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Confederate landmark under siege
VCU encroachment has White House and museum seeking a way to survive
BY JANET CAGGIANO
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Friday, January 28, 2005
Emily Ray was in a very bad mood when she arrived in downtown Richmond at the Museum and White House of the Confederacy a few weeks ago.
"I said to my husband on the drive over, 'Once I get there, I know I'll have a good time,'" she said. "But it's certainly not easy. You pass all these buildings that are falling down, you get stuck in traffic, then you can't find a place to park. That all takes away from the enjoyment of the visit."
Ray and her husband, Edwin, visit the museum several times a year. They used to make the short trip from their West End home more often.
"It's just so much more of an effort now," Emily Ray said. "It's a less satisfying experience."
The couple place much of the blame on Virginia Commonwealth University. The growth of its medical campus has nearly swallowed the White House, a National Historic Landmark, and the 108-year-old museum.
And the situation will only get worse. VCU plans more growth in the area, with work already under way on a 16-story (five are underground) critical-care building. The $110 million project, which is scheduled for completion in late 2007, will provide 232 critical-care and isolation beds.
Until then, visitors to the area face detours, traffic congestion, construction noise and parking headaches.
"We haven't seen the tip of the iceberg yet," said Waite Rawls, the museum's executive director. "Already, our visitors are so lost and confused by the time they get here. Some don't even make it to the front door."
Visitation has declined steadily, from a high of 92,000 annually in the early 1990s to fewer than 54,000 in the fiscal year that ended in June. That was the first time in 25 years that visits have fallen below 60,000.
That translates into financial woes. The museum ended the fiscal year with a deficit of about $393,000.
"I can understand [the declining numbers]," Emily Ray said. "As a visitor, you are less inclined to want to fight the fray."
Those who do often arrive wearing a frown. Rawls said about half greet the front-desk staff with a complaint.
"We have to do something," Rawls said.
The options are few: stay and look for creative ways to get noticed by tourists; move the museum and the White House; or move the museum but leave the White House where it is.
"We are not close yet to making a decision," Rawls said. "I know the public wants us to make an announcement, but this is a big-time study."
Museum officials hope to get help making the decision. The Virginia House of Delegates is considering setting up a commission to study the matter. The commission would serve as a forum for public discussion on the future of the museum and White House.
Local historians want the White House to stay where it is. Home to a succession of wealthy families throughout the antebellum period, the building has stood at the corner of 12th and East Clay streets since 1818. It served as the Executive Mansion of the Confederate States of America from 1861 to 1865 and was the official residence of President Jefferson Davis and his family.
"Buildings are a reflection of their time and place," said Kathleen Kilpatrick, director of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. "The White House is the White House because of where it is. The location is integral to its history."
Should the White House move, Kilpatrick said, it would lose its designation as a National Historic Landmark.
"All museums are having struggles in these times," Kilpatrick said. "Since [Sept. 11], people are traveling less. I hope the [White House of the Confederacy] will only consider relocation as a last resort."
. . .
On a sunny but cold afternoon, Jay Andrus walked toward the Museum of the Confederacy eager for his first look at the White House.
It wasn't until his sister pointed to the building next door that Andrus realized he had walked right by the historic landmark.
"It's lost here," he said. "The other buildings tower over it."
Andrus and his wife, Gertrud, were in town from California visiting family. Marvina Shilling, Andrus' sister, had been to the museum about 10 years earlier and couldn't wait to go back with her brother.
Both were disappointed.
"We don't remember all this," she said, pointing to the construction crews and jackhammers. "It used to be impressive. You could feel what the presidency was like. You could feel it was an elegant place. You don't feel that anymore."
The White House, once a scenic country estate, is now dwarfed by the massive VCU Medical Center buildings. Inside the museum, the staff is growing accustomed to a building that shakes every time medical helicopters land next door. They cover their ears as the jackhammers work away on the sidewalks outside.
"I have worked here for 17 years, and there's hardly been a time that this area hasn't been in a construction zone," said John Coski, the museum's historian and library director. "It's a headache."
The White House and the medical school have been neighbors since 1861, when the first Medical College of Virginia hospital opened at 1225 E. Marshall St. Since then, the medical campus has expanded several times.
Projects have included building Main Hospital at 1250 E. Marshall St. in 1982 and a pharmacy building within a stone's throw of the White House in 1984.
In 1999, 12th Street was closed to make way for the Gateway Building, complicating access to the museum and White House. Now, VCU is preparing to build a critical-care bed tower just east of the museum.
"We have worked side by side with the museum for many years," said John Duval, chief executive officer of MCV Hospitals, VCU Health System. "We have designed our new project so they can continue in their location unfettered."
VCU communicates regularly with Rawls, Duval said, to minimize surprises during construction. "We continue to do our best to be a good neighbor," Duval said.
It may not be enough.
"We are the unintended victim of [VCU Medical Center's] success," Rawls said. "It's a wonderful place that serves the community. There's just one problem -- we are in the way of it. For us, doing nothing is not an option."
So preparing for a move is necessary, Rawls said.
"The legacy of this place has always been to look to the future," Rawls said. "If we don't do that now, the number of visitors will continue to decline and we will have failed.
"We can't fail. The lessons of history are the lessons of humanity. Wise man after wise man has said something to the effect that anyone who doesn't understand their past can't understand their future. That's what we are trying to do."
Contact Janet Caggiano at (804) 649-6157 or jcaggiano@timesdispatch.com