You can see the totem as you drive north on I-95, with the skyline of Richmond , VA visible in the distance.  Richmond’s economy was built on tobacco, and “Big Ciggy” at 3601 Commerce Road has marked the epicenter of the industry since  it was erected in 1973. 

Designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in an era when big name designers were producing images, swag and logos for corporate America, the totem displays the logos of many of the biggest brands of Phillip Morris  (now part of Altria) on a high-speed drive-by.  Bunshaft, a headliner of the modernist movement, was a pipe smoker. He died at age 81 from cardiovascular arrest.

Decline of a corporate titan

While parent company Altria has diversified into smoke-free products and faced social, legal, and health challenges, the totem has remained unchanged—a reminder of how tobacco shaped, and continues to shape the Richmond area.  Cigarette advertising on highway billboards was banned in 1999, but the landmark totem received a pass as a cultural icon, and continues to stake its claim upon the city.

As a part of a class action suit against original manufacturers of cigarettes, Philip Morris has paid out more than a hundred billion dollars in all 50 states and US territories.  The settlement of the suit was a huge reversal for one of the most profitable businesses in the US.  Tobacco use has declined precipitously in the US since Big Ciggy first adorned the roadway, less than half way through the history Route One and of Philip Morris in Richmond.

Big Ciggy Rolls on

Bunshaft’s work advertises the brands of Philip-Morris, the world’s biggest cigarette manufacturer in the world.  Their operation was moved from NYC to Richmond in 1929, three years after Route 1 was organized, and 4 years after the Marlboro brand was patented.  Their factory produces 600 million cigarettes each day, or 219 billion annually.  It remains the largest cigarette manufacturing plant in the world.  The Philip-Morris Operations Center campus now comprises 150 acres of land.

Before Richmond was South Hill

During the 19th Century, South Hill, VA was the biggest early tobacco town in Virginia.  The Boydton Plank Road was an early corridor for the industry, where enslaved workers would roll hogsheads of tobacco north from farms in North Carolina and southern VA to market in South Hill.  Boydton Plank Road is now a part of Virginia’s historic Route 1.

As roadways improved, Richmond, with its river and rail access, became the locus of the tobacco trade, and has remained so ever since.  I-95, where the totem stands, has been called the “new tobacco road”.  Despite decades of the changing health awareness since the 1970s, nostalgia for the Philip Morris totem seems as constant as the daily hum of more than 50,000 vehicles on I-95.