RIP Jamaica Club

I was driving down Route One not too long ago, as I do to run most of my weekday errands, when I noticed a sad change. One of the junk shop/antique/flea market stores that I occasionally pop my head into was closed.

For sale. The whole shebang. I’ve mentioned before that there have been a lot of changes lately on this stretch of Route One and the Jamaica Club is one of many properties up for sale or being developed. But, before the place is torn down and forgotten, I stopped and took a few pictures.

I knew there was a story here so when I got home that night, I started to do a little research.

What I know as the Jamaica Club Flea Market got its start as the Pine Meadows Country Club which became the Starlight Club. Bill and Evelyn Eddleton owned and operated it for 50 years as the Jamaica Country Club. I walked over to the fence and spied a pool! And what might be a pool house or a club house or something. It’s hard to tell.

The Eddletons owned the property behind the Club – on Old Telegraph Avenue – and sure enough, there’s a driveway that leads into the property from behind. I didn’t go down it or take pictures (there isn’t much to see but trees) but it encompases more than 8 acres of land. Prime property these days.

The Eddletons died in 2003 within a few months of each other and the Jamaica Club became a bingo parlor and, in 2007, went by Bingo Diversity Thrift. At least in some form or fashion, even if the sign outside didn’t say so. The Eddleton’s son ran the flea market until I guess the lure of closing shop and selling it became too hard to pass up.

Next door and on the property is this gem:

I don’t know if this was part of the Jamaica Club but it’s a building I dearly love. Just out there by itself in the grassy no man’s land.

So, whatever becomes of this property, I’ll post an update. For now, it sits, content to house the ghosts who enjoyed its heyday.

The Strangest House Ever. Route 301, Caroline Co, VA

I usually do a double take when I’m driving down the road and find a fabulous abandoned structure but this one made me do a quadrillion take. I have NO idea. None. Did someone live here? Did they create a house from some leftover strange cinder block…..thing? Or was this intentional? Was it a business? And if so, what kind? I will probably never know. But of course I had to stop and take a few pictures.

 

I was too chicken to walk around to the back of the building but maybe this winter when the grass has died down and no one’s around, I’ll do that. It could be even weirder back there.

Aaron Hall Free School, Hanover County

I have a few more Caroline County posts but first I want to show you this. It’s about a mile down my road and I’ve passed it every day for 13 years. I’ve stopped and explored it exactly twice. Most recently on a cold but beautiful day. Back when we took blue skies for granted.

The Aaron Hall Free School is boarded up but well preserved. The grounds are always mowed. It consists of two buildings. One is a one story “house” and the other, a two story building that is more school-like. Here’s the small one:

It was founded by Aaron Hall in 1844 with a bequest of $4,000 for white children only, please, because back then, the black children were still enslaved. Now it’s simply a nice piece of history. I don’t know if this building was already here and was used as a school with the second building constructed later.

Except for the years during the Civil War, it was still operating into the late 1880’s, possibly longer. These buildings are some of the oldest in the area still standing.

There appears to be a non-profit organization set up to care for the property which makes me happy. I’d love to see it turned into a school museum. Open it up and allow tours inside.  Here’s the back of the building.

And here’s the second, bigger building.

I walked around to the side of this building and attempted to get some photographs of the interior. What I got were partial reflections with small glimpses of rooms and doors leading to the main hallway. They weren’t successful at showing what the inside looked like but I still found them interesting. I’m also convinced that a ghost obstructed my view at one point. I don’t have any other explanation for this:

Here are my “interior” shots:

Next time: the strangest house I’ve ever seen.

It’s Too Late, Baby

The economy is improving on Route 1 along the Hanover/Henrico line. Buildings and houses that have sat abandoned for ages are suddenly disappearing in the name of “progress”. Sad to see land just sitting there going to waste, right?

