THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 6, 1995 TAG: 9509060478
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
The Valentine Riverside - an 8-acre, $22 million museum and park - has closed after 16 months because of low attendance.
But hundreds of visitors turned out for the final day, lining up Monday to watch the history of Richmond on high-tech multimedia displays in the Old Tredegar Iron Works, the arsenal of the Confederacy during the Civil War.
In the park, children rode the old-time carousel and ran in and out of the ``Forest Hill'' trolley. Bicycles meandered along the James River and rafts floated across it.
The curtain came down after the 8:15 p.m. showing of the museum's signature sound-and-light show, a dramatic overview of Richmond's history.
``We're enjoying . . . this place. It's really sad it has to close. It has a lot of potential,'' said John Lathrop of Prince George County, who brought his three children to visit when he learned the attraction was closing.
Lathrop said he believed Valentine Riverside had not been marketed well enough, a view shared by many who came on the last day.
Mary Ann Delano of Henrico County, a marketing consultant who has visited Valentine Riverside ``six or eight times,'' nodded grimly. ``It just didn't connect.''
As the attraction began to nose-dive late last year, much of the criticism was directed at President Frank Jewell, who resigned under pressure in February.
It was his idea to create the Valentine Riverside, and he enlisted some of the biggest corporate names in Richmond to drive the proposal to reality, soliciting promises of multimillion-dollar gifts.
Jewell lost supporters as critics charged he was a man with grandiose ideas who couldn't carry them out.
But Delano said Jewell may have been ahead of his time.
``I think he had a great vision,'' she said. ``I just hope they find a way to keep it open when the city takes it over.''.
The Valentine Museum was bought out of the Riverside by the city as part of the city's incentive package designed to lure a $60 million Crestar Bank office building to the city. That package included the city's promise to pay Crestar $9.1 million that the museum owed the bank.
City Manager Robert C. Bobb has said it might be a year or more before the attraction reopens, and it's not clear which exhibits will remain and which will be moved to the Valentine Museum about a mile away. The Valentine Museum will continue its role of telling the story of Richmond.
Some of the controversy about Riverside focused on what some viewed as an emphasis on the role of blacks in the development of the city. But it was just that emphasis that drew Melissa Williams, a black Henrico police employee.
``I heard about the controversy, and I said, `This is something I have to see,' '' she said. ``There is really a lot of African-American history here.''
Williams said Richmond has so much devoted to ``white heroes . . . and so much about the Confederacy'' that Valentine Riverside's decision to offer a glimpse of the lives of blacks in early Richmond was refreshing and balancing.
``It's pretty sad,'' she said, that black history became a target for critics of the museum. by CNB