Our readers shared their old Grace Street stories with us
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West Grace Street looking west from Laurel Street in 1989. Image: Courtesy of The Valentine museum
Karri here, basking in the Grace Street stories y'all shared in response to last week's story about VCU making it a "campus main street."
As a VCU alum whose Grace Street stomping days were the late 90s, I thought I had all the best stories. My apologies; I had not yet heard the ones from the 70s and 80s.
😳 After a night dancing in Shockoe Bottom in the early 80s, Susan M. says she and her pals would jump in the Monroe Park fountain before heading to Grace "to see our first XXX movie ('Debbie does Dallas,' if I remember correctly)."
- Then they'd hit up Newgate Prison next door.
- "Fights were expected and crabs (yes, STIs) were pretty notorious here. Ahhh, good times."
🍆 "Standing in line at midnight to see "Deep Throat" and trying not to get our picture taken by … the Times-Dispatch for the morning edition," says Sue D.
👄 Everyone, it seems, saw "Rocky Horror Picture Show" on Grace in 70s and 80s, "in full costume, of course. With props," says Vicki W.
🎤 And what would Grace be without music memories?
🎸 "Sneaking into a bar at the corner of Laurel and Broad at the age of 16 to see Bruce Springsteen in his band Steel Mill (right off Grace), says Jerry B., plus a random band playing in the middle of the 700 block.
🎫 "Standing in line on a very cold February morning to get Rolling Stones concert tickets. Got within 20 feet of the door of whatever the record store … only to be turned away," says Dwayne D.
- He scored some through a scalper anyway.
🪣 "Devo played NYE at Rockitz" in the early 90s, says Julia B.
🥁 "I looooooooooved Twisters!! Saw Jimmy Eat World there, amongst MANY others," says Rebecca W.
🍽️ The Village, Jade Elephant and Grace Place is where everyone seemed to go for food.
🩰 "Who can forget the ballerina waitress climbing those steep, narrow stairs with huge heavy trays as if she were dancing," says Barry W. of Grace Place.
👧 The 1960s must've been a calmer time, because a 6-year-old Barbara T. recalls seeing the flick "Gigi" with her dad on Grace.
🤑 By the 90s, my era, the fun continued, with folks chiming in to say Red Light Inn, the strip club, was the go-to spot for nearby workers to break big bills for change.
- "So our restaurant could serve PBRs for our cigarette smoking clientele (of which the lead singer of Cracker was a regular)," says Chris P.
- Many of the dancers were sculpture majors just trying to make a living, says Julia B.