Random Thoughts on Blogs and Baltimore

Posted by Bruce Miller
I try to keep up with the several interesting theatre related blogs in Richmond, most notably Dave Timberline’s posts on http://richmondvatheater.blogspot.com/. I enjoy reading what Dave writes. Also, the comments posted by other readers are often informative, challenging and fun. Reading Dave’s blog is a good way to keep up with what fellow theatre types (Richmond and beyond) are thinking and saying.

I recommend his blog to you. Once there you can find links to lots of the more personal blogs written by Richmond theatre artists, several of which are also consistently interesting.

On the Barksdale site we offer links to all the theatres in town, but we don’t offer links to the blogs. Since many of the writers/owners of these blogs frequently review, audition for and/or work on our shows, we maintain a respectful, professional distance.

For the record, I like, admire and respect both David and Holly Timberline, and I’ve known them professionally for over two decades. I was there when they met. But I don’t hang with them. Maybe after I retire, Terrie and I will be so lucky.

If these ramblings are starting to make no sense, it may be because I’m bouncing off of recent comments in his blog.

I seldom post a comment on Dave’s blog because the world now has more than enough opportunities to hear my point of view. I’ve become one of those the press turns to for quotes. For the first 25 years of my 33-year career, that was not the case. But things change with time.

There’s been a robust blog conversation at Dave’s place recently regarding STYLE Weekly’s “report card” on Richmond theatre. My main beef with the “report card” was the whole Baltimore thing. (Not Taylor Baltimore--love her!) Baltimore the metro area. I think it’s clear to almost everyone (except, apparently, the editors of STYLE) that implying that Richmond’s population is larger than the population of Baltimore is … let’s say “misinformed.”

Baltimore and Washington are considered frequently to be one Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA); so are Richmond and Petersburg. And that's as it should be. Go to MapQuest and you’ll find that Barksdale at Hanover Tavern and Sycamore Rouge are 2 miles farther apart (43 miles separate the two) than are Arena Stage in D. C. and Center Stage in Baltimore (41 miles).

The US Census Bureau defines an MSA as “one or more adjacent counties or county equivalents that have at least one urban area of at least 50,000, plus adjacent territory that has a high degree of social and economic integration with the core as measured by commuting ties.”

The Washington/Baltimore MSA is the fourth largest metro area in the nation, with a total population, based on the most recent census figures, of 8,211,213. The Richmond/Petersburg MSA (which includes the cities of Richmond, Petersburg, Hopewell and Colonial Heights, the town of Ashland, and the counties of Amelia, Caroline, Charles City, Chesterfield, Cumberland, Dinwiddie, Goochland, Hanover, Henrico, King and Queen, King William, Louisa, New Kent, Powhattan, Prince George, and Sussex) is the nation’s 42nd largest metro area, with a total population of 1,194,008.

In other words, according to the U S Census Bureau, the MSA population of Washington/Baltimore is nearly seven times larger than the MSA population of Richmond/Petersburg.

MSA populations indicate not only the number of potential ticket buyers available to a theatre. They also almost always correlate with the number and strength of Fortune 500 companies headquartered in each MSA, and the number and strength of private foundations. Larger cities like Baltimore tend to provide more local government funding to their major arts organizations than do smaller cities like Richmond. And those states that include the larger MSAs almost always provide more state government funding to their major arts institutions.

Leading professional theatres in larger MSAs therefore have access to more donated funds, and typically derive 40 to 50 percent of their total revenues from contributions.

Leading professional theatres is smaller MSAs have significantly less access to funding. Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV derive 28% of total revenues from contributions. Based on our combined annual budget of $5 million, the difference between 28% and the national standard of 40% is $600,000 per year. Imagine how much more we could do, how much better we could be with an additional $600,000 per annum.

“Report cards” are good when they recognize and reward your strengths while challenging you to be aware of and work toward addressing your weaknesses. “Report cards” are not-so-good when they measure your acheivements against unreasonable expectations and wind up demoralizing a community to the point where people no longer have the will to address those weaknesses.

There is absolutely no reason for anyone involved in Richmond theatre to feel demoralized. Don’t get me wrong—Richmond theatres (especially Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV) need to continually identify weaknesses and work to make them better. There is great need and opportunity for improvement and growth.

But by most reasonable measurements, Richmond theatre is now stronger than ever. Best of all, our theatres are uniquely Richmond, as they should be. We do everyone a disservice by insinuating that we could or should be more like theatres in Baltimore.

That’s my opinion. More to come.

--Bruce Miller

Happy Birthday Barksdale! - Part V

So, with regard to the history of Hanover Tavern, what’s true and what’s not? I don’t pretend to be a historian, but I’ve done a fair amount of research. Joseph D. Kyle, Ph.D. with the Hanover Tavern Foundation IS a historian, and he’s done a LOT more. Acknowledging that the recording and retelling of history is an art and not a science, here’s my take on the provenance of our landmark building—with lots of credit going to Dr. Kyle and others more expert than I.