A few weeks ago – end of March, beginning of April (before the Season of Rain began) – I was sitting at a light and noticed that a house I’d passed frequently was doomed. The bulldozers and demolition crews had materialized. Here’s the “before” photo:

I made a u-turn and pulled into the mysterious gas station next door (it seems to be gas pumps for commercial trucks or something). I got out of my car while the crews were clearing the property and got a couple more photos.

 

I looked up the property when I got back in the office and noticed it was owned by some kind of restaurant group LLC. It’s across from an Arby’s. So, clearly another fast food restaurant was in the offing.

Within a week or so, the property was flattened. The house and trees, gone. A sign went up cheerily announcing that a Taco Bell was coming. Yay.

Drove past the site the other day and here’s what it looks like:

I am saddened. I noted all the properties – some with old buildings on them and others just trees – that were for sale – up and down that stretch. And now there’s a huge development being planned next to what is almost a defunct mall. It won’t really be seen from the road but all this spells doom for the last vestiges of old Route 1. I better get to work documenting what’s left. Time is clearly running out.

Route 301, Frog Level, VA

I took a drive up 301 during my lunch hour a few weeks ago. Found this abandoned gas station/store.

Doesn’t the metal awning over the door look like a mustache? Do we build houses the way we do because they resemble faces? Windows for eyes, a door for a mouth?

And this house which is actually on Route 30 near the intersection with 301. Abandoned so long the tree grew right up through the porch roof. Had there not been people outside their house next door, I would have ventured closer.

More abandonment. And as long as I’ve lived here, I’d never heard of Frog Level. Now I have.

Church Quarter, Hanover Co., VA

There are a couple ways to get home from work. There’s the quick, direct route which, frankly, is a bit boring but only involves one stop light. There’s the less quick and slightly less direct way up Route 1 that I used to take when I needed to pick up my youngest from after-school care. And then there’s the third route. This also goes up Route 1 north for a few miles but then I make a left much sooner than the second route. I pass this old preserved house on Old Ridge Road all the time. Church Quarter.

Old house, indeed. Saved probably because of the Stonewall Jackson story (which may or may not be true; frankly, it’s the least important detail to me) but saved all the same. Thank you, DAR.

I’d love to go inside some time. I’m curious to know if the inside is as well maintained as the outside. It would make a cool little museum. Educational and close to the local elementary school.

I can’t count how many times I’ve passed this house and never stopped until now. I’m glad I finally did.

Surry County

Way back during spring break, I took the girls to Chippokes State Park, in Surry County, for a couple days. If you’ve never been, you are missing out. We stayed in one of the cabins, a former tenant farmer house built in the 1920’s or ’30’s. We spent a lot of time down at the beach along the James River, fossil hunting and just getting our feet wet in the chilly water. It was lovely.

On the road to the park entrance, I spied this house:

Naturally, I had to stop and investigate. My older daughter, armed with her Canon Rebel, came with me. She loves old places as much as I do. My youngest, not a fan of walking through high grass in her flip flops, stayed in the car like a character from a Flannery O’Connor story.

Such a beautiful wreck. Older daughter took her own series of photos and said the kitchen was littered with old apple sauce cans. I missed those but saw lots of other intriguing details.

In through the out door.

 

 

 

I could picture how it all would have looked back in the day. Going up and down that staircase, going outside and letting the screened door slam behind you.

Mopping that linoleum floor. Whose shoe is that? Why was it left behind?

 

 

Eventually everyone left and nature took over. Oh look! There’s the intrepid photographer!

Dairy Farm – Ashland, VA

After driving down Rt 1, there was one other place in town I wanted to visit before it was torn down: the old Luck Dairy Farm just outside the Ashland town limits. It’s not on Route 1 but the property will soon be turned into a new housing development. The wide swaths of fields on either side of W. Patrick Henry Road – about 270 acres – will be filled with houses and a lot of traffic.

