Downtown
RVA Legends — Good Luck! Part 3
A look into the history of Richmond places and people that have disappeared from our landscape.
Success requires expansion! (and reverse osmosis)
November 2016 — Tenth & Cary Streets, Richmond
Good Luck Baking Powder was the sword that made Southern Manufacturing Company’s fortune.
In the late 1890s the Journal of Progress in New York reported that eighty workmen were employed with making cans, a regiment of carpenters were making boxes for packing and twenty “hustling” salesmen were out telling of the wonders of Good Luck Baking Powder. The daily output was listed as 50,000 cans, equal to about 1,000,000 pounds a month. The article was the result of a shipment that also had been featured in an ad in the Dispatch of November 26, 1897 picturing a twenty seven-car load of Good Luck baking powder on its way to Atlanta and other stops in Alabama and North Carolina. It was the largest sale of baking powder made in the world. [BBR]
(LOC) — Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Richmond (1905) — Tenth & Cary Streets, Richmond
So, just six short years after its founding, Egbert Giles Leigh, Jr. takes the company to being the industry leader. That’s like an amateur qualifying for the Tour de France, then beating Lance Armstrong. Pretty incredible; no wonder they had to expand.
What’s even more interesting is that the expansion occurred into Richmond from Manchester, not the other way around. In those days, many Manchesterians traveled by ferry or bridge to jobs in the city. Nor was it unusual for Richmond businesses to expand southward into Manchester, as observed by both the Stephen Putney, and Wingo, Ellett, & Crump shoe companies.
Southern Manufacturing Company was Manchester born and bred, and expanded north — unusual for the time.
[Library of Virginia] — [BGE] — 1900
One of the largest and most successful manufacturing concerns of its kind in Virginia is The Southern Manufacturing Company, whose transactions cover the tremendous area of twenty-six States. With its force of about thirty traveling salesmen, this company has the largest baking powder output in the country. With its two factories, in located at Manchester, the other, its can factory, in this city, the volume of business done by this concern may be easily imagined. [PSS]
In fact, what had been the biggest sale of baking powder in 1897, was blown away just three years later with a shipment of 169 car loads – a growth of 525%. What CFO wouldn’t like those numbers?
(LOC) — Times-Dispatch — Sunday, March 30, 1913
A booming business needs advertising, a task Southern Manufacturing accepted with aplomb… and some mixed results.
Newspaper advertising was a primary medium for reaching consumers, and Good Luck Baking Powder was well represented. Naturally, ads appeared in the Richmond and Williamsburg papers, but they could also be found in several other states, including Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and others.
Probably damned effective too. Who could say no to the Siren of the Biscuit Plate? Even in black and white, those things look like good eating. Nom, nom, nom!
[Library of Virginia] — [BGE] — 1900
In every six-ounce can of Good Luck we are now putting a section (a piece) of a picture of a Trainload of Good Luck; and in every sixteen-ounce can we are putting two of the sections. A “section” of the picture means a piece of it. The sections of the picture of the 105-car train are numbered on the back from 1 to 105 inclusive; and those of the 169-car train are numbered from 151 to 319 inclusive Don’t get the number of the section, which is printed at the top left-hand corner on the back, confused with the number on the car door. The same quantity of each section is packed in the cans, and no section is missing from the output.
Here are the various offers we make for the sections:
[Library of Virginia] — [BGE] — 1900
What could be simpler? Remember:
This plan is not confined to any age; any person from eight years old up should be able to secure good results. Now is the time to hustle.
Hustle sums it up nicely. Imagine being the manager who’s on the hook for this, making sure that:
- the right tokens got in the right cans
- there are enough tokens to represent all the sections for both car trains
- the 6-ounce can got one token, and the 16-ounce can got two
- there was an even distribution of tokens across the different cans
That sounds awful complicated for a promotion with a time limit, in an age where automation to support it was limited. It’s not hard to imagine someone going cross-eyed trying to make it work.
We will be glad to co-operate with you as much as possible, and can probably assist you some by letter.
And then there were the postcards.
When the U.S. Post Office first issued postal cards in 1873, they were nothing like what they are today, basically white cards for short messages that could be mailed for a penny. It wasn’t until 1893 that U.S.P.O permitted the first picture post cards to travel by mail, and not until 1907 that post cards had the now familiar divided back, with one side for the address, and one side for the message. By then, the U.S. was in the heyday of postcard popularity, with 667,777,798 mailed in 1908 alone. [AOV]
Southern Manufacturing was quick to notice this trend, and produced some… interesting… cards of their own. The first post in this series depicts one of these, oh so very Southern, and well in keeping with a clean-cut company image.
But someone at the company had a sense of humor, because there were others made that were playful novelties. Not to mention a little creepy.
Go ahead, find a private corner, and put your nose to the arrow of the biscuit card above. Watch it fly into his mouth, and try not to smile. Or put your thumb and forefinger behind the Old Woman card to form her mouth, then wiggle them to make like she’s eating.