The oldest part of the building we know and love today is the north end, which includes our theatre (I’ll call this the first floor), our third floor dressing room (the Pat Carroll room for fellow old-timers), and the two second floor rooms that fall in between (what Pete, Nancy and Muriel used as their living room and dining room). The Pat Carroll room is so named because it's the room Pat lived in during the various runs of Nunsense.

This northern section of the existing Hanover Tavern was built in 1791 as a private dwelling for Paul Thilman and his family. The front of this house faced west, toward what we now think of as the backyard. During the American Revolution and up into the 1790s, Thilman also owned the original Hanover Tavern, which stood nearby, but no one knows exactly where.

So all the Patrick Henry, George Washington, and Cornwallis history that we hear about actually took place in a building that no longer exists, but was located on a site very nearby. We'll call this no-longer-standing building the original Hanover Tavern.

We know that the original Hanover Tavern was in existence in 1733, when records show that Peter Marks, a wealthy Hanover landowner, held an “ordinary” license to operate a tavern at Hanover Court House. The experts I've read speculate that the original tavern was constructed in 1732.

Records indicate that the original Hanover Tavern was purchased by Patrick Henry’s father-in-law, John Shelton, in 1760, and that Henry and his wife moved in with the in-laws in 1763, living either in the original Tavern itself or another building adjacent to the original Tavern. Legend has it that Henry tended bar at the original Tavern in his father-in-law’s absence, and there is no reason to believe that this legend is untrue.

Legend also has it that Washington and Lafayette both stayed at the original Tavern, or at least ate there, during the Revolutionary War period—again, there's no reason to suspect that these legends are untrue. A first hand account from a French general assigned to George Washington’s troops discusses the French general’s stay at the Tavern in the early 1780s, shortly after Yorktown. In this first hand account, the French General states that Tavern master Thilman told him that Lord Cornwallis and his troops had quartered there on their way to Yorktown, and had left hastily without paying any compensation. So, unless Thilman was engaging in hyperbole in the 1780s, that story is true.

No one knows what happened to the original Hanover Tavern, but early in the eighteen hundreds it was no longer standing. Most likely it was destroyed by fire, a common occurrence in those times.

From the late seventeen hundreds until 1846, the stage coach route from Richmond to Williamsburg passed by the Hanover Court House community, almost certainly to the west of the Tavern. This would explain why the Thilman home had been built with its original orientation toward what we now think of as the backyard. After the original Tavern was destroyed, the Thilmans apparently wanted to continue their commercial venture, and so they built a new tavern immediately to the south of their home.

The L-shaped building that makes up the southern end of today’s tavern is what remains of this new tavern built by the Thilmans. Using a scientific evaluation of the timbers, it has been dated to 1822, a date supported by tax records showing an increased assessment in 1823 due to new construction the previous year.

This L-shaped building and the Thilman home were permanently connected to each other in about 1832, according to scientific analysis of timbers from the central section of today's Tavern, creating the one large building we know today.

So the current Hanover Tavern has three phases of construction: the north end built in 1791 as a private home, the south end built in 1822 as a replacement for the original tavern, and the connecting middle section, built in 1832 to join the north building and the south building into one large structure.

One story that is patently false is the one that was featured on the plaque mounted to the Tavern's exterior wall at the time of the 1953 purchase. The plaque indicated that John Chiswell, a member of the House of Burgesses, murdered Robert Routledge in the bar room. Chiswell was involved with Routledge's death, but many believe it was an accident and that Routledge fell on his own sword. In any case, this altercation took place not at Hanover Tavern, but at Mosby Tavern, which still stands today in Powhattan County, and is pictured to the right and above.

Beginning in the early eighteen hundreds, the old stage road served as a main transportation route between Richmond and Washington, and the Tavern was a frequent stopping point for many travelers. In the not too distant future, I’ll recount what the experts tell us about the famous people who may have visited the existing tavern during those heady times.

--Bruce Miller

Happy Birthday Barksdale! - Part III

Muriel McAuley is not the only one who compiled a written record of Barksdale’s founding. The recorded deed and early press clippings validate her story. The longest article appeared in the Herald-Progress on Thursday, August 20. It is reprinted here, with spelling, grammar and punctuation exactly as they appeared in 1953. Before anyone gets too enamored of the history outlined in the article, be sure to read the upcoming Part V in this series for a more factual enumeration. With regard to those instances when this article seems to disagree with the facts included in Muriel’s account (published here in Parts I and II), I have every reason to believe that Muriel’s account is the correct one.

Young People Plan Permanent Theatre In Ancient, 33 Room Hanover Tavern
By Evelyn Christian Hughes

“It takes a little time to go into 33 rooms—and after all, we’ve only been here a few days, so it’s no wonder we’ve not explored two of the rooms.”

