The year was 1995. And rural Tazewell County’s office of social services had just nine foster children in its care.
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17 photos of Richmond Department Stores from our archives
New chest president - William B. Thalhimer Jr. (right) moved into the driver's seat yesterday after he was elected 1959 president of the Richmond Area Community Chest at a meeting of Chest trustees. He succeeds W. Stirling King. Thalhimer, president and general manager of Thalhimers, Inc., has been a Chest volunteer since 1934. William B. Thalhimer Jr., shown in 1959 in his role as president of the Richmond Area Community Chest. The man on the left is W. Stirling King, a former mayor of Richmond and Thalhimer's immediate predecessor as Community Chest president.
This December 1950 image of East Broad Street at Fifth Street in downtown Richmond shows crowds of holiday shoppers visiting such stores as Baker's, Peoples Drug, Swatty's Pants, Haverty's Furniture and Raylass Department Store.
In October 1955, a U.S. mail truck navigated Broad Street downtown across from the Thalhimers and Miller & Rhoads department stores.
This February 1953 image shows the old Miller & Rhoads Corner Shop and the adjoining Woolworth’s at Fifth and East Broad streets downtown, just before they were torn down. The replacement building that opened the following year still housed the two retailers but in a different configuration.
In March 1967, Miller & Rhoads opened its new “Collector’s Corner” between the Tea Room and the Ladies Room on the fifth floor of the East Broad Street store downtown. The new department included antiques, reproductions of old furniture, china, silver and curios.
On Dec. 23, 1968, Stanley S. Kidwell Jr. and his three children – from left, 5-year-old Rhanna, 7-year-old Megan and 8-year-old Wendy – watched the stuffed animals prance in the snow in the window display of Miller & Rhoads downtown. Under the direction of Addison Lewis, the Miller & Rhoads Christmas window displays became one of the most anticipated parts of the season in Richmond.
This June 1950 image shows the Harper’s Department Store at 201 E. Broad St. The store opened in 1933 as The Linen Mart. After closing in 2006, the store was sold to developers who found the contents to be a bit like a time capsule, with items dating back decades – including a men’s leather jacket priced at $10 and a boy’s three-piece wool suit with dress shirt for $4.99. The contents were bought by two local collectors. The building still stands unoccupied. Harper's Inc. 201 E. Broad, T-D Mag.
This May 1957 image shows the Woolworth’s at Fifth and Broad streets in downtown Richmond. The $1 million building opened in September 1954, and it housed several departments for the nearby Miller & Rhoads, which had an earlier store on the site in the late 1800s. An ad for the Woolworth’s Easter sale offered handbags for $1, records for 99 cents, and cowhide and plastic belts for between 39 and 98 cents.
Thalhimers added a new entrance to its downtown store the same year of the 1929 stock market crash.
In August 1954, J. Harold Dunn worked to set up his Dunn Bros. miniature circus – “the biggest little show on Earth,” as it proclaimed itself – at Miller & Rhoads in downtown Richmond. Admission was 25 cents for adults, 15 cents for children 12 and younger. Several years earlier, the newspaper reported that the 475,000-piece circus took five men 48 hours to set up on a 60-by-28 foot-table – and seven hours to break down.
In August 1951, saleswoman Eunice Hester tried to help Robert Matthews select a fragrance for his lady at the Miller & Rhoads department store in Richmond. A caption that accompanied the published photo referred to “the dilemma of the he-man caught in the task of perfume selection.”
In November 1978, African-American women gathered for a beauty clinic at the Thalhimers at Eastgate Mall in Richmond. The clinic, sponsored by Fashion Fair, brought in beauty professionals including Pearl Hester (standing at right) to demonstrate makeup techniques.
In October 1955, famed chef James Beard visited Thalhimer's new fine foods shop and conducted cooking demonstrations. Beard enjoyed dining on ham on Mondays, but he parted with tradition when carving Virginia's own Smithfield ham: He preferred the European method of slicing it crosswise in long, thin slices that begin near the shank end and run roughly parallel to the bone. The annual James Beard Foundation Awards will be announced today and on Monday. The foundation, formed after Beard's death in 1985, issued its first awards in 1991.
