A Photographic Journey Through Richmond’s 1980s

Moore was filming the romantic comedy “Finnegan Begin Again,” which co-starred Robert Preston and Sam Waterston. Scenes were shot all over Richmond, including at the Richmond Times-Dispatch headquarters downtown.

The heads originally were part of a set of 42 that adorned the public market at Sixth and Marshall streets. Many were sold off in 1964, but two were rediscovered in city storage. Restoration was led by Virginia Commonwealth University art conservationist Laurence Pace.

In 1980, White became the park’s first naturalist – at a time when visitors frequently cut their feet on broken glass, drownings weren’t uncommon and litter was everywhere. Within a decade, White had directed significant improvements in safety, cleanliness and visitation.

The building was constructed in the 1880s and was used as an elementary school until 1962 – it was once Stonewall Jackson School and West End School, and earlier, it housed the Richmond Normal School. The building was sold to a developer in 1980, and today, the space houses the Baja Bean Co. restaurant.

At the time, some of the leading rental titles were big movies from 1986, including “Top Gun,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Stand By Me” and “Aliens.”

The structure formerly housed the freight office and some accountants from the Chessie System railroad company.

Before the Sunday closing law, or so-called blue law, was formally repealed by the Board of Supervisors, Henrico residents – who in a referendum that month voted in favor of repeal – had to travel to surrounding localities to shop on a Sunday.

The new ride resembled a bobsled run – and even got a thumbs-up from members of that year’s Jamaican Olympic bobsled team, who visited the park to help introduce the ride. The Avalanche, which lasts 90 seconds and reaches a speed of 41 mph, is still operating today.

Parsons finished fifth and Petty finished third behind Darrell Waltrip, who won the race for the second time in a row. Waltrip earned about $19,000 for the victory.

A little farther upriver in Bremo Bluff, the James River crested at more than 33 feet following spring rains. In Richmond, it reached about 15 feet above flood stage.

The boat had seating for more than 200 passengers, plus two full-service bars and two dance floors. After attendance declined, the owners moved the vessel to the Washington, D.C., area at the beginning of 2004.

The James River rose to 15½ feet above flood stage and filled 24 square blocks of the city with 6 feet of muddy water. More than 50 streets were closed downtown.

In May, six death row inmates, including the Briley Brothers, escaped after studying the behavior of guards, overpowering them, stealing their uniforms and feigning a bomb threat in order to get out of the unit. All were recaptured and later executed.

The store was razed to make way for a 3-story medical office building - the new $24 million structure was built between Grace and West Broad streets, close to Richmond Metropolitan Hospital. Today the building serves as a Virginia Commonwealth University dormitory.

Opened in 1911, the Empire closed and reopened many times since its founding. It is now known as the Sara Belle and Neil November Theatre and is home to the Virginia Rep.

The 12,500-seat baseball stadium on the Boulevard in Richmond was set to open a month later for the new season. Compared with Parker Field, the Diamond offered more seating, concessions, restrooms and boxes where guests could host parties while watching the game.

The giant sub required three cases of tomatoes, 50 pounds of cold cuts and 15 pounds of provolone cheese. The sandwich was made for the Carytown Watermelon Festival, where patrons could buy 5 inches for $5.

Patrons could stay in the cars to assess their choices, then place orders with a “runner” who would retrieve items. The store was patterned after the drive-thru beverage locations on North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

It was vacant and boarded-up – the last regular passenger train to Danville had left 25 years earlier. The Southern Railway donated the station to the Old Dominion chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, which planned to convert the space into a museum and library. Today it houses the Richmond Railroad Museum.

The historic church, built as a memorial to those killed in the 1811 Richmond Theatre fire, was getting a new copper roof as a step toward preserving the building.

The ensuing fireball charred two cars parked on the street and sent flames up the side of the building. No one was hurt in the nighttime explosion, and delivery of the next morning’s RTD (which was printed in the building) was only slightly delayed.

About 50 people handled the first phase overnight – but restocking the shelves awaited.

Other seasonal events around the city included a holiday musical at the Byrd Theatre and “Nutcracker” performances by the Richmond Ballet.

Most employees had day jobs, were students or were stay-at-home parents who enjoyed dressing up and doing a little comedy on the side. The cast of characters changed with the seasons and expanded upon demand.

That year, residents of the Church Hill and Fan neighborhoods opened their doors for Christmas house tours. Each tour had a theme – in the Fan, it was “The Elegance of Christmas.” Almost 200 volunteers assisted with tours, and 75 hosts shared their homes. On Grace Street, three newly renovated homes were featured, which contributed to long lines.

The film made its Richmond premiere there in 1940 when the facility was Loew’s Theatre. The gala began with a fife and drum performance by men dressed in Civil War uniforms, and some women dressed as Southern belles in hoop skirts and lace.

The video was featured in an episode of MTV’s “Basement Tapes,” which highlighted up-and-coming bands. To save money, the band filmed the video in 24 hours – and even sold chocolate bars to raise funds. Saxon made her singing debut at Richmond’s Open High School when she was still known as Suzy Peeples.

After developing her vocal talents in Richmond for several years in her early 20s, Benatar moved to New York in 1975 to pursue a career that turned into worldwide rock stardom.

The building’s interior, which housed about 350 executives, reflected the tastes of Best founders Sydney and Frances Lewis, who were avid art collectors. Several Andy Warhol silkscreen prints of Marilyn Monroe hung above the lobby.

The Virginia Bicycling Federation was marking the centennial of its national organization that year, and member groups – including the Capital Community Cyclists of Richmond – were delivering copies of the proclamation to county seats throughout Virginia.

Robby built the structure himself after spending months collecting scrap wood and metal. The playhouse had a master bedroom, porch and wall-to-wall carpeting. Electricity for lighting and to power a radio was siphoned from his parents’ house.

