then, what would it look like if this business weren’t here any more? I hope that people will vote with their feet, and their pocketbook.”

Gordon Sutton, president of Tiger Fuel, says, “My brother [Taylor Sutton, Tiger Fuel’s COO] and I live downtown; we shop at Reid’s, we love the people there—they’re really service-oriented and friendly—and we want to see them survive.” The Preston Avenue Tiger Market staff have been known to send a tray of sandwiches over to the Reid’s staff for lunch.
Sutton acknowledges the objections that have been voiced about donating to a business when so many community efforts in Charlottesville need support. “I vetted the idea through our management and our marketing director, who oversees our efforts to support local nonprofits, and got their blessing. We all see Reid’s as a community institution.”
In the end, Sutton says, he and his colleagues decided that Reid’s was a special case, and a place worth supporting: “I’m cheering for an old institution that I like.”

So is long-time customer Norman Lamson, who has lived in the Rose Hill area and patronized Reid’s for 30 years. “I’ve always done all my shopping there,” he says. “It’s five minutes away, and they have the best meats in Charlottesville.” Seeing the empty shelves “was sad—I figured they were having difficulties, so I decided to keep going there to support the store. It’s important that it’s a family business.”

While the outpouring of support was welcome, the Clements know that Reid’s has to succeed as a business to survive. The first step, says Sue: “Address what we’re selling. In the past, the grocery business was all about options. But now, we’re going to be stocking fewer products while still offering a range of high-, low-, and midpoint cost items.”

Reid’s has always been known for its meat and produce. Fresh fruits and vegetables can be hard to find in a small mom-and-pop outlet, but Reid’s has an entire wall of produce at prices close to the large supermarkets. One online reviewer may have noted that you can’t find bok choy or papaya, but then there’s plenty of shelf labels noting what foods are eligible for SNAP benefits. “We are trying to serve all the genres of our neighborhood,” Sue says.

But it’s the meat department that gets customers raving—and coming back. Reid’s is one of the few stores around that has its own meat-cutter, a skill that is less and less available as more large outlets stock only pre-cut and pre-wrapped meat. The market carries a wide selection of beef, ready to sell or cut to order. Billy says proudly, “You want your steaks two inches thick, fine. You can even call ahead.” Reid’s selection of pork runs from head to feet—literally. “We sell everything but the squeal” is clearly one of Billy’s favorite lines, and you can always find Kite’s Virginia ham. The offerings of poultry and fish are more basic; fresh fish is delivered once a week.

One innovation that has brought in buyers is the new value aisle. When a distributor has an overage, or a good deal on products the Clements think will suit their customers, they advertise the weekly special on Reid’s Facebook page and website, and in local fliers. These rotating specials can include special-offer meats and produce, as well as staples from canned tomatoes, cereal, and soft drinks to mac-and-cheese, vegetable oil, and Oreos.

Sue is aware the store’s marketing efforts have to expand, and she hopes the attention to its plight will encourage more people to come in the door. “Grocery stores are a penny-making business. But we’re here to serve the community—the people and families that work here, our family, and the families that shop here.”

As for the GoFundMe page, Salgado always saw it as a temporary measure to get Reid’s back from the brink. “The key is to have people patronize the place,” she says. “I hope people know that they ought to be shopping there. I hope they capitalize on this interest.”


Local resources for small businesses

“The challenges facing small local businesses aren’t any different here in Charlottesville,” says Matt Johnson, assistant director of the City of Charlottesville’s Office of Economic Development. “Sourcing supplies, slim margins, the cost of real estate whether you own or rent, attracting the right staff—these are universal problems. But because small businesses usually run with much tighter profit margins, they often have less funding available to facilitate change.”

Long-standing small businesses, especially those that are locally owned, have a special character, says Johnson. “People have emotional connections to these places, where they might have gone as children or shopped in their early years. That’s the benefit of having these businesses—they help to shape the community.”

OED strives to be responsive to businesses of all sorts and sizes, says Johnson. “One of our main purposes is to serve as a point of contact. Whether your business has challenges or you want to position your business for future growth, we want to point you to the resources you need, within city government or outside sources and partners.” He notes that OED is adding a staff person who will be specifically focused on supporting entrepreneurs.

