Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family
history through old photographs.
This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt made me take another
look at a couple photos of my grandaunt Velma Davis Woodring and her friends.
The date was 25 March 1925. The place, Edge Lawn Inn.