Lynchburg Business

Market at Main: A Lesson in Historical Construction

Issue: March 2010 by Kimberly Feldkamp in Architecture, Engineering & Construction, Inside The Magazine

The idea was born in a barber chair.

Rodney Taylor was getting his usual hair cut, and tossing around ideas with his barber, Ralph Wilson, known to many around town as “Chopper.” The two were talking and tossing around ideas about what Lynchburg’s downtown needed. That was when and where and how the idea for Lynchburg’s Market at Main was born.

The idea was simple: A general store of sorts, offering folks living and working downtown a place to stop in, pull up a chair and grab a bite to eat for breakfast or lunch, or even pick up a few items or ingredients on the store side of things.

There would be many more haircuts, and many more months of talking before any plans for the market would be drawn up. And even then, it would be many more months of tearing down the old and building up the new before the store would open its doors.

But take a walk down Main Street today, and you can’t miss the newest addition to the 900 block.

Vision into Reality

Standing in the middle of the new store on a busy weekday at lunchtime, Wilson looks around Market at Main, proud of the finished product and of his role in getting it here.

“We always knew we needed a store like this downtown,” Wilson said. “I think it turned out pretty well.”

Wilson points out various details and explains how he helped lay that tile, or put up that tin backsplash behind the do-it-yourself drink counter.

“We were in here at night, making it happen,” he said. “[Taylor] came to me with the project. We discussed a few ideas, but my main role was the build-out of the store, and just developing and fixing the building.”

He goes on to explain how the two men partnered up to make this store possible, along with the help of many others in town. Wilson owns the building that houses the Market. He also owns the Parlor Ballroom and the barber shop, and the newly designed Parlor Lofts—spacious, modern apartment homes just above the store.

“There’s a lot of character in these buildings,” Wilson said. “We always knew we needed a store down here once CVS left, so we just got to work on it. A lot of people kicked in to make it possible.”

CAUTION: Under Construction

The building was built in 1886, so renovating it was no easy feat. But neither Wilson nor Taylor was daunted by the challenge before them.

“I enjoy this whole process,” Wilson said about tackling the rebuild. “It’s a hobby for me, so it doesn’t feel like a job…and I don’t mind doing the work.”

Taylor echoed that sentiment.

“It was a fun process to really take this building back to its origins,” he said.

And there certainly was plenty of work to be done. Wilson says the old CVS store was in pretty poor condition once they got inside to get started.

“It was in terrible shape. Nothing had been upgraded,” he said.

A lot of demolition had to be done before the rebuilding could begin. An old asbestos floor had to be torn out, along with commercial tile throughout the old store. Wilson says there was a lot of old equipment that had to be taken out, too. One of the biggest challenges, though, and one of the most important parts, was getting the electric and heating systems, along with the plumbing, up to code.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors

“We worked with a lot of local businesses, a lot of friends,” Wilson said. “And that really made the project feasible because we didn’t have to travel long ways to get materials in.”

Lynchburg based Dominion Seven Architects, who have an office right around the corner on Jefferson Street, helped draft the plans for the project. The squared glass windows that span the building above the Market’s front door were made just down the street, by J E G Stain Glass. Bailey Spencer Hardware provided all the doors and hardware. Thomas Johnson Furniture helped with all the floors and woodwork.

Wilson says many others—the Coleman Company, Harmin Plumbing and Wooldridge Heating—all chipped in products and services to get the job done and in a timely manner.

“I think it’s important to work with local businesses. That’s what we want this,”—he gestures to the new store around him, the rehabbed apartments above him—“to be all about.”

Taylor says even the products that line the wooden shelves are local—local beers, local wines, local foods—and he expects to expand on that this spring, adding that many ingredients used on the restaurant side are local.

Reuse, Renew, Recycle

When workers ripped up the commercial tile left behind from the CVS Pharmacy, Wilson says the original floors underneath were damaged and couldn’t be refurbished, but Thomas Johnson Furniture was able to salvage and refurbish recycled wood boards to make the floors for the Market. They also helped with the impressive wood columns, paneling and shelving throughout the new store.

Once all the heavy lifting was done, there was all the cosmetic work to tackle. A lot of the details of the Market are reminiscent of a general store from decades ago.

“The best way to capture the feel of this project was to take the building back to the way it used to be in the 1930s and ‘40s,” Taylor said.

For this part, Taylor’s wife, Anne, played a role in the process. She helped research drugstores and diners from that timeframe to help make the Market look as authentic as possible.

“It was a lot of fun to look at Google images from generations ago,” Anne said. “We got the idea for the ceiling fans from an old drugstore in Philadelphia.”

She says they really wanted the inside of the building to feel like it matched the outside. On this end, they were lucky. The original tin ceiling, from when the building housed a Woolworth’s, was intact, and they worked that into the design plans. Taylor says they tried to use as many old materials that were already in place.

“The project went smoothly because we let the building tell us how to develop it, rather than us going in and developing the building the way we wanted,” Wilson explained.

With all the attention to detail, it’s no wonder Wilson earned historical credits for the renovations, though he doesn’t say much about that. Rather, he explains how he and Taylor started this process with a simple desire to create a place that was different from anywhere else in the city. And he says that’s exactly what downtown Lynchburg now has.

Now OPEN for Business

Today, the Market is open for business. The minute you step inside and take a look around, you can see that new mixes with the old, and in the updated details of the present day, you catch a glimpse of what used to be. Glance up at the 25-foot ceilings, and you can see that original tin ceiling.

There’s a sense of energy in this place, too. The cooks behind the counter are busily moving about, prepping and preparing lunchtime orders. There’s a clatter of dishes and a chatter of customers as the tables fill up. A friendly woman at the front counter calls out greetings the minute you walk in the front door. If reminiscent imagery was what Taylor and Wilson were aiming for, by many measures, they have succeeded.

“We really wanted folks to get a sense of nostalgia when they step in the door,” Taylor said. “We really wanted it to be that way from the construction to the customer side, so everyone feels welcome here.”