Johnson cited other resources in the area which, like OED, are available without fees—and most of them have programs specifically geared to small, women-owned, and minority businesses:

  • Central Virginia Small Business Development Center offers business counseling ranging from start-up advice to financial, marketing, and workforce development for established businesses; access to market and sector research; and a variety of events and training sessions.
  • Community Investment Collaborative supports development and growth of community businesses and entrepreneurs, focusing on early-stage business education and connection to resources including mentoring, microfinancing, education, and networking.
  • Virginia Small Business Financing Authority is the state’s business and economic development program, which provides access to financing programs specifically geared to small businesses.

Johnson also noted that Piedmont Virginia Community College runs a range of programs for business management and workforce development.

Categories
Abode Magazines

Creating community

Photo: Virginia Hamrick

Dorothy Batten has traveled to some of the world’s most iconic places: the Galapagos Islands, Africa, New Zealand, and Indonesia. And everywhere she found that wildlife, ecosystems, and ways of life were endangered. But she’s taken to heart the dictum to start with your own backyard. Batten is turning Oakencroft Farm and Vineyard in Albemarle County into a showcase for sustainable agriculture, and hopes to foster both environmental education and action through her new venture, The Center at Oakencroft.

Photo: Virginia Hamrick

Batten has lived in the Charlottesville area for years, on farms and in town. With her sons graduated, she was looking to return to a more rural life when the Oakencroft property came on the market in 2018. Batten bought it—partly to protect it from development, she says, but also as a place to put into practice what she had been learning. The reinvigorated vineyard will be a showcase for sustainable wines, and the farm will be a model for regenerative agriculture practices. 

Her most ambitious undertaking is creating a place for community education and activation on a range of environmental issues. The Center will host knowledge-sharing discussions for local landowners and farm managers, meetings of conservation and climate action groups, and conferences on environmental challenges, from wildlife protection to habitat restoration and carbon sequestration. 

To redesign Oakencroft for its new mission, Batten called on H. Adams Sutphin of local firm Sutphin Architecture. She knew the work he had done for friends of hers, and she knew him personally because their sons played lacrosse together. “I wanted someone I knew would be a joy to work with,” Batten says. Sutphin, meanwhile, calls this project “the most collaborative” he’s worked on. (A Darden MBA, Batten also studied interior design at UCLA.)

Photo: Virginia Hamrick

Batten and Sutphin started with a reuse/recycle look at the existing buildings. The original Oakencroft Winery’s tasting room and winemaking space, created by connecting two cattle barns, was outdated—and far too large for the new, smaller winery operation—and it was sited right next to the farm’s pond, a perfect spot for the gathering space Batten envisioned. The plan: Renovate that building as The Center, and turn the existing hay barn into the winemaking/wine-tasting space. 

“I always see value in [using] existing construction,” Sutphin says, “but this was a real puzzle piece, getting the program into this structure.” The Center would need a reception area, a conference room, break-out rooms, and a catering kitchen, as well as some residential units for multi-day events. The design also needed to include handicapped access, state-of-the-art audiovisual technology, and sufficient parking—while using sustainable materials as much as possible.

Their first decision was to replace the gravel parking lot between the building and the pond with a garden area that features the natural surroundings and creates a contemplative ambience fitting for one of its purposes, as a place to host retreats. The existing open walkway along the length of the building was enclosed in glass walls, which connected all the spaces while allowing light and the outdoor setting to pervade the building. Placed along the glass walls are sliding wooden-slat screens that can be moved as the sun moves, cutting the glare, reducing the need for air conditioning, and adding a Japanese Zen touch that suits the building’s style and its setting. Landscape architecture firm Waterstreet Studio designed the garden (fed by recaptured rainwater) with walkways that invite strolling under the shade of decades-old willow oaks that used to be surrounded by gravel and parking stops.

The cathedral-ceilinged central lobby/reception area sets the tone for The Center—airy, open, neutral natural colors and materials, decorated with large artworks from Batten’s travels to Africa and Asia. “We wanted to feature natural materials, a calm palette, and a clean and contemporary feel,” notes Sutphin—and, Batten adds, “we didn’t want it to feel like an office.”

The south hallway leads to the main conference room, two break-out rooms, and the facility’s kitchen. It ends in a large room that can be another meeting room, a dining room, or a social gathering space—with outdoor nooks for lunch, conversation, or quiet time overlooking the gardens. The north hallway holds the restrooms, bedrooms (one handicap-accessible), and a large suite at the end.