The ceremony was held at the Miller & Rhoads department store downtown. Lillian Bagby of the store bakery and store President Robert Rieland joined West. The cake was decorated to represent different city landmarks, including City Hall, the 17th Street Farmers Market and Shockoe Slip.

The hamburger chain opened in the 1920s in Milwaukee and reached its peak in the 1950s, with more than 200 locations nationwide. White Tower declined as rivals such as McDonald’s grew; Richmond was one of the chain’s last strongholds.

Warhol was in town for the dedication of the West Wing of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, which was built to house 19th- and 20th-century painting, sculpture and decorative arts from the Mellon and Lewis family collections.

At 14 feet tall and 28 feet wide, it picked up all local stations and even had a cassette slot. The radio was part of the storefront at Mollen’s Auto Audio on Westmoreland Avenue in Richmond. Mollen was the store owner, and Ladin was vice president.

At the time, major chains were battling for Richmond-area customers. Pizza Hut, which had been in Richmond for 20 years and had nearly 40 local restaurants, was ranked No. 1, followed by Domino’s (about 15 regional stores) and Little Caesars (19). Pizza Inn and Godfather’s rounded out the top five.

The march began at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and wound around Capitol Square. In June 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the first handful of illnesses – rare lung infections and other signs of impaired immune systems in five men – in what became known as the AIDS epidemic.

Williams was one of three men in medical isolation there because of a diagnosis of AIDS. In the preceding two months, President Ronald Reagan made his first public mention of AIDS, and actor Rock Hudson’s death raised awareness of the epidemic.

The textile mill that had been the lifeblood of the town since that dawn of the 20th century was getting ready to close in the face of less expensive foreign imports. The town was named for businessman Francis Henry Fries, who had established the mill.

Fifty years earlier – on Aug. 29, 1931 – they were the first couple to marry in the then-new chapel. For their 50th wedding anniversary, they returned to the chapel from their Rhode Island home for a celebration service led by their son.

The Bishops were among 25 couples selected at random – from more than 500 applications – for an interview. Four couples were selected for the event, which was hosted by Bob Eubanks as part of a promotional tour ahead of the fall television season, when the latest version of the game show would debut on WTVR and other stations. The winners got a weeklong trip to the Bahamas.

Pivec said the operation could accommodate 1,200 cars per day. The location previously had been Hot Springs Car Wash, whose owner, Joseph Enning, was a familiar face through his television commercials.

There was no money in the school system budget for uniforms, so Julia Armistead (right) initiated the effort to get drivers out of plain clothes. The school system’s 180 drivers had the option of buying a uniform, which cost about $80.

The bar was popular with bikers; other businesses in that stretch, including an adult theater, attracted a diverse clientele that could make the area a hot spot for police. The Newgate Prison site was later home to the Virginia Commonwealth University police headquarters for more than a decade.

The Church Hill neighborhood group had expressed concerns about the shifting hill; city officials said the issue was being studied as part of a multiyear improvement program.

The CBS miniseries “Dream West” was being filmed in the area – the program focused on 19th-century American adventurer John Charles Fremont, who was portrayed by Richard Chamberlain. The “snow” was a combination of soap, water and air.

This was the fifth store in the Richmond area for the Norfolk-based grocer. The Brook Road location, which was open 24 hours a day, totaled 93,000 square feet and had 18 checkout lanes. In addition to groceries, the location had a bookstore, delicatessen, post office, cheese shop, restaurant, video entertainment center and bulk sales department.

The company was established in 1977 in Richmond; the first location was at 2900 Chamberlayne Ave.

The blast inside one home blew out bricks, windows and a back wall. Police and fire officials also discovered a fire in the home’s basement, but the cause of the fire and explosion was not immediately unknown.

The event, which included songs from the Fox School choir, capped a two-year effort by the Fan Woman’s Club in cooperation with state landmark officials. More than 3,000 buildings in the Fan were photographed and surveyed in the campaign.

The tobacco company had operated in the city for 53 years but was consolidating production in Georgia. B&W was founded in North Carolina in the 1890s and became a subsidiary of British American Tobacco in the 1920s; operations later were combined with R.J. Reynolds.

The builders planned two-level houses with the living room, dining room and kitchen on the upper level and bedrooms and a sitting room downstairs. Both levels would have decks overlooking Riverside Drive.

The marble horse fountain, donated by a Baltimore woman in 1909 in memory of a Confederate cavalry captain, was rebuilt on a larger stone base to help protect it from traffic. It also was moved a short distance to better align with surrounding buildings.

The restaurant, operated by Concession Air Corp., gave diners a view of takeoffs and landings. Dinner menu items included a chicken strips appetizer for about $3, a grilled chicken teriyaki entrée with salad and potato for $6.95 and an apple pan dowdy dessert for $2.95.

Frozen yogurt was just starting to gain popularity locally – the Everything Yogurt chain was started by Lane and Sara West after they moved to Richmond from Charlotte, N.C., and noticed the absence of yogurt shops.

Gregory almost lost her lease until a trucker known as “Country Gentleman” stepped in: In a two-week period, “Country Gentleman” gathered more than 150 signatures on a petition to help save the inn. That convinced the property owner to negotiate with Gregory for a month-to-month lease, which allowed her to keep her business open.

The plan was for it to be used as a public ferry to Belle Isle – the city was in the early stages of turning the island, a former Civil War prisoner camp, into a recreational destination. This setup was created a decade before construction of the suspended pedestrian bridge that reaches Belle Isle today.

The group, which performed during football pep rallies and at halftime of basketball games, had won a first-place trophy the previous month at a national cheering competition in Knoxville, Tenn. The winning routine was choreographed to The Brothers Johnson dance track “Stomp!”