'Five & Dime' and civil rights: Hopewell, Petersburg outline plans for tourism initiatives

RICHMOND — The Hopewell/Prince George Chamber of Commerce is taking a $10,000 state tourism grant and investing it in a "Five & Dime." Just not the Five & Dime you normally think of when you hear that term.

Instead, this Five & Dime involves three state routes, and all kinds of historical attractions and businesses along those roads.

The H/PG Chamber and the city of Petersburg are among 27 places across Virginia participating in the DRIVE 2.0 State Tourism Plan. The plan encourages participating localities to develop new ideas and strategies for pulling tourism dollars into their coffers. For doing so, each receives $10,000 in grants to help get those plans into place.

Petersburg spokesperson Joanne Williams, who in her role is assuming oversight of city tourism efforts, plans to use Petersburg's grant to develop a social-media campaign that highlights the city's role in the Civil Rights Movement. That includes how Petersburg became the first city in the nation to annually commemorate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a holiday back in 1973, 13 years before it became a national holiday in 1986.

"Five & Dime" is a term coined by motorcycle riders to describe parallel state Routes 5 and 10, which are separated by the James River and wind through some of the most scenic and historic areas of Virginia. H/PG Chamber CEO Becky McDonough said it was "the perfect term" to describe the chamber's initiative to make that a tourism trail.

The Five & Dime corridor covers roughly 90 miles of roadways. It leaves Hopewell and travels eastbound along Route 10 to the Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge that links Prince George and Charles City counties. Once in Charles City, the trail takes another turn eastward onto Route 5 toward Charles City Courthouse and across the Chickahominy River into James City County.

Once in James City, the path then takes a southeastern turn on state Route 31 to Jamestown and the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry that shuttles motorists across the James into Surry County. Then its another 12 miles or so on Route 31 to the Route 10 westbound turnoff near Dendron. After that, it is westward through Surry and Prince George back into Hopewell.

McDonough noted some of the historical attractions and businesses the chamber plans to spotlight along the corridor, such as the James River plantations, Charles City Courthouse development and Indian Fields Tavern on Route 5, and the Surry Seafood Company restaurant on Route 31.

A portion of the Five & Dime runs concurrent with the Virginia Capital Trail along Route 5 from Richmond to Williamsburg. "That's an added benefit," McDonough said.

Petersburg's history is more closely associated with the Civil War, but the city played an even more important role in the 20th-century fight for racial equality. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visited Petersburg at least a half-dozen times between 1955 and 1967, and Petersburg was a strategic hub in the commonwealth's civil-rights activity.

A house on Harrison Street was often used as a "safe haven" for King from FBI probes and white-supremacy groups trying to get to him. Some of his most trusted Virginia advisers, including the Revs. Wyatt T. Walker and Curtis W. Harris, were headquartered in Petersburg and the surrounding area.

Williams, the Petersburg spokesperson, said the social-media campaign will bring attention to all of the city and how it was affected by the Civil Rights Era.

Martha Burton, director of tourism for the Crater Planning District Commission that encompasses the Tri-City area, said she was "excited" that both Petersburg and the H-PG Chamber are part of the DRIVE 2.0 program.

"Each and every resident in our region can be a great ambassador by sharing what they love here with others," Burton said. "When we pull all of our assets together here, oh, the stories we can tell and the rich experiences we can share."

Gov. Glenn Youngkin's office announced the recipients of the DRIVE grants earlier this week. The 27 participants are expected to develop and deliver more than 100 tourism strategies.

Each participant took plant in a series of workshops from the Virginia Tourism Corp. that focused on development and enhancement of tourism programs and advocacy strategies. The grants were awarded upon completion of those workshops.

“The completion of the DRIVE 2.0 workshops ​and the creation of more than 100 new tourism programs signal a new era in tourism development and marketing in the commonwealth,” Youngkin said in a statement released by his office. “Investing in new tourism product development, infrastructure and programs is a proven strategy for improving our economy by increasing jobs and tax revenue. This will lead to meaningful change for our communities across the commonwealth, and further underscores Virginia’s reputation as the best place to live, work, and travel.”

DRIVE 2.0 was developed as a way for the state to help tourism-dependent localities mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other program participants included Fairfax and Arlington counties in northern Virginia; Bristol in far southwestern Virginia; Harrisonburg, Lexington and Rockbridge County in the Shenandoah Valley; Charlottesville and Albemarle County in the Piedmont area; and the Eastern Shore.

Complete information about the DRIVE Tourism program can be found on Virginia Tourism Corp.'s website.More from The Progress-Index:

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Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on Twitter at @BAtkinson_PI.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Virginia awards $10,000 tourism grants to Petersburg, Hopewell