“Throughout the building, we wanted to use materials that are both natural and long-lived,” Sutphin says. Several rooms have vaulted ceilings of white pine; the exterior is clad in Accoya, a modified wood made in the Netherlands from fast-growing pine that has been “baked and pickled” (in Batten’s words) to be longer lasting and pest resistant. One interesting stylistic touch: the vertical wood panels at both front and rear entrances feature random holes, an element Batten took from Scandinavian design.

Scandinavia, Japan, the Netherlands, Africa, Asia, and Virginia—blended to make a place to consider and work for our planet. 

Categories
Knife & Fork Magazines

Renewing a tradition

With Près des Prés, Andrew Pearson aims to bring fine French dining back to the Main Street site of Rochambeau and its nationally known predecessor, Pomme. Photo: Stephen Barling

Andrew Pearson is Virginia born and bred, and always thought he would return to his home state one day. When the COVID shutdown found him and his family quarantined in Birmingham, Alabama, he decided it was time. “I’ve always had my Virginia bag packed,” he says, and soon the family had bought a farm between Gordonsville and Cismont.

Soon after, on a stroll through Gordonsville, Pearson passed the recently closed Restaurant Rochambeau, once a highly regarded draw for the town. “I looked in and saw the tables were still set,” he says. “Everyone here wanted the restaurant to reopen.” With a background in hospitality as well as farming—while he was growing up, his family owned an inn that his grandmother ran—Pearson had a conversation with the restaurant’s owners. 

“I expected a long discussion,” Pearson admits, “but within 10 minutes Jacqueline Gupton and her husband said okay.” His new restaurant opened a month later, in August 2023, under a new name: Près des Prés, meaning “near the meadows” (the Pearsons’ farm is called The Meadows).

Pearson was drawn to the idea of bringing fine French dining back to the Main Street site of Rochambeau and its nationally known predecessor, Pomme. While many people may think French dining features stereotypical French dishes, he says, “French cooking is more about ingredients and techniques.” Beyond that, he was really excited at the prospect of “doing something good for Gordonsville and the wider community.”

Luckily for his suddenly short timeline, Pearson found the perfect chef close to home. Abby Duck, a graduate of Johnson & Wales University’s noted culinary program, had worked her way up to chef du cuisine at the Tasting Counter outside Boston, and when she decided to move closer to her family in this area, she was his first choice to help him launch the new venture.

When it comes to preparing French food, Duck says she starts “with what I would like to eat, and then make it French. I like to use lesser-known French ingredients, things that people aren’t as familiar with.” Working from a list of seasonal vegetables, Duck designs each month’s menu to include three vegetarian dishes and three protein-based dishes. She looks for ingredients from the area (including from the Pearsons’ farm and garden), and is working on building relationships with local suppliers. For now, Duck makes every dish from scratch, including the desserts: “I do all the baking, except the bread—that’s from Albemarle Baking Company.”  

Photo: Stephen Barling

For now, Près des Prés is open for dinner Wednesdays through Saturdays. Service is limited to 10 tables or a maximum of 26 guests, with a three-course prix fixe menu of the month posted on the restaurant’s website. As an example of Duck’s mix of tradition and originality, November’s menu featured pistachio soup with squash, crème fraîche, and tuile or Brussels sprouts with yam, lemon, Dijon, and blood orange as starters, followed by fresh spaghetti with yuzu, chive, sea urchin roe, and cream or pommes darphin with chili oil, crème fraiche, and watercress. Entrées were scallops with risotto, hazelnut, sage, and pomegranate, or venison with sunchoke, green peppercorns, and broccoli rabe. 

“We want dining here to be an experience,” says Pearson—but not the intimidating one some people associate with fine French cuisine. The restaurant still looks much like Rochambeau, warm and inviting, a place you want to linger over a meal. Families are welcome, says Pearson, who makes sure to be a visible host. 

Reactions from patrons have been very positive, says the new restaurateur: “It’s a real honor to have people come from D.C., Fredericksburg, and Richmond. We even had a couple come here as their honeymoon treat.” In response to that positive interest, the restaurant will be open for one Sunday this year, on December 31, for a special five-course New Year’s Eve tasting menu.

