Periodically, I do research online at the Library of Virginia. I have also been twice to the Richmond library to download Jim Patton’s Vestry minutes and other documents that he gave to the library a generation ago.
The library also has an online image gallery. Apparently they had a project for constructing the gallery which ran out of funds. The links to some pictures made it to the database but the pictures were not properly linked. One of the staff provided me with some of the pictures that were not properly linked.
Included was the above picture. The picture apparently came from the Virginia State Chamber of Commerce photograph collection at the library. The print is a 5 x 7 inch print on 8 x 10 inch paper. There is no negative or notes when it was taken. This picture did not appear in Fall’s Hidden Village. I am not sure it has ever been in print
Here are some of the clues to try to determine when the picture was taken:
1. The sign on the front put in 1936 in the centennial is not there. It is before 1936.
2. Looking at the graveyard, D. B. Power’s grave is easily seen. He died in 1910. Mary Rosina Power is just to the left – died 1893. Behind D. B. Powers is Champe B. Thornton and his wife who both died in 1900. The fence in front derives from the first decade of the 20th century. Thus the picture was taken after 1905-1910.
3. The collection sent to me includes a picture in Fall’s Hidden Village of Market Street which is identified as the 1920’s. It is also from the Virginia State Chamber of Commerce archive. This picture is on page 71 of Fall’s Hidden Village and is identified as the 1920’s. However, in the amended index Jim Patton recommended taking off the dates.
In the final analysis the exact date remains a mystery. However it was definitely taken sometime between 1910 and 1936.