Yucks galore!
As many commercials prove today, there’s nothing like a good laugh to make sure that the audience remembers your product. At the time they were issued, Southern Manufacturing needed all the help it could get.
(continued in Part 4) (read Part 2)
Sources
- [AOV] Art of the View. Virginia Cavalcade, Volume 40, Number 2. Kelly Henderson. Autumn, 1990.
- [BBR] Big Business in Richmond, The Good Luck Baking Powder Story. Ray Schreiner. June 2010.
- [BGE] Boys and Girls and Everybody! Southern Manufacturing Company. 1900.
- [RVCJ] Richmond, Virginia, the City on the James. The book of its Chamber of Commerce and principal business interests. G. W. Engelhardt. 1902.
RVA Legends is a regular series
appearing on rocket werks – check it out!
Community
Library of Virginia Honors Deaf History Month With a Talk and Exhibition on the History of a Shenandoah County Deaf Village and Shared Signing Community
Between 1740 and 1970, Lantz Mills, Virginia, was home to many families with a mix of hearing and deaf parents and at least one or more deaf siblings.
In honor of April as Deaf History Month, the Library of Virginia will present a talk on April 22 and a traveling panel exhibition running April 1–30 on the history of the Lantz Mills deaf village and shared signing community in Shenandoah County, Virginia. Both are free.
Between 1740 and 1970, Lantz Mills, Virginia, was home to many families with a mix of hearing and deaf parents and at least one or more deaf siblings. When both the hearing and deaf members of a locality use a shared visual language to communicate, that is known as a shared signing community. Those familiar with deaf culture may know that Martha’s Vineyard, the island off Massachusetts, was home to a shared signing community where 25% of the population was deaf. But few know that Virginia had a deaf village and shared signing community in Shenandoah County.
The Lantz Mills Deaf Village panel exhibition has appeared at Shenandoah County Public Library and the Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People. It will visit the Eastern Shore Public Library in June. The exhibition is available for display at public libraries and other cultural facilities. For more information, contact Barbara Batson at [email protected] or 804.692.3721.
The talk and exhibition are made possible in part with federal funding provided through the Library Services and Technology Act administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. For more information about the commonwealth’s deaf culture, visit the Virginia Deaf Culture Digital Library at https://deaflibva.org.
DEAF HISTORY MONTH TALK | The Lantz Mills Shared Signing Community
Saturday, April 22, 2023 | 10:00–11:00 a.m. | Free
Place: Lecture Hall, Library of Virginia, 800 East Broad St., Richmond, VA 23219
Registration suggested: https://lva-virginia.libcal.com/event/10478065
In honor of Deaf History Month, the Library presents a talk exploring the history of the Lantz Mills deaf village in Shenandoah County, Virginia, by deaf historian and advocate Kathleen Brockway, who is also a Lantz Mills deaf village descendant.
DEAF HISTORY MONTH PANEL EXHIBITION | Lantz Mills Deaf Village
April 1–30, 2023 | Monday–Saturday, 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. | Free
Place: Lobby & Pre-function Hall, Library of Virginia, 800 East Broad St., Richmond, VA 23219
In honor of Deaf History Month, the Library presents a panel exhibition exploring the history of the Lantz Mills deaf village in Shenandoah County, Virginia. This six-panel traveling exhibition features the history of prominent deaf villagers such as the Hollar and Christian families, deaf members’ involvement in local businesses, and even a budding romance within the community. Each panel includes a QR code that links to ASL interpretation of the text featured. A booklet about the topic written by deaf historian and Lantz Mills deaf village descendant Kathleen Brockway will be available to exhibition visitors while supplies last.
Downtown
Feds identify ‘significant’ ongoing concerns with Virginia special education
After failing to meet federal requirements to support students with disabilities in 2020, the Virginia Department of Education will remain under further review by the federal government after continuing to fall short in monitoring and responding to complaints against school districts, according to a letter from the U.S. Department of Education.
By Nathaniel Cline
After failing to meet federal requirements to support students with disabilities in 2020, the Virginia Department of Education will remain under further review by the federal government after continuing to fall short in monitoring and responding to complaints against school districts, according to a letter from the U.S. Department of Education.
“We have significant new or continued areas of concerns with the State’s implementation of general supervision, dispute resolution, and confidentiality requirements” of IDEA, stated the Feb. 17 letter from the Office of Special Education Programs.
The U.S. Department of Education first flagged its concerns in a June 2020 “Differentiated Monitoring and Support Report” on how Virginia was complying with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, following a 2019 visit by the Office of Special Education Programs.
IDEA, passed in 1975, requires all students with disabilities to receive a “free appropriate public education.”
The Virginia Department of Education disputed some of the federal government’s findings in a June 19, 2020 letter.
Samantha Hollins, assistant superintendent of special education and student services, wrote that verbal complaints “are addressed via technical assistance phone calls to school divisions” and staff members “regularly work to resolve parent concerns” by providing “guidance documentation” and acting as intermediaries between school employees and parents.
