Today in 1946, our beloved Rip Payne went over to Lane High School (which currently serves as the Albemarle County Office Building), for a Lion’s Club reunion.  And can I just say– those Lion’s Clubbers sure do know how to throw a reunion party!  We’re talking full-scale pageantry here: giant umbrella dancing, lady drummers, a dance line, and a choir of men wearing as many different types of tuxes as I imagine they had singing octaves.

Don’t you just want to join the Lion’s Club now?

Possibly just as interesting as the phenomenon of the leather postcard, however, is this interpretation of what makes a “Charlottesville, Va. Girl.”  Not uniquely Charlottesvillian in any way, the girl was instead expressed as an American patriot.  Her red, white and blue ensemble is classy and acceptable per the standards of the time.  Her flag stands out most, as it is embossed with a metallic paint.  In other words, the Charlottesville girl was just a good American lady.  But, hey, at least she was stylin’!

Front, Leather Postcard, 1910

Back, Leather postcard, 1910

Today, I’ve decided to set fire to the rain (obligatory link).*

You see, in February 1977, the First Baptist Church of Charlottesville went aflame.   This First Baptist (not to confused with this one, or this one) was founded in 1831 by Reverend Reuben Lindsay Coleman.  In the 1850s, FBC’s Reverend John Broadus founded the Albemarle Female Institute, where one of Charlottesville’s most well-known nineteenth-century women, Lottie Moon, was educated and baptized.  For those of you who haven’t been on a Spirit Walk before, Lottie Moon went on to become a missionary to China, where she served for 40 years.  Later, in 1884, the Church founded the state’s first Baptist Young Peoples Union as a part of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Almost a century later, though, disaster struck.  The church building, at the time 142 years old, and located at the corner of 2nd Street NE and E. Jefferson, caught fire and burnt quite thoroughly.  Likely working for a newspaper, Rip went out to capture the night scene.  Some of the photos here include the building actually on fire, and the later images show the extent of destruction caused.  Needless to say, the church was beyond repair.   Quite remarkably, the congregation was able to enjoy services in their new Park Street church just a year later.

If Rip’s images from this date in the 1960s are any indication, your beloved may not have just forgotten you.  He kind of went in the opposite direction altogether…

On this “love”-ly day in 1964 (sorry, I had to), Rip Payne spent the day at Carter’s Gun Works.  So, if you ever wondered what the back room at a gun store looked like, now you know…

Then, on this day in 1967, Rip again abandoned all romantic notions and instead spent the day shooting at the city & county jails.  You’ll notice the Old Albemarle County Jail, which was closed about a decade later, but which can still be seen peeking out at you as you drive down High Street today (at the intersection with Third Street).

Here’s to hoping your V-Day is much better!!

Though this might now be surprising, it is a pretty darn cool item.  Not everything can come all the way from France, guys… sheesh.

Street Car Control Handle, 12" in height and 12" in diameter, wood and brass materials

This control handle once resided in the vehicle that made the last street car ride in Charlottesville in 1935.  Operated by Mr. Bayard Maupin, the handle functions quite like those not-nearly-so-attractively-made-of-wood-and-brass-but-rather-steel-or-or-some-other-blah-metal controllers you find on the City’s current buses.

The street car system had a very interesting history in central Virginia.  In February of 1888, Frank J. Sprague opened the Clay Street Line in Richmond, becoming the first successful electric trolley system in the United States.  It didn’t take long until Charlottesville caught the bug, and installed its own streetcar program.  As the electrical powered cars were cheaper to run than traditional horse-drawn cars, by the early 1900s Charlottesville’s streetcar horses were completely phased out.

Bay Maupin with his street car, 1930

Bay Maupin, the driver on that famous ride, began working on the city line in 1908, stayed with the city after the transition from street cars to buses, and then moved to maintenance, finally retiring in 1947.  According to several sources, his 39 years of service were marked most clearly by his big friendly smile and care for his passengers.  In other words, Maupin was not your run-of-the-mill, cranky school bus driver.

In a “Yesteryears” article by David Maurer, Maupin recalls how he and his three-legged dog, Skippy, had aided students one winter who had over-imbibed.  Maupin spotted the students lying near the track, stopped, and dragged them into the car.  He found their fraternity house, and delivered the boys to their brothers.

Bay Maupin, looking at camera, third from left.