But Pearson also wants Près des Prés to be a gathering point for locals, and he hopes to be open more days as the business settles in, and wants more people to stop by the restaurant’s bar (open from 5 to 9 every night the restaurant is open). Duck’s bar menu includes crêpes, frites, and French onion soup (naturellement!), as well as desserts and a grazing board. A recent addition is the newest gourmet treat: artisan tinned fish. It goes very well with Champagne.

Categories
434 Magazines

The spirit of the back country

Photo: Eze Amos

Ken Farmer has made both his careers out of doing what he loves. Whether he’s appraising on PBS’s popular and long-running “Antiques Roadshow,” or performing on a local stage as Ken Farmer and the Authenticators, his knowledge of and love for the arts, crafts, and music of southwest Virginia shines through.

Farmer’s roots in the back country go deep. He grew up in Pulaski, where at age 10 his father got him an inexpensive Teisco del Rey bass guitar. This was 1960, and “I was drawn to rhythm and blues. I learned all the bass lines to the Rolling Stones songs,” Farmer says. When he got to Emory & Henry College, his roommate told him while they were jamming, “You’ve got a pretty good tenor voice—you should sing too.” That’s when Farmer got introduced to Doc Watson, his first guitar hero. In his junior year, when the family moved to Delaware, Farmer got exposed to the music scene in the Philadelphia area and began learning about the full range of American roots music.

By 1974, Farmer was living in Wytheville and married to Jane, his college sweetheart. “We had no furniture,” Farmer recalls, “so we started going to local auctions—we’d buy the stuff left over at the end. Once we started buying stuff, we had to figure out how to sell stuff. We [took a load] down to the Metrolina flea market in Charlotte and made $2,000.” Jane was working as a teacher, and soon Farmer quit his job as a probation officer and became a self-employed dealer. “I’m a stuff nerd,” he says. His superpower is remembering objects and their context—quality, source, and price. 

At the same time, Farmer was traveling to fiddler conventions and guitar competitions. He met some musicians from Radford, who invited him to join their bluegrass band Upland Express. By 1979 Jane was pregnant with their first child and the couple moved to Radford. Farmer left the band to become a real estate agent and then a broker—which got him into estate sales. In selling off entire estates, Farmer found “I didn’t know enough about pricing everything, so I started auctioning—off the back of a truck at first. Eventually I bought a tent, and then a warehouse.” He found auctioneering combined his increasing knowledge of “stuff” with his performing instincts, and it also gave him more experience in valuing objects, which led him into appraising. 

In 1995, he got a call from a producer for PBS’s “Antiques Roadshow.” The producer liked his credentials as a generalist who could evaluate not only regional furniture and furnishings, but also crafts, tools, and textiles. Over 20 years, Farmer had built up a breadth of experience and a network of experts he consults to get the best information on “things I don’t see much of, from Asian art to jewelry and rare instruments.” 

Farmer has appraised everything from a North Carolina secretary desk worth six figures to tools and fishing equipment. The worst part, he says, is telling someone the “antique” they’ve staked their heart on is a fake. He also cautions that simply getting a price range is not the whole story. “There’s also what you have to spend [formal appraisal, restoration, research on provenance, advertising in the right places, etc.] to turn that object into money.”

Most of all, Farmer points out, “I can’t put a value on what that object means to you.” Farmer’s home is filled with everything from folk art to fine art, and “I could tell you a story about every single piece.” Early in their married life, he and Jane spent pretty much their last dime on a decorated Appalachian pie safe that they have kept and enjoyed for almost 50 years. His advice: “Surround yourself with things that give you a little love every day.”

Music has given Farmer plenty of love for decades. His repertoire includes rockabilly, blues, roots rock, and country—basically, the full range of the 20th century, including contemporary songwriters and original music. “I love that you can play this music that’s still performed as it was 100 years ago, and you can take it and make it your own,” Farmer says. “Other people have drawn from the music of Appalachia—Gram Parsons and Marty Stewart, to name only two.”

When he moved to Charlottesville in 2012, Farmer began meeting local musicians through the Central Virginia Blues Society. For the last five years, he’s played guitar and sung lead vocals with The Authenticators—Rob Martin of Nelson County, Frank Cain, and Preston Wallech. They’ve played area wineries and pubs, Fridays After Five, and the Blues Society’s annual festival. This year’s gigs include Plaza Antigua in Waynesboro, The Camel in Richmond, and Carter Mountain Orchard. 