While the silos on one side were hard to photograph, much less get close to because of all the overgrowth, I attempted a few shots:

Across the road was the main house. If I owned this house, I’d never have left it. I don’t know why the family gave up on it. It’s is bad shape but it’s still beautiful. The sides have been taken over by ivy and bushes and all the things that grow when allowed to without check.

The front porch was being slowly taken over as well but it hadn’t disappeared quite yet.

Can’t say the same for the porch swing. This is probably my favorite photograph of this whole project so far.

Here’s a close up of the front door:

It’s the quintessential Southern home. I can’t tell you how many houses like this I’ve visited in my life. It’s my idea of a dream house. I wish I could have it.I’ll be terribly sad when it’s torn down.

I did peek in the door to get a glimpse of the entryway:

Such a beautiful room and staircase. In the back you can tell that something dreadful and collapsed. But before we move around to the back of the house, here are a couple more shots of other parts:

Ah, you can see it here. The back part of what was probably the kitchen. It’s fallen in. Here are two more shots of that:

Ouch.

I don’t what would do that. A tree? Who knows?  Finally, behind the house, I discovered a swimming pool. The saddest pool I’ve ever seen.

So lonely. Finally, in the distance beyond the pool I noticed a couple of little houses on the property – tenant housing? Worker housing? Lunch hour was up so I couldn’t explore more.

And that ends my January Ashland excursion. Spring is on its way so I’m busy with my garden and will be starting a weekend job soon. I’m hoping to get out some time soon and finish my voyage south past Dinwiddie. But if not, I’ll be keeping my eyes open for more abandoned treasures.

Vestiges. Ashland, VA

So, after the amazing find behind the VW restoration shop, my companion and I stopped off at what used to be a BBQ place. When the gun store next door moved to a swankier location, the BBQ joint (Phat Boyz; and before that, Buzz & Ned’s) closed or moved. This was another instance of driving by the same place a million times but seeing it with new eyes. Here’s what I spied behind it only after it closed.

Here’s the bbq place with the strange Green Top sign above it. I really don’t think anything’s here anymore. And I think it’s the lack of cars (this place was surprisingly busy when it was open) that revealed the little units behind it.

Next door, and sadly imprisoned behind a chainlink fence, is this beauty. I am guessing it was a car-related business from long ago. The glass blocks are in decent condition, considering. Nice to see an Art Deco-style (?) structure still standing on this desolate strip of Route One.

Here’s a side view. The fence made it difficult to get a good shot of any part of it.

Same side, different angle.

And then, way in the back, under a leafless tree looking terribly forlorn, was this little abandoned shed. In my quest for motels, I also salute all other abandoned and discarded structures from our motoring past. I will have to come back in the spring when the tree is full again and see if it looks a bit less lonely.

Center of the Universe. Again.

There’s a stretch of Route One that I travel a couple times a week. It stretches from my office in Ashland down to the mall or the credit union or the Target just over the county line into Henrico. I take this road so often that’s its easy not to look anymore, to notice anything. But since starting this project, I’m looking much more. And the trick to finding hidden treasures is to look BEHIND what’s fronting the road. And because there are lots of stop lights, I’ve had a chance to look behind a lot.

Wow. There’s so much back there!

I happened to turn my head one day as I passed a VW car repair/restoration place and…..is that? Could it be?

Earlier last month I dragged a co-worker along with me during our lunch hour and we went to find out. It was a cold, wet, cloudy day but that was helpful because the sun didn’t hamper the photography.

Here’s what I found behind the main building:

At least five or six double or single units! OMG! And because you know I love doors, I took these:

Here are a couple more shots of the units. They are is such good condition considering the neglect. I don’t know if they store anything – old car parts, for example – or if the business owner just closed them up and left them.

I’d love to go back and ask what’s inside. To peek inside. I might do that eventually. At the very end of the line, I spied a larger house or unit, hidden behind a mess of trees and vines and bushes.

 

A final unit. Perhaps burned, the roof caved in, abandoned and left to the wilderness to consume it. There was a story here. I wish I knew what it was.