Originally published in the Winter/Spring 2025 edition of the Virginia Defender, issue 76, printed March 26. Reproduced here for accessibility and archival purposes. To find other stories in the Winter/Spring 2025 issue or to download the full PDF, see this post. For other issues dating back to 2012, see the Full Issues page.

By Ana Edwards

Isn’t the ground floor in the floodplain? And won’t we lose the best views?

If these questions wrack your brain, you are not alone, but there are reasons.

First, even though the 2022 updated FEMA report enlarged the area of Shockoe Bottom that is in a floodplain, the train station isn’t in that area.

Second, while the Sacred Ground Project’s memorial park proposal included as early as 2015 the suggestion for an interpretive center in Main Street Station, the Shockoe Institute was conceived and funded to fit into several distinct development priorities in the Bottom.

One was the transformation of the station into downtown Richmond’s transportation hub for rail, taxi, car and bus service.

Another was the city’s desire for a compelling visitors center, a place to welcome people to Richmond and its historic assets and its willingness to have that barely-used 12,000-square-foot space serve that purpose.

And then there’s the fact that the City rents out the upper floor for private and public events.

Historically, at least, there is a connection: Virginia’s railroads were key to the movement of enslaved people and helped lead to Richmond’s eventual position as an epicenter for the slave trade.

While the benefit of a view from the upper floor of the station will not be part of the Institute’s amenities, making the railroads’ own role part of the truth-telling about urban development, transportation and slavery is a significant contribution to acknowledging this troubled and layered history.

As for views of the various sites in Shockoe Bottom, those will be available from the elevated walkway that will wind its way around the entire memorial park, from southeast to northwest and above Broad Street.