The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-06-16

try merchant and those Of other cities
in Virginia made their replenishmeh.
OF stocks But the jobbing trade OF
old Richmond was Insignificant then
compared to what 1t Is to-day. Mer-
chants need no longer make trips TO
buy goods; the enterprising 5obbers OF
to-day send out their statesmen through
many States and sell their products
all over the land. and especially in tho
South. Many merchants still come to
Richmond, but they need not do SO to
buy goods. Daily malls extend to
every remote corner Of the State, and
swift trains carry commerce to every
county seat and hamlet.
In the war period the Spotswood
Hotel. at Eighth and Main. tho old
Union Hotel at Nineteenth and Main
Columbian Hotel, on Shockoe Slip;
the st. Charles. then in the
busy centre of urban activity;
the American Hotel, the Ex-
change and the Ballard House, and
finally the Powhatan House, are nearly
ali but memories, few surviving in the
swift evolution Of the hotel. The Ex-
change has gone. s did the Spotswood
long before. The ST. Charles was RACED
to provide site for q modern railway
station. and but two OF the others
are used as hostelries. Instead. the
city has the magnificent Jefferson Ho-
tel, with it's 425 guest-chambers; the
hardly less elegant Richmond, the
more capacious and splendid trio of
hotels owned by Colonel John MUIR
ply, and various smaller but we'll
equipped hostelrics.
The American Is scarcely recognized
In tho modernized Lexington of to-
day. and the Powhatan, after various
| q nf to
the Ford's Hotel of to-day
Hero and there are some buildings
that remind ono Of the past though
few still retain their olden nir. The
streets left in blackencd. smoking
ruins on evacuation are to-day built
up with splendid. modern business
structures. The old State Capital, en-
IlarEed and greatly changed in appear
ance. Is still the Capital of the Con-
federacy, and tho United States Court
house and Post-ottice still stand to re-
call tho location ofthe Executive offices
of the Confederacy. Many OF the his
! tor1c old churches, including st. Pauls
Monumental. Broad Street, Trinity, tho
First Baptist and various others stand
like old friends to greet the Confed-
crate OF the sixties. returned to his
| brleaguered capital after nearly half
a century. The old Theatre redolent
WILL VI Liz SIcuL sucLOrS ana
actresses who appeared thcre, has
gone, and more modern structures have
: replaced It.
!, In 1860 Broad Street west of Brook
Avenue was taken UP by the ITreder-
!. icksburg railway embankment. >and
was impossible It's struggling build-
!. ings could hardly have been called
business houses, for the business of the
city was done on Mainland Cury Streets,
All Of the magnificent West End,
where land now sells ut from $50 to
$175 per foot, and which has become
the fashionable residential centre of
the city, was but a wilderness OF pines
and brush ana thicket, Of gullies and
knobs aud shrub forest, Where the
fcrtiAcations for the defense Of Rich
mond stood forty years ago. the me-
mortal to Jefferson Davis rises In
stately grandeur. The city has out
grown Its outposts. and the trolley
lines Of to-day swiftly whirl suburban
residents to the scenes OF many OF the
stubborn battles of the greatest Amer
lean war.
In one respect alone Richmond res
mains practically unchanged, 1t has
! the same hospItable. ch!yalgous people.