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August 11, 2015 (Tuesday)

Today we headed to Farmville for a day trip.  The trip took a little under 1 1/2 hours from Henrico.  The first thing on our list was a stop at the Bubble-Mat Coin Laundry on 3rd Street.  We arrived about 10:30 and it was bright and sunny.  By the time we finished our laundry it was already starting to get warm.

Farmville is the classic southern “market town”.  The town used to be a large tobacco port (#4 in Virginia), which is interesting as it is located in the center of the state.  The Appomattox River, which is often so shallow you can walk through it without any trouble, flows through the heart of town and enabled goods to be easily transported to the larger ports of Petersburg and Richmond.  In modern times the town is better known as the home of Longwood University and Green Front Furniture.  For such a small place it has had quite a few well-known people associated with it (not including myself).  I fell in love with Farmville when I attended Longwood in the 1990s.  If you had asked me for a description of the town at that time, I would have said to check out the movie Slacker.

As with many other southern college towns, Farmville was a stop for lots of independent musicians.  It was very common for bands to play up and down the coast from Washington down through Georgia and back up the coast developing strong followings.  The greatest successes of the time would be the Dave Matthews Band from Charlottesville, VA and Hootie and the Blowfish (South Carolina and Maryland) but there were many others.  Consequently, Farmville had a few great places to catch music and many different genres of music passed through.  It was truly incredible to have a choice of three or four live bands playing original music every week, unfortunately Charlie’s appears to be the only place left that hosts live music.  Without a doubt Farmville’s most famous act was Lady of Rage who honed her chops at Fever’s.

The last time I was in Farmville was 19 years ago.  So our first stop was my old block. I noticed that they had not put up any historical marker, yet.  211A St. George Street played host to some pretty impressive music including Ben Tufts’ bands and Gist, and Stanford Prison Experiment spent the night here in 1996. Next door in 221B lived Ashby Dodge who was friends with some kid that went to Longwood named Jason Mraz.  I won’t lie, I had no idea about him.  At the other end of the block lived Pat McGee.  He also left school to be a rock star.  Then they knocked his house down.  I don’t feel as bad about the lack of historical marker now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a brief stop to admire my old abode we turned around to look at some even more famous houses. Across the street from my old house is the Thornton House (309 Beech), built in 1756.  Is it significant for two reasons (two reasons more than most houses).  The first being that in 1836 it became the first property in Farmville purchased by a woman.  The second being Robert E. Lee visited the house on April 7, 1865 to give his condolences to the Thornton Family (Col. John T. Thornton had been killed at the Battle of Sharpsburg, MD).

Across the street you will find the Jackson House (304 Beech) the oldest part of the house was built in 1837.  This is the house where on the morning of April 7, 1865 General Lee met with the Confederate Secretary of War (and others) to discuss the status of his army.  They were interrupted however, when Grant’s troops arrived that afternoon.  General Grant spent the night about four blocks away on Main Street across the street from what today is Walker’s Diner.  Two days later, they met in Appomattox Court House and agreed to end the fighting.

From Beech Street’s antebellum houses we walked a block to the Confederate Monument before checking out the Colonnade connecting the old Longwood buildings.  It was then that the “I need to go to the Bathroom” call went out so we entered Ruffner Hall.  Ruffner was originally built in 1839 and housed the college.  As the school grew, so did the building until it was ultimately finished in 1907.  Unfortunately, the building caught fire and suffered extensive damage in 2001 and most (maybe none?) of what is there today is not original.  I was impressed with the job they did repairing the building though.  If you didn’t know about the fire you would never had known anything had changed.

There traditionally have been two statues of Joan of Arc displayed at Longwood.  Longwood was originally a women’s college and in a unique move for a public school, adopted Joan of Arc as a patron saint.  Joanie on the Stony lives in the great Rotunda of Ruffner Hall.  Until 2009, there was also a bronze statue of Joan on her horse (Joanie on the Pony) in the center of the Colonnades outside of Ruffner where she was said to serve as protector of the college.  Unfortunately she was removed due to vandalism in 2009 and is now housed at the Longwood Center for the Arts.

Fortunately, she was present in Longwood’s hour of need.  In April 2001, as the fire raged and ravaged Ruffner and the neighboring Grainger Hall, Joanie stood her ground between the fire and the residence halls.  The bronze statue turned red in the face of the fire, but the fire stopped unexpectedly directly above where the statue stood in the Colonnade.  There were no injures in the fire.

