The Best of Week 1 in Abandoned in Virginia

I have culled and included in this post the best contributed images which I saved last March from the first week of Abandoned in Virginia on Facebook.   If you recognize the location on one of the unidentified photos, please comment and indicate the county or town…but please do not identify the specific location of abandoned old homes.

Thank you all again.   My next blog post will focus on a classic house I visited and photographed for the page.

The Rosewell Ruins, posted by Nick Chandley

from Wikipedia:
“Rosewell Plantation in Gloucester County, Virginia, was for more than 100 years the home of a branch of the Page family, one of the First Families of Virginia. Begun in 1725, the Flemish bond brick Rosewell mansion overlooking the York River was one of the most elaborate homes in the American colonies. In Mansions of America, the architectural historian Thomas Tileston Waterman described the plantation house as “the largest and finest of American houses of the colonial period.”[3] Through much of the 18th century and 19th centuries, and during the American Civil War, Rosewell plantation hosted the area’s most elaborate formal balls and celebrations. The home burned in 1916.”

former Austin’s Store in Vesuvius, by Kathy Jennings

This store along Norfolk Southern’s Shenandoah Valley Line was the location of the famous O. Winston Link photograph, “Sometimes the Electricity Fails.” Prior to ownership by Mr. & Mrs. Edgar Austin, the store was owned by Gray D. Secrist, whose name has become faintly visible in the weathered paint on the front of the building.

“Corner Minor” in the Highland Park neighborhood, Richmond, by Phil Riggan

The Parker House in Dendron along Rt. 31, by Joe Sites

Regarding the house above:

“The Parker House was the home of Thomas D. and Cornelia Spratley Parker, conveyed to them by her father, Stith Spratley, in 1890. Mr. Parker was a merchant, Dendron’s first Postmaster, and Vice President of the Bank of Dendron. He was installed by the Surry Lumber Company as a member of the Town Council established in 1896. The Parker House is an imposing two-story structure with large bay windows on both floors.

The house now belongs to a local farmer who owns the house and fields to the left and behind the structure. The Parker house is the most noticeable house in Dendron. We thought that there was a chance that the farmer would donate the house to the Historical Society and we would try to find a grant to save it. The house has not had anyone living in it for the past 15 to 20 years. The house has three bay windows. It also has a gutter system that is built into the eves which were not well maintained and have been leaking since the time when it was abandoned. We had a land survey done of the house lot but the owner wanted to be assured that we would have the work done to the house in two years. We just spent nine years repairing a boxcar that ran on the railroad that once was in Dendron so we could not make the guarantee that we could have the work done at some specific time. Thus the house sits and rots even more.”

Bill Richardson
President
Dendron Historical Society

Fleetwood Church in Brandy Station, Culpeper County, by Jeff Satterthwaite

from the web:
“Tax records indicate the church building was built in 1850 and the Methodist Church records indicate that the congregation was “established in 1881.” Fleetwood’s steeple is a landmark and lies directly across the highway from the Brandy Station Battlefield and two doors down from the Historic Graffiti House containing the signatures and artwork of both the Confederate and Union armies.”

in Orange, Virginia, by Marcia Degnan

old mortuary school, from Among The Ruin

in Jarratt, Virginia, behind the Owen Funeral Home, by Debbie Lynn Allen

old Arcadia Store, in Arcadia by Anna Larsen Porter

Buckhorn Elementary School in Union Level, by Lynn Harler

Abandoned farm house in Hanover County, by Cory Wright

in Hanover County, by Rick Kidd

along Rt. 58 between Abingdon and Damascus, by Ernie Braganza

in Isle of Wight County, by Nancy Samford Bennett‎

on a farm close to Christiansburg, by Bridgette Golden Dorsett

in Shenandoah County, by Larry Painter

Green Bay School in Green Bay, Prince Edward County, by Pete Engel

Alberene Soapstone Company’s president’s house in Alberene, by Trumbull Photography

photo from 2011 by Dianna McGuriman Keen, of Wolftrap in Isle of Wight County. The house has since been dismantled and is being stored – hopefully to eventually be rebuilt in another location.

by Craig Jones…possibly not in Virginia however

Southwest VA near Chilhowie, by John Garber

in Pulaski, by Lisa Dennis Landry

in Pittsylvania County, by Karen Steinbach Eades

off of Rt. 360 near Danville, by Norman Hall

along the New River near Draper, by Peyton Breeden Walz

by Craig Jones, but possibly not in Virginia

west of Amherst off of Rt. 60, by Margaret Purcell

Southwest Va., Castlewood, by Bobby Boyd Amateur Photography

off of Rt. 360 near Danville, by Norman Hall

East End Theater, Richmond, by Carl M. Spencer

in McGaheysville, by Lynn Lough

in Elkton, by Valerie Kopp

in Penn Laird, by Valerie Kopp

in the Dismal Swamp, by Leslie Long

Former homeplace of the “Stogdale farm” in Swoope, by David ‘Roscoe’ Fauver

in Virgilina, by Mike Landrum

on Jefferson Street in Danville, 3-4-14, by Richard T. Davis

Collins Ferry Rd in Gladys, Campbell County, by Al Ensley

Smithfield, Isle of Wight county, unknown contributor (with thanks to Lauren Jeanne for the location identification)

in McDowell, by Eric Rogan

in Luray, by Pete Engel

Halifax County house, built by Dr. Richard Thornton circa 1831, by W. Scott Smith

in Pungo, photographer unknown

in Randolph, by David Roach

in Central Virginia, by Connie Lucas

by Among The Ruin