Advertisement

Header Utility Menu

  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Events

LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram Get Our App

  • Login

Virginia Business

Mobile Menu

  • Issues
  • Industries
    • Banking/Finances
    • Law
    • Real Estate
    • Economic Development
    • Education
    • Energy/Green
    • Federal Contracting
    • Government
    • Healthcare
    • Hotels/Tourism
    • Insurance
    • Ports/Trade
    • Small Business
    • Startups
    • Technology
    • Transportation
  • Regions
    • Central Virginia
    • Eastern Virginia
    • Northern Virginia
    • Roanoke/New River Valley
    • Shenandoah Valley
    • Southern Virginia
    • Southwest Virginia
  • Reports
    • Best Places to Work
    • Business Person of the Year
    • CEO Pay
    • COVID-19
    • Generous Virginians Project
    • Legal Elite
    • Most Influential Virginians
    • Maritime Guide
    • Site Locator
    • The Big Book
    • Virginia CFO Awards
  • Company News
    • For the Record
    • People
  • Opinion
  • Lists
  • Awards/Events
    • 2022 Virginia Business Political Roundtable
    • Women in Leadership
    • Diversity Leadership Series
    • Virginia 500
    • Legal Elite
    • CFO Awards
    • Big Book of Lists
    • 100 People To Meet
    • Best Places To Work
  • Virginia 500
    • Read The Issue
    • Power Up Virginia 500
    • Buy an award plaque
    • Suggest execs for 2023

Advertisement

Header Primary Menu

  • Issues
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • September 2022
    • Issues Archive
  • Industries
    • Banking/Finances
    • Law
    • Real Estate
    • Economic Development
    • Education
    • Energy/Green
    • Federal Contracting
    • Government
    • Healthcare
    • Hotels/Tourism
    • Insurance
    • Ports/Trade
    • Small Business
    • Startups
    • Technology
    • Transportation
  • Regions
    • Central Virginia
    • Eastern Virginia
    • Northern Virginia
    • Roanoke/New River Valley
    • Shenandoah Valley
    • Southern Virginia
    • Southwest Virginia
  • Reports
    • Best Places to Work
    • Business Person of the Year
    • CEO Pay
    • COVID-19
    • Generous Virginians Project
    • Legal Elite
    • Most Influential Virginians
    • Maritime Guide
    • Site Locator
    • The Big Book
    • Virginia CFO Awards
  • Company News
    • For the Record
    • People
  • Opinion
  • Lists
  • Awards/Events
    • 2022 Virginia Business Political Roundtable
    • Women in Leadership
    • Diversity Leadership Series
    • Virginia 500
    • Legal Elite
    • CFO Awards
    • Big Book of Lists
    • 100 People To Meet
    • Best Places To Work
  • Virginia 500
    • Read The Issue
    • Power Up Virginia 500
    • Buy an award plaque
    • Suggest execs for 2023

Home News Reports The Big Book Revisionist history

Revisionist history

Virginia tourism draws emphasize state’s multifaceted heritage

Published March 1, 2020 by Kate Andrews

Kehinde Wiley’s “Rumors of War” was installed at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in December. Photo by Rick DeBerry

Virginia’s tourism industry has long banked on its history — but this time there’s more context and acknowledgement of different facets of the commonwealth’s heritage.

Last year, the commonwealth held observances marking the 400th anniversaries of the first elected legislative body in the New World and the arrival of the first enslaved people from Africa. Native Americans and enslaved Africans’ role in the early days of the Jamestown Colony were a prominent part of the 1619 remembrance events.

And the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts closed the year by welcoming hundreds of visitors to the December unveiling of acclaimed artist Kehinde Wiley’s “Rumors of War” monument, depicting a modern, androgynous African American figure on horseback in a pose echoing the equestrian statue of Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart a little over a mile away, on Richmond’s Monument Avenue.

More than a billion dollars has been invested in Virginia’s hotel industry in the past year. Among the projects are large hotels with convention space, such as the $125 million Marriott Oceanfront Hotel Virginia Beach, set to open this month, and two new hotels under development in Chesterfield County that will offer conference space and hundreds of guest rooms.

