Last month, James Vernon Daniels, known to most as Jim, received the Lifetime Achievement Award given by the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors. This award, doled out only once every four years, “is given to people who have dedicated themselves to serving the county,” Daniels said. Daniels, who “was very surprised to be singled out,” said he realized what an honor the award is after recognizing “other recipients, whose names are etched in bricks in the sidewalk in front of the Old Courthouse. Most of them are dead! I said I’m too young for a ‘lifetime’ award!”
Daniels and his two siblings are fourth-generation Chester residents. Although his sister and half-sister eventually relocated to surrounding counties, Daniels has resided in Chester his whole life. His parents, grandparents and most of his great-grandparents also lived in Chester.
Daniels shared his nostalgic memories of an idyllic Chester. “When I was growing up in the early 1960s and ’70s, Chester was a small town—two-lane Route 10, no stoplights,” Daniels said. He recalls summers spent at Chester Pool, and that Magee’s Drugstore –now The Lazy Daisy – “had a soda fountain and was the gathering spot.” His family owned horses, and he used to ride up Route 10. “When I was in high school, we spent summers at the two swimming holes on Swift Creek – both gone now. Most kids played one sport – football or baseball, then spent the rest of the year cutting grass for spending money, building tree forts, playing backyard football or hanging out at the pool or swimming hole.” What is now the Amstel Bluff subdivision was once the main swimming hole, “just upstream from Swift Creek Bridge on Bradley Bridge Road,” Daniels said. A secondary swimming hole was “downstream from Swift Creek Mill Playhouse, past the railroad.” Daniels recalls that people used to refer to this location as “the fish trap,” due to its being “the last licensed fished trap in Virginia.”
Daniels, who attended Gill’s School – now Richmond Christian School – and Chester Intermediate School – now the Ninth grade campus for Thomas Dale, is a graduate of Thomas Dale High School, as were his parents and grandparents. In fact, he shared some of the same teachers his predecessors had learned from.
“My main focus in high school was the Key Club,” Daniels said. He served as the service-oriented group’s president and “attended several state conventions.” After graduation, Daniels pursued a history degree from William and Mary. The desire to serve that manifested itself during his time in Key Club persists today, and currently, Daniels is an active member of the Kiwanis Club of Chester.
Throughout his post-collegiate career, Daniels has “designed and built several houses and buildings. I thought about being an architect. I like planning and building.” His grandfather had a real estate business, which Daniels runs today as Longest and Daniels.
Perhaps the most well-known development project with which Daniels has been involved is Chester Village Green. It “evolved from a recommendation in the late 1980s Chester Plan, which I participated in,” Daniels said. Daniels described assembling a development company consisting of three people to put the plan in motion. “We assembled 13 parcels of land—some from owners reluctant to sell.” Despite some owners’ reluctance, because the group had garnered such strong community support, the rezoning necessary to move forward with the development plan was approved without opposition. “That is pretty much unheard of for a development of this magnitude,” Daniels said.
On the Green, Daniels designed the building where Grant Coffee plans to open its doors, and he had a hand in moving and rebuilding the brick building that houses the Village News. He has also “designed several residential buildings and additions” at his own home.
Daniels, who has been self-employed as a real estate agent for 35 years, said he plans to continue working “for a long time.” His long-term plan includes developing “the Charles City Courthouse area along the same ‘New Urban’ principles used in Chester Village Green.
Despite his awards and achievements, Daniels said he is “most proud of my children,” both recent college graduates with good jobs. Professionally, though, his pride point is Chester Village Green, which will be complete with the construction of the Arts Center. “I am pleased that we have been able to make Chester a viable village for the long haul and not just another shopping center with a 30-year life cycle. We now have a ‘sense of place.’”
When asked about the legacy he hopes to leave, Daniels said he believes “real estate development can shape our communities in positive ways if well thought-out. I hope what I have done and plan to do in the future helps to make our communities a better place to live.”