After walking around the Ruffner building, we checked checked out the haunted tunnel.  Longwood is full of ghost stories, there is even a website devoted to them.  I thought it all good fun until one night instead of studying for my final exam for French class I was making a movie with my friends.  It was a horror movie and we were all supposed to run through the dimly lit tunnels that ran from the Colonnade to the South Ruffner building.  We had all heard that they were haunted, but never thought anything about it.  That is until we began running into the tunnel and the camera turned to static.  We all agreed that it was unfortunate and tried again.  More static.  A third try resulted in more static and goosebumps.  We all agreed that maybe we should relocate to somewhere a little less spooky!

We passed through the tunnel in full daylight which is not at all creepy and took in the new (not yet open) alumni center and all the changes (no St. George street, no Cunninghams) that have happened in the last 19 years and then it was time for another bathroom stop in Hiner Hall and Coyner Hall where I used to visit the computer lab in order to use the Internet!!!

By now everyone was hot and hungry, so we went to Pino’s.  Pino’s, an Italian restaurant, is a local institution across the street from the campus.  We gobbled up our pizza and sandwiches which were as delicious as ever.  We ordered a small pizza, Italian sub lunch special, turkey sub, french fries and a beer for $27.50.

After lunch we stopped by the Moton School.  On April 23, 1951 this high school was the site of a walkout protesting the quality of the segregated facilities.  This walkout was to become part of the famous Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision that led to integrated schools in the Unied States.  Unfortunately before that happened Prince Edward County (along with the rest of Virginia) resisted integration by shutting down the public schools.  This would be the case in Prince Edward County until until 1964.

In addition to being an important site in American history, the Moton building itself is noteworthy for being commissioned by the Public Works Administration during the Great Depression.  The school is now a fine Civil Rights Museum, the Moton Museum as well as a National Historic Landmark.

Next, we went looked around some more of the campus and took pictures of some the buildings on High Street.

Walter Reed’s father owned this house while he was the local minister.  Walter Reed himself attended school down the street.  This building was originally built in 1853 as a rectory for John’s Episcopal Church.

Lancaster Hall on High Street was the Longwood library until 1991.  It is another of Franklin Roosevelt‘s marks on this town.  It too was constructed by the Public Works Administration in 1939 (the 100th Anniversary of the school).

I have included a picture of Jarman Auditorium as well.  Jarman was built in 1950 and is not particularly significant historically though it has seen quite a few actors cut their teeth on this stage and Roy Clark traditionally holds a concert here.  In additon, it housed WLCX from 1981-1995.  I was one of the DJs for WLCX and also spent a lot of time here both as a music student and helping deconstruct sets after theatrical performances.  However, the real reason I included this building is because it is haunted.  I spent a lot of time here and heard countless stories of Dr. Jarman’s ghost who is said to guard the students.

We had promised the kids ice cream, but on the way we stopped off to see Farmville Presbyterian Church built in 1827.  This church was used to hold the memorial service for President Abraham Lincoln the day following the news of his assassination.  It was also the church where the Union soldiers worshiped after the Civil War during the period when Martial Law was imposed.

It was a really hot day so we thought it would be the perfect time for Sweetfrog.  We ordered three small cups for a total of $8.31.

After our ice cream we walked over to the First Baptist Church building.  It was built in 1836 and was originally home to Farmville Baptist Church which is now at the other end of the block.  In between housing churches, it was home to the Southside Institute for Boys which was an elite private school that hosted the future Dr. Walter Reed (the yellow fever guy) among others as a student.  In 1867, First Baptist (the black offshoot of Farmville Baptist) moved in.

About a century after Walter Reed studied here, the church became a focal point for the Civil Rights movement, vocally supporting the student protest at Moton High School.  It was in this building that the decision was made to sue for school integration.  Martin Luther King, Jr. would later visit to show his support.  When the schools were closed, a school was set up in the basement and children were educated here while waiting for the schools to reopen.

Next to the church is the remains of the State Theater (EACO Theater).  The EACO Theater was built about 1921 and became a vaudeville venue.  Many famous jazz musicians including Duke Ellington played here in the 1920s.  It was later turned into a movie theater.  By the 1990s, it was used for stage performances, but an ice storm in 1994 collapsed the roof and eventually the walls of the theater collapsed as well.  The town now uses what remains as an outdoor theater.

By this time it was pretty hot and the kids were done, so we drove to the end of town down Main Street for a look and then left for Richmond.  When we got home, Sarah took the kids to the pool while I grabbed some veggies and a coke from the Manager’s Reception.  The pool was WAY too small for the number of people using it, there were about 10 people in the pool and another 6 or so on the deck.  The pool can handle 5 or 6 people max.

For supper the kids finished the pizza from lunch.  Sarah and I ate leftover BBQ from Buzz and Ned’s, and veggies and chips from the Manager’s Reception.

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