Agency compiles list of Richmond’s oldest businesses

A Whitten Bros tire and auto repair shop at 1500 W. Broad St., where a Starbucks and Gamestop are now. Photo courtesy of Whitten Bros.

What started as a project for an auto dealer’s centennial has resulted in a resource about Richmond’s oldest businesses.

Marketing agency Workshop Digital has compiled an evolving list of the longest-running businesses in town as part of a project for Whitten Bros., which is four years shy of its 100th anniversary.

In preparing for that milestone, the family of dealerships produced a webpage and video about its history and that of its family namesake. That got the company wondering where it stood among its peers, said Harrison Whitten, general manager and the fourth generation of the family to run the business.

“We started getting curious about where we stood in the hierarchy of aging businesses in Richmond, and who else had been around this long and how it happened and how it got there,” he said. “It’s neat to watch a community grow with your business, and we wanted to see if we could compile others doing the same thing.”

The company reached out to Workshop Digital, which does Whitten’s online marketing and search engine optimization, and the agency began researching businesses online, searching for articles on businesses and for certain phrases on their websites, such as “serving Richmond since,” “Richmond’s oldest” and “founded in Richmond in.”

“We quickly realized that a list of the oldest businesses in Richmond did not exist anywhere,” said Katie Wolitarsky of Workshop Digital. “We were a little surprised. There were a couple of articles that focused on ‘the’ oldest business or a few of them, but no one had ever attempted to create a comprehensive list.”

Billups Funeral Home was tied at the top for Richmond’s oldest active business. Photo by Jonathan Spiers.

To make the cut for the list, businesses had to meet three criteria: each business had to have started here, had to still do what it’s always done, and had to have been providing that service for at least 40 years.

While the list includes about 60 businesses, Wolitarsky noted it is likely missing a few companies that didn’t show up in their research, which was conducted exclusively online. She said part of the goal of sharing the results online is to discover missed businesses and create a complete list.

“We hope that in this getting out to the public, if there are businesses who fit the criteria that we missed, that they speak up and let us know,” she said.

The results, which are posted on Whitten Bros.’ website, include a narrative about the city’s business history and an interactive map that shows the locations and evolution of the businesses on the list.

Topping the list is Billups Funeral Home, which tied with the Richmond Daily Dispatch – a predecessor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch – for the oldest business in Richmond. Both were founded in 1850.

The family business in Church Hill is one of five local funeral homes started in the 19th century that remain open today, and one of six on the list. Other industries with multiple appearances include jewelers, manufacturers and auto dealers, while other entrants stand alone – and stand out – such as The Jefferson Hotel, painter H.J. Holtz & Son and sporting goods store C.P. Dean.

Tish Gresham of Billups Funeral Home took the recognition in stride. She said her mother, Ruth Anne Barden, is a great-granddaughter of founder Lafayette Washington Billups, a cabinetmaker in Matthews County who started making caskets when he moved to Richmond.

Gresham attributed Billups’ longevity to her family enjoying the service they provide.

“We love what we do, which certainly helps with any job,” she said. “It doesn’t feel like a job. It’s just helping people.

A map designates all the oldest businesses included in the list. Courtesy of Whitten Bros.

“We are a small family business, and we take care of the people that come to us,” she said. “We’re not out to be the big guy in town. We’re just doing what we do.”

Whitten Bros., founded in 1920, came in at 28th on the list, though that ranking could change as more businesses that qualify for the list are discovered.

Looking ahead to its centennial, Harrison Whitten remarked: “We’re four years from being 100 years old. It’s just really neat.

“It’s cool to look back and think that four generations in a row have learned from the one before them and then been able to take what they’ve got and build upon it.”