David Waller runs his family's 122-year-old business, Waller and Company Jewelers, one of Richmond's oldest companies. Photo by Dan Currier Photography

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David Waller is the great-great-grandson of M.C. Waller, who established a jewelry and watch repair business in Richmond in 1900. David has been repairing watches since he was a youth. Photo by Dan Currier Photography

At age 8, David Waller swept the floor and wiped the glass counters at his family’s jewelry store, Waller Jewelers, in downtown Richmond. By age 12, Waller understood how watches worked and could do minor repairs.

“I grew up in it,” said Waller, now in his 50s, in an interview with Fifty Plus. The venerable family business has been thriving for the past 122 years.

In 1881, Waller’s great-great grandfather, Marcellus Carrington Waller, then 8 years old, repaired his grandmother’s broken mantle clock. Marcellus was a self-taught, “mechanical genius. He could fix anything,” David Waller said.

With only a third-grade education, Marcellus went on to found M.C. Waller Jewelers in 1900. During a time of racial injustice, he initially had to make his own tools and parts because no white-owned companies would sell them to him. Eventually, he found a willing company from New York.

In the days of wind-up watches, which frequently didn’t provide the exact time, Marcellus’s 1928 business card boasted, “Let Waller make your watch tell the truth.”

Today, brothers David and Richard III — the fourth generation of the Virginia family — run Waller and Company Jewelers, which has been located at 19 East Broad Street since 1980. David counts at least 11 family members who have worked there, including his great-great grandfather, great grandfather, grandfather, two great uncles, father and no less than five aunts.

Last year, Jewel Waller Davis and Joyce Waller Baden published a book about their family. Our Shining Legacy: The Waller-Dungee Family Story, 1900-2020, recounts their roots, accomplishments and challenges during racial segregation. An Amazon review of the book says, “The Waller offspring have survived, thrived and achieved despite discrimination and other obstacles.”

Over the years, the store has served many generations of customers. Some current customers can recall coming in with their parents when they were children.

Jewelry and watches to T-shirts

Waller and Company designs original jewelry, including pendants and bracelets. The downtown shop displays a full range of gold, silver and gemstone jewelry, including earrings, necklaces, bracelets, watches and watchbands. They also sell jewelry boxes, polishing cloths and even cake toppers for wedding cakes.

One of 30 display cases houses hundreds of bracelet charms, including a corkscrew and a Dachshund. They also sell Masonic and Eastern Star items, and more than 100 types of products representing nine historically Black national sororities and fraternities, including umbrellas, jackets, hats and T-shirts.

At one time, they sold the Waller Watch — a signature watch that family members designed with 20 diamonds and a mother-of-pearl dial. It was water-resistant up to 100 meters deep and was said to last for 20 years.

In a nod to the store’s long history, one case displays antique jewelers’ tools: a screwdriver, an eye loupe and a cleaning box. Waller’s services today still include engraving, cleaning, repairs and appraisals.

Store damaged during riot, fire

The family business has encountered difficulties over the decades. Richard Waller Jr. had to deal with a break-in during the 1968 riots following Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, when the store was located on First Street.

In 1987, a fire next door on East Broad Street was hot enough to melt a bulletin board and send bricks tumbling onto the Wallers’ roof, gouging a hole that allowed a deluge of firefighters’ water into the store.

More recently, when the city erupted on the night of May 29, 2020, after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the store’s alarm system sounded at 2 a.m. The store’s video camera recorded people smashing windows and display cases. Merchandise disappeared from five cases. Waller believes that the protestors used the mayhem as a “cover” to break into the store.

The next day some local Black sorority and fraternity members and Masons showed up with brooms and helped restore order. After they cleaned up the glass and nailed plywood over the window openings, volunteers covered the boards with colorful purple flowers.

“It was an outpouring of love and support,” David Waller said.

Awards from mayor, others

Accolades on the walls affirm the store’s long history and respect from the community. For example, the store received the Community Services Award from United Way “for support of excellence and service to the people of our community.”

In 2020, the City and Metro Business League named Waller and Company the Minority Business of the Year, selected from three in contention. In a framed Richmond Times-Dispatch article, former Mayor Rudolph McCollum calls the store “a cornerstone of the city.”

Prime Buyer’s Report dubbed Waller and Company “one of the best jewelry stores in the Richmond VA Area” because of their “value and honesty.”

At one time, Broad Street had five jewelry stores in a six-block area. Today, only Waller and Company remains. Their secret to survival?

“Treat people the way you like to be treated,” Waller said. “Provide good service and resolve problems. Give people the personal touch.”

After all, when you shop at big-box stores, he said, “It’s hard to talk to the owner today.”

Waller thinks it’s important to “stay up with the times,” so the store also sells items on its website, wallerjewelry.com. The store is on Facebook and Instagram, too.

The family has a rich past, Waller said, and “I’m excited about the future.”

For more information, call Waller and Company Jewelers at (804) 648-1044 or visit wallerjewelry.com.