Maupin’s friendly presence secured the love of the town, and made him into a community figure.  His mere move to a new house earned him a spot in the Daily Progress in June 1965.  The article recalls Maupin’s propensity to sit on his porch and feed his animal neighbors.  Apparently after his move, a congregation of squirrels, pigeons, sparrows and other birds were left hungry and waiting for their food source to return.  I have little doubt that tracked him down, eventually.  Both Maupin and the street car came to exemplify the nostalgic , kind-hearted image of a much simpler past.

For a more detailed (and interesting) history of Charlottesville’s street car system, I highly recommend Chris Gist’s recent post from the Scholar’s Lab at UVA.

1. COLOR!!  Not traditional Rip, but what better time to do color than when the main subjects are wearing black and white, right?!
2. This is where I am getting married in June!  I know you don’t share my enthusiasm on this one, but I had to go there.
3. Wicked awesome beehive hair-dos.
4. Equally wicked awesome facial hair (you’ll see).
5. Really pretty clothing.  Seriously.  I would steal that bridesmaid’s dress in an instant, and dance around in it like its 1970.  And not just because it would be.
6. This couple looks so in love.  The bride is positively glowing, and they are so playful together.

Okay, enough with my rambling.  Check them out yourself!

So for those of you who have never played, here’s the rules:

I give you two options and you pick between them, then get served the Rip Payne you deserve for picking that.  This is going to be a lot clearer than the typical Choose Your Own Adventure scenario wherein, without doubt, I always ended up getting killed or in some other terrible disaster.

Here’s your scenario:

Its almost noon o’clock, and you get to read an awesome Rip Payne blog post.  If you are having a rough day, and would like a random happy picture to cheer you up, please see Chapter 1 below.  If you are having a good day, and feel ready to take on the world, good, bad, ugly, and all, please scroll down to the bottom the page (Chapter 2).  You will still get some happiness on the way.  If you are having such a bad day that only other people’s mistakes//random acts of destruction could possibly make you feel happy, please scroll down to Chapter 2.  Don’t even bother looking at Chapter 1.

Chapter 1

Mrs. Dan Townsend's Birthday Cake, 1945

Chapter 2

Train Wreck at Orange, VA, 1965

Train Wreck at Orange, VA, 1965

Train Wreck at Orange, VA, 1965

Train Wreck at Orange, VA, 1965

Train Wreck at Orange, VA, 1965

Train Wreck at Orange, VA, 1965

Train Wreck at Orange, VA, 1965

Train Wreck at Orange, VA, 1965

Train Wreck at Orange, VA, 1965

Train Wreck at Orange, VA, 1965

Train Wreck at Orange, VA, 1965

 

Metal Cash Register from Buddy's Restaurant, 17"x13"x15"

Metal Cash Register from Buddy's Restaurant. Accession notes: the $2 lever is stuck, and drawer will not open.

You see, the register to which I refer, pictured above, comes from Buddy’s Restaurant, which was first a long-standing, well-beloved Charlottesville business.  Its legacy, however, derives from its setting as one of the most violent yet effective sit-ins during the Civil Rights movement in Charlottesville.

Metal Cash Register from Buddy's Restaurant, with sign stating "Buddy's: Just a nice place to eat"

Buddy Glover, a young local man whose prior experience included working as a soda fountain clerk at Timberlake’s Drug Store, established his own place, aptly named “Buddy’s” in the late 1930s as a hamburger stand, located near104 Emmet Street.  The self-declared, “Biggest Little Place in Town,” Buddy’s restaurant managed to maintain that small-town atmosphere even after moving into a much larger location.  After serving in the Korean War in the late 1940s, Buddy and his long-time employee Sylvester “Woody” Wood returned to Charlottesville with a bigger vision for the restaurant.  Buddy worked with architect Thomas Craven to design the building at 104 Emmet Street (last known to us as the house of UVA’s Institute for Environmental Negotiation), which was recently torn down by the University of Virginia to make way for a park.  At the time, however, the building became a hub for University traffic and local businessmen alike.

Buddy’s Restaurant may or may not have served African American customers during this time.  According to Paul M. Gaston, a UVA professor of history and local Civil Rights activist, Buddy had occasionally allowed African American visitors to eat in the restaurant.  Another local civil rights leader, Eugene Williams, has no such memories, saying, “I have no knowledge of a single black being served in that restaurant,” in an interview featured in a recent Charlottesville Tomorrow article.  Regardless of what Buddy may have done in the past, during the sit-ins of May 1963, Buddy did not serve his African American guests.

