Baxters help downtown Marion space continue to evolve after 120 years
During Monday's open house, Todd Baxter shows a photo of the Main Street property to Dave and Susie Fields.
Todd and Amanda Baxter look over photos of the property with Keith and Jan Medeiros, who ran Past Time Antique Emporium in the space until it was destroyed by fire.
Supporters of the Baxters' work joined in a ribbon cutting for the new apartments and retail spaces Monday afternoon.
A glimpse at one apartment's kitchen.
Each unit features a washer and dryer.
A look inside another unit.
A hallway in the new apartment area.
Monday afternoon, standing inside the newly rebuilt and renovated space that was gutted by fire in October 2021, Todd Baxter wondered how the walls might reflect on the 120 years they’ve stood.
Most recently known as the Past Time Antique Emporium, Baxter and his sister, Amanda, through their Baxter Southern Properties, have revitalized and transformed the about 1908 structure, creating 11 apartments and two retail spaces.
Baxter suspected the walls “would speak of nearly 120 years of lives within – of love and loss, of heartache and good fortune, and of evolution that can only come from more than a century of development and change.”
Speaking to those gathered to celebrate the new entity’s ribbon cutting, Baxter spoke of the diverse array of businesses that have filled the space in more than a century, including several eateries, a pool hall, a boarding house, a movie theater showing silent movies, an auto sales and repair shop with over 30 bays, a plumbing company, a national retail store, an insurance store, a bookstore, a newspaper, a music store and a purveyor of antiques.
“Imagine what stories could be told about the lives these walls held close, protected from the elements, joined together inextricably through thick and thin, engaged in commerce, celebrating with great food around communal tables, buying goods for families, enjoying a night out at the movies or playing pool. Lives were enabled and enriched in unimaginable ways from the very site we stand in today.”
With the smell of fresh paint still in the air, Baxter, a Marion native, also imagined what the walls would say about “this incredible chance at renewal, quite literally rising from the ashes.”
He thought ahead to “the lives that will live and grow and change in these 11 apartments. About the lives that will engage in retail commerce. About a renewed sense of optimism and excitement about the future.”
Before the ceremony, Todd Baxter talked about the project that transformed the badly damaged structure, which now houses a two-bedroom apartment, one fully accessible unit, and other one-bedroom apartments. Some of the units, he said, feature a loft with a full bathroom upstairs and a half bath on the lower level. All are equipped with a washer and dryer, a microwave, and garbage disposal among other appliances.
For the tenants, Baxter said parking spaces have been leased from First United Methodist Church.
As he looked around the retail spaces, Baxter envisioned a boutique or something akin to it in the smaller, rectangle-shaped property and a big box-type store in the larger space.
The spaces took about three years to complete. Baxter said it took a long time for the necessary permitting to be completed, get historic tax credits set up for the property, and finish environmental work and other actions to make sure everything was good to go.
“It took longer than we thought,” he acknowledged.
Amanda also explained that, fronting onto Main Street and in the tight confines of downtown, they couldn’t bring in big construction equipment or a crane, so the trusses had to be set by hand and crews had to bring in gravel in wheelbarrows.
Initially, Todd explained that the siblings bought the Mike’s TV building to create a permanent home for Helping Hands Community Thrift Store, which Amanda runs. Then, Ken Heath, Marion’s community and economic development director, approached them, saying, “Have I got a deal for you.” It seemed no one else wanted to tackle the project.
With his finance background and Amanda’s engineering skills, Todd said, “Between the two of us we figured it out.”
Monday, celebrating the project, Heath said, it was probably the single biggest investment in the downtown in the last decade.
Todd praised Heath and the town for their help, saying without him, architect Bill Huber, and Danny and David Greer, the project would have been impossible.
The buildings weren’t in great shape before the 2021 blaze and after the disaster, officials feared their impact on the downtown’s growth.
As part of its work to eliminate blight in the town, Marion’s Economic Development Authority bought the properties. Then, Heath helped get $500,000 in federal pandemic relief funding for the building.
In October 2022, Virginia awarded Marion $10,000 to conduct a feasibility study on the reuse of the two-story burned-out structure. That grant paid for Hill Associates to develop structural and financial options for restoring the building. At that time, the company projected a $6.5 million estimate for the work.
Then in 2024, $500,000 Mixed Use on Main Street (MUMS) funding was awarded for the project.
In May 2024, Baxter Southern Properties bought the building shell.
In a few months, Mother Nature delivered a blow to the project when Hurricane Helene struck and damaged a section of block on the building’s southeast side. The blocks had to be replaced with custom-made historic replicas that were matched to the existing building’s construction. The blocks were made in Indiana and shipped to Marion.
Amanda spoke with gratitude that all the block fell into the structure and not outward.
In late 2025, the state provided a $700,000 grant through the Virginia Workforce Housing Investment Program to further push the project forward.
Along the way, Smyth County also championed and worked for the project.
County Administrator Shawn Utt attended Monday’s celebration. Touring the apartments, he said he would live in them.
Also, touring the apartments and looking through historic photos the Baxters had displayed were Keith and Jan Medeiros, who ran Past Time Antique Emporium and experienced its loss to the fire. The couple is now retired and living in Abingdon.
The Medeiros praised the work and shared stories about ghosts and speculated with Amanda about the building having housed a speakeasy at some point as they talked about discovering bottles in and under the building.
The Medeiros also told Amanda that famous 20th-century author and Marion newspaper owner Sherwood Anderson wrote about the building in a letter published in the 1991 book Secret Love Letters: For Eleanor, A Letter a Day. Anderson referred to it as Frank’s Diner.
The Baxters aren’t done yet.
Construction has begun on the former Gospel Armory building, which is next door. Todd anticipates that work will be done in about a year and will create six additional apartments.
Todd praised the individuals and entities that are supporting the work.
In his remarks, he said, “It takes a village to do something like this, a village is what this building has supported for almost 120 years, and a village is what will grow and thrive at this very site, within these same walls, going forward for decades to come.”
Todd concluded, “Here’s to another 120 years!”