While he loves the crafts of the back country, Farmer admits he’s a musician first. “Music frees my mind,” he says. “It’s a hypnotic, spiritual thing—a great gift.”

BEHIND THE SCENES

While the “Roadshow” may look casual to viewers, quality control is rigorous. Appraisers (who are not paid) fill out a form listing their expert contacts, which get vetted beforehand, Farmer says. During the show, “you’re surrounded by your peers checking out what you’re saying.” The evaluations may look off the cuff, but appraisers do get a chance to prepare—and of course, only a small number of the most interesting appraisals make it into the show.

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Caring through the end

Hospice of the Piedmont's new CEO, Nancy Littlefield, says her work as an ICU nurse led her to palliative care, helping the dying and their families through life’s last stage. Photo: Eze Amos

Nancy Littlefield is a fourth-generation nurse, so it’s not surprising that she describes caring for people as “my calling.” What may be surprising is that her work as an ICU nurse, helping the sick and their families to heal and recover, led her to palliative care, helping the dying and their families through life’s last stage. That will be her focus as the new CEO for Hospice of the Piedmont.

“As an ICU nurse, you get lots of patients facing eternity, and you wonder how to help them,” Littlefield says. Spending time with patients and their families, learning more about their lives and talking about their needs, she says, “I became impassioned about that kind of care.” 

Littlefield has amassed a broad range of experience in her over 30-year career. A New Jersey native, she earned her RN from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia before moving to Virginia in 1987. She earned her bachelor’s in nursing from George Mason University, a master’s degree in health care administration from VCU, and a doctorate in nursing practice from Old Dominion University. Her career has covered the clinical and business aspects of health care, in both acute and long-term care. Most recently, she served as executive vice president and chief nursing officer for Riverside Health System, a network including five hospitals and nine long-term care facilities and hospice/palliative care services in southeastern Virginia.

While she clearly gets her vocation for nursing from her mother, Littlefield credits her father with sparking her career drive. “He was a huge influence,” she says. “He started as a draftsman, and ended up owning the company. One of his leadership lessons was ‘Act like you can handle more.’” That attitude led Littlefield to get a master’s in health administration rather than nursing—to learn more about the business side as well as the clinical aspects of health care.

Another of her father’s mantras was that problems are just an opportunity to find solutions, and Littlefield says that’s how she honed her business management skills—“through experience. Like going through the COVID pandemic—if that didn’t get you through how to handle [health care] problems!” 

During her time at Riverside, Littlefield and her husband were thinking ahead to the next stage; their son and his now-wife both attended UVA, and the Littlefields decide to settle in the Charlottesville area. In 2019, they bought a lot in Keswick and built a home there. With her growing focus on end-of-life and palliative care, Littlefield thought she might end up volunteering for Hospice of the Piedmont, and got to know Ron Cottrell, who was then leading the organization. When he retired this year, Littlefield says, she thought, “Wait—is this a good fit for me?” She decided yes, and so did the hospice board.

Hospice and palliative care are in increasing demand, not only as the population ages but as awareness grows of the importance of quality of life. Hospice of the Piedmont serves more than 1,700 patients a year, according to Communications Manager Jeremy Jones—some in its eight-bed Hospice House and its 10-bed acute care center, but the vast majority in their own homes or assisted-care facilities. As a nonprofit, Hospice of the Piedmont cares for families across a broad socioeconomic range.

One misconception is that going into hospice means giving up. Quite the opposite, Jones says: Palliative care or hospice often enables patients to stabilize their condition and live longer and more comfortably. But number of days isn’t the focus—the goal is “taking care of patients and their families before, during, and after end of life—to walk through that process with them.”

Modern medicine can do amazing things, but there is a time when treatment can do little more. “Hospice is there to seamlessly take over then that time comes,” says Littlefield. “It’s always the patient’s decision—when to have palliative care help with symptom management, so you can do what you want to do with the time that’s left.” 

“I’ve gotten so much from this work, the lessons these patients have taught me,” she says. “Those of us drawn to this work see working through the end of life as a privilege.”