On May 29, 1963, three men—African American community leaders Floyd and William Johnson, and white UVA professor Paul Gaston—entered Buddy’s but were ignored at their table until being ushered out at closing time.  The group was denied entry the next morning, when violence erupted between the threesome and some restaurant patrons.  As Gaston entered a phone both to call the police, he was punched four times in the face.  Police eventually arrived and arrested the protestors.  Following a storm of negative press after the events at Buddy’s, a number of Charlottesville’s restaurants, theatres, and hotels dropped their segregation policies.  Violence had quickly changed what months of negotiations had not.  Gaston told The Hook,

“Change was not only going to come from direct action, and not from rational discussion.”

Gaston further asserts that as consequence of sit-ins like that in Charlottesville occurring all throughout the South, President John F. Kennedy submitted what became the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Buddy closed his restaurant the evening that act was passed, July 2, 1964.  On the door of the former local hotspot, he posted a notice that stated,

“Passage of the Civil Rights Bill forced us to take this unfortunate action.”

According to Buddy’s supporters, including Gaston, Buddy closed the restaurant because he was a firm believer in the rights of private property, a common contemporary Southern sentiment.  At the same time, many others viewed the closing as an inability to deal with the changes of the times, namely, segregation.  Buddy never spoke about the incident to the media.  The sale of the building in 1969 to the American Automobile Association was announced with a brief article in the Charlottesville Daily Progress, sans quotes from Buddy regarding the incidents of the past decade.  In a farewell article to Buddy in a Martha Jefferson publication, c. 1983 (Buddy worked as Dietary Department Director for MJH after his restaurant career), the author interviews Buddy extensively about the restaurant but conspicuously avoids the topic of the 1963 sit-ins.  Instead, the article simply states, “Buddy decided, for a number of reasons, to close the restaurant and enter the catering business.”

We may never know exactly what prompted Buddy’s choice, but we must look to the positive, as all those involved in the protest do.  The incidents at Buddy’s restaurant changed conditions in Charlottesville for African Americans in a way that other tactics had not.  As The Hook states,

“the incident served as a catalyst for desegregation in Charlottesville, a town whose businesses initially resisted the door-opening efforts of local NAACP head Floyd Johnson.”

Further Reading:

Brian Wheeler, “UVa plans pocket park at site of old restaurant, gas station; Buddy’s played role in civil rights movement,” Charlottesville Tomorrow News, August 6, 2011.  Article can be accessed online here.

“Buddy Glover Retires from MJH, Retraces 45 Years of Good Times,” Martha Jefferson Hospital publication, ca. 1983.

“Buddy’s Sold to Auto Club,” Charlottesville Daily Progress, March 4, 1969.

Hawes Spencer, “Busted Buddy’s: UVA has demolished civil rights landmark,” The Hook, November 29, 2011.  Article can be accessed online here.

Lisa Provence, “A Long and Winding Road: City Residents Recall Integration Battles,” The Hook, April 8, 2004.

Lisa Provence, “Brown’s Birthday: The Road to Equality in Charlottesville,” The Hook, May 6, 2004.

St. Anne’s, one of the two obvious predecessors to today’s St. Anne’s-Belfield, was a long-standing private school in Charlottesville, tracing it roots back to the Albemarle Female Institute, which opened in 1856.  At this time of this photograph, the school was (still) an all-girls school, though the girls were obviously allowed to bring male guests to their social functions.  Almost thirty years after this Payne photo school, St. Anne’s officially united with the Belfield School (in 1975), opening its doors to males as well as females for the first time.  The other half of the namesake, Belfield, was descendant from Miss Nancy Gordon’s primary school, established in 1911.

If you missed ACHS’ exhibit last year in honor of the 100 year anniversary of the St.Anne’s-Belfield School, produced by the school’s fantabulous historian, Kay Butterfield, do stop by our offices or those at St. Anne’s to pick up Kay’s book, Teach Them Diligently, a far more detailed and picturesque history of the school.

Following transfers to Keswick Depot on February 8, 1849, and then to Henry W. Jackson’s store, in the 1930s the Post Office was moved to its present location on Route 22, pictured below.  At the time of these photographs, the building still had signage for James T. Morris Mechanics.  Today, the facade looks a little different.  Additionally, as you will notice, this was no ordinary trip to the post office.  The afternoon instead welcomed visitors to a small social, where one could sip a beverage while lounging near the stamp rack, or even enjoy a nice stroll around the garden outside.