Below is the same view from April of 2011.

Urban Outfitters' ancestor on the left- back when "urban" meant "dirty and crowded" instead of just "super-hip."

As a Civil War historian/reenactor, I can't help but wonder how many Civil War artifacts were unearthed during the construction. After all, the photo was taken only 40 years after the war ended.

From Richmond Then and Now: Main Street at 11th looking west.

I was looking on Google Maps to try and find this location, and I'm coming up empty. I can't find any "main street" in Richmond. If I assume that Main Street was renamed Broad Street somewhere along the way, Broad being the main artery through town, I can see where one of the two 11th streets hits it, but it doesn't look anything like this. I can't find evidence that any of these buildings ever existed! Did they tear them all down to build VCU?

[Below, the Google Maps view at 1048 East Main, with some of the the same buildings 100 years later. - Dave]

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The worst stretch of road is on Broad, directly in front of the DOT. Amazing.
Monday, if the weather is nice, I will walk down the hill to look at this view.
There is a very small site called "Richmond Then and Now" that has captured old photos side by side with modern ones for many historic places around Richmond. Some are so unchanged from the 1860s it's amazing. My building is directly across from Jeff Davis's house; the front yard used to roll all the way down to the James River.

I think I heard VDOT is scheduled to finish the repaving project on Main next year.... this shot looks like fairly early during the process, before the road started getting too bad.