However, some parents and advocates say systemic problems in how the state supports families of children with disabilities persist. At the same time, a June 15, 2022 state report found one of Virginia’s most critical teacher shortage areas is in special education.
“Appropriate policies and procedures for both oversight and compliance, and their implementation, are crucial to ensuring that children with disabilities and their families are afforded their rights under IDEA and that a free appropriate public education (FAPE) is provided,” said the Feb. 17 letter from the Office of Special Education Programs.
While the U.S. Department of Education wrote that it believes the Virginia Department of Education has resolved some of the problems identified in 2020, including resolving complaints filed by parents and creating a mediation plan, it said it has identified “new and continued areas of concern” and intends to continue monitoring Virginia’s provision of services for students with disabilities.
Among those are ongoing concerns over the state’s complaint and due process systems that “go beyond the originally identified concerns” originally found. The Office of Special Education Programs writes it has concluded Virginia “does not have procedures and practices that are reasonably designed to ensure a timely resolution process” for due process complaints.
The department also said it has concerns over the practices of at least five school districts that are inconsistent with IDEA’s regulations.
The decision comes after the U.S. Department of Education announced in November that Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia’s largest school district, failed to provide thousands of students with disabilities with the educational services they were entitled to during remote learning at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Virginia is also facing a federal class-action lawsuit over claims that its Department of Education and Fairfax County Public Schools violated the rights of disabled students under IDEA.
Parents involved in the case said the Virginia Department of Education and Fairfax school board “have actively cultivated an unfair and biased” hearing system to oversee challenges to local decisions about disabled students, according to the suit.
Charles Pyle, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education, said in an email that “VDOE continues to work with our federal partners to ensure Virginia’s compliance with all federal requirements, as we have since the ‘Differentiated Monitoring and Support Report’ was issued in June 2020.”
The federal government said if Virginia could not demonstrate full compliance with IDEA requirements, it could impose conditions on grant funds the state receives to support early intervention and special education services for children with disabilities and their families.
Last year, Virginia received almost $13.5 billion in various grants linked to IDEA, according to a July 1, 2022 letter to former Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, who resigned on March 9.
James Fedderman, president of the Virginia Education Association, blasted Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration after the findings were released.
“While the Youngkin administration has been busy waging culture wars in schools, his administration has failed to meet basic compliance requirements with the U.S. Department of Education for students with disabilities,” Fedderman said. “This failure threatens our federal funding for students with disabilities and is a disservice to Virginia families who need critical special needs support.”
Downtown
Richmond 911 callers can soon provide feedback on calls for service via text message
Beginning March 20, those who call 911 with some types of non-life-threatening emergencies will receive a text message within hours or a day after the call with a short survey about the service they received on the call.
Some 911 callers in Richmond will begin to receive follow-up text messages next week asking for their ranking of the service they received and additional information.
Beginning March 20, those who call 911 with some types of non-life-threatening emergencies will receive a text message within hours or a day after the call with a short survey about the service they received on the call.
The Richmond Department of Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response is using the feedback from callers as another way to ensure that it is continuing to deliver excellent emergency services to Richmond.
“It is very important that those who receive the text message answer the questions as accurately as possible, based on the service they received on the call, not on the response from first responders with different agencies,” said Director Stephen Willoughby. “We use the feedback that callers provide to monitor and improve our 911 services to Richmond residents and visitors, as well as the other measurements of service that we have in place.”
Those who would like to offer feedback, but do not receive a text message, are encouraged to email [email protected] or call 804-646-5911. More information about offering commendations or filing a complaint is on the department’s website athttps://www.rva.gov/911/comments. In addition, the department conducts a full survey of adults who live, work and study in Richmond every two years. More information about those surveys and results are at https://www.rva.gov/911/community-outreach.
The Department of Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response is using a third-party vendor, PowerEngage, to send the text-message surveys and report the results. Text messages may be sent for other uses in the future.
More information about the text-message surveys, from the news release:
- The answers that callers provide in the text message have no effect on the service provided to that caller.
- Callers who do not want to participate in the text-message survey would simply not respond to the text message. They also may reply STOP to opt out of future text surveys from DECPR.
- Callers should not use the surveys to report any other emergency or request help. They would need to call or text 911 for immediate help. To file a police report or request nonemergency public safety help, call 804-646-5100. For other city services, call 311, visit rva311.com or use the RVA311 app.
- Those who have further questions or would like to request a call-back from a staff member about the survey or their experiences, may email [email protected].
- More information about the after-call survey is at https://www.rva.gov/911/survey.
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Library of Virginia Honors Deaf History Month With a Talk and Exhibition on the History of a Shenandoah County Deaf Village and Shared Signing Community
Husband-and-wife duo bringing new restaurant concept to former Mill on MacArthur space
Richmond Falcon Cam is Back
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Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU’s bevy of spring exhibitions run the gamut