And scattered among these big projects are smaller new hotels dedicated to local history and culture.

In other Virginia localities — including Danville, South Boston and Bristol — developers are transforming historic buildings into boutique hotels that honor historic architecture and industries. Lynchburg’s Craddock Terry Hotel and St. Paul’s Western Front Hotel are among Virginia’s earliest adopters of the boutique hotel trend. Craddock Terry, housed in a former shoe factory, opened as a hotel in 2007 and recalls its original purpose with a large, red high-heeled pump on its exterior. Last year, the hotel added a private rooftop bar.

Western Front opened in 2018 in the tiny town on the border of Wise and Russell counties. The town’s colorful background — tied in with the coal trade and accompanying bordellos and bars — isn’t all pretty, and the hotel exemplifies Virginians’ new way of considering history.

The 70-room, $20 million Sessions Hotel in downtown Bristol is set to open in late March. Housed in three, renovated, century-old buildings, the hotel is named for the legendary 1927 Bristol recording sessions of the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers that are widely considered to be the “big bang” of country music.

Also opening in March, Charlottesville’s Quirk Hotel — a sister hotel to Richmond’s Quirk — has gallery space for local and regional artists. Norfolk’s Glass Light Hotel and Gallery, a Marriott property that opened in January, displays glass objets d’art and sculptures created by world-class artists Dale Chihuly and Peter Bremers, plus a restaurant opened by a Michelin-starred French chef, set in a 1912 building.

Virginia’s natural beauty also remains a tourism draw. In Abingdon, a former railroad line has become the Virginia Creeper Trail, featuring 34 miles of Appalachian scenery and foliage. And in bucolic Bath County, the Omni Homestead is restoring its 1700s-era Jefferson Pools; they’re expected to reopen this summer with historical markers describing “the waters’ reputed curative powers.”

CHARTS:

  • Conference hotels
  • Virginia’s commercial airports
  • Top 10 craft breweries by barrels of beer produced annually
  • Virginia’s distilleries
  • Top localities for Airbnb host income in 2019

Related Stories

Virginia Business logo

On the move

These people are making a name for themselves throughout Virginia

Two scenarios

The direction of Virginia’s economy still depends on the federal government

Virginia Business logo

On the move

People making a name for themselves throughout Virginia

Trending

Dollar Tree CEO resigning; former Dollar General CEO to replace him

Rivers Casino Portsmouth opens to big crowds

Framatome CEO retiring; CFO to be promoted

Va. bill aims to reduce mental health stigma for health care workers

Norfolk’s MacArthur Center mall listed for sale

Sponsored Stories

In the New Year, Aim for Better Cybersecurity

4 innovative ways to create capacity

WHERE IS THE SUPPLY CHAIN WHEN YOU NEED IT?

P.A.I.N.T. Your Financial Mountain

5 Benefits of Treasury Management Services from Atlantic Union Bank

Blazing trails in the digital landscape

Advertisement

Advertisement

Trending

Dollar Tree CEO resigning; former Dollar General CEO to replace him

Rivers Casino Portsmouth opens to big crowds

Framatome CEO retiring; CFO to be promoted

Va. bill aims to reduce mental health stigma for health care workers

Norfolk’s MacArthur Center mall listed for sale

Sponsored Stories

In the New Year, Aim for Better Cybersecurity

4 innovative ways to create capacity

WHERE IS THE SUPPLY CHAIN WHEN YOU NEED IT?

P.A.I.N.T. Your Financial Mountain

5 Benefits of Treasury Management Services from Atlantic Union Bank

Blazing trails in the digital landscape

Get Virginia Business directly on your tablet or in your mailbox!

Subscribe to Virginia Business

Advertisement

Advertisement

Footer Primary Menu

  • virginiabusiness.com
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Footer Secondary Menu

  • Industries
  • Regions
  • Reports
  • Company News
  • Events

Sign Up For Our Newsletter

Sign Up

LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram Get Our App

Privacy Policy Cookie Policy

Footer Utility Menu

Copyright © 2023 Virginia Business. All rights reserved.

Site Maintained by TechArk