So speaks one of the group of nine young people, aged 2 to 29, who have just bought the ancient Hanover Tavern, with ideas of using the old building as a residence and theatre.

The ones who intend to do the work, however, are aged 22 to 29. The 2 and 3-year olds, children of the only married couple in the crowd, intend to cause as much work as possible.

The seven “old enough to vote” are combining their incomes, to save toward a year-round, in-the-round theatre, and to work on the tavern’s restoration. Because it takes a little time to get a permanent theatre started, and because they need money for restoration, they are now working at a variety of jobs. Television has lured two. One works for the Automobile Association of America, one is a teacher and two work in television. “We all work at what we can, and we pool our money to work on the Tavern.” They pool their chores, too. Carlin is cook.

Flies are such a problem now (no screens and they haven’t counted the windows!) that they are already looking forward to the winter. They’ve each bought an electric blanket.

Attracted to the Hanover Tavern because it is an ideal place for their presentation of circular theatre, the crowd has been temporarilyly (sic) sidetracked by the tavern’s history, and they hope to restore the building.

“We think it’s the oldest tavern in Virginia,” says Tom Carlin one of the WTVR employees. But it is a known fact that it was built in the early 1720’s and among other claims to fame, it housed Cornwallis and his staff on their way to Yorktown. It is older than Hanover Courthouse, exactly across the road, which a Virginia circuit court judge, Leo M. Bazile, calls the most historic building on the North American continent. Once owned by Patrick Henry’s father-in-law, the bar was tended by the great patriot himself.”

Washington and Jefferson must have stayed here, as it is on the old stage coach route from Williamsburg to New York. All this, Hanover school children know by heart. It takes a Michigan actor to recall a little-known fact of its history. According to Carlin, P. T. Barnum kept his menagerie here on his grand tour of the last century.

The Barksdale Memorial Theatre had its genesis with Carlin, Stewart Falconer and David Kilgore, who had a summer stock theatre in St. Claire Michigan in ’49 and ’50. They just gathered up the others as they rolled, a little moss from Florida, more from New York, until they came to Virginia.

Falconer gained impetus from being stage manager for Circle in the Square Theatre's production of Summer and Smoke in New York. Muriel McAndy (sic) was doing modeling, television and radio work in New York. One by one they gathered.

Now the tavern has fascinated them, and with the restoration, and jobs (after all they must eat!) they “doubt if we can do anything theare-wise (sic) before spring.”

They named their theatre for their inspiration, the late Barbara Barksdale, whose parents, Mr. and Mrs. Albie Barksdale, live in Charlottesville. A victim of multiple sclerosis, Miss Barksdale helped get the group started in summer theatre in St. Claire, Mich. “She would scrub floors from her wheel chair,” they say about her. She died while attending the University of Tampa.

The group consists of Mr. and Mrs. David Kilgore, their attractive (all are attractive!) blond children 3-year old Kate and 2-year old Peter; Tom Carlin, Stewart Falconer, Bud Colvis, Miss Pat Sharpe and Miss Muriel McAuley. and Miss Muriel McAuley. (sic)

In the midst of their frantic painting, plastering, cleaning, cooking, rewiring, and after only three days in the place, they all got cleaned up and went to the neighborhood church, St. Paul’s Episcopal.

The neighbors say it created a sensation, to see all the theatrical folk, “nice young people, too,” at church. “Nearly filled the church.” And they hope it’s a good omen. They recall how Bob Porterfield tells to this day how his world famous Barter Theatre got a start in Abingdon by the actors and actresses going to church, and “singing like all getout.”

There is one photo that accompanies the article, showing the Tavern photographed from what is today the back yard, but was originally the front yard in the 1700s. The photo caption reads, “Hanover Tavern, built in the early 1720’s, just purchased from Jourdan Woolfolk by a group of young theatrical people.”

My big question, after reading this article is, “Who is Bud Colvis?” He’s like the fifth Beatle. No where else is he mentioned in Muriel’s book. He doesn’t even appear in the index! Nor have I ever heard his name mentioned by one of the Barksdale old-timers. If anyone can identify Mr. Colvis, or has ever even heard of him, please click comment and let me know what you know. Thanks.

--Bruce Miller

Photo captions: This photo of Muriel is cropped from a larger pic of Muriel, Pete and Nancy, taken in the early 80s. The Herald-Progress masthead dates from the present, not the 50s. The WTVR photo is a snapshot of the station identification screen as it appeared in the early 50s, with the settlers trudging in their covered wagon beneath the call letters WTVR. Cornwallis is wearing the large hat; Patrick Henry has the high forehead and collar. Washington and Jefferson are, of course, from Mt. Rushmore. And the Barnum poster specifically mentions his travelling menagerie. Geraldine Page starred in the revival of Summer and Smoke that Stu stage managed at Circle in the Square. I'll write more about that super-historic production in a future blog. The Barter Theatre photo shows how this Abingdon landmark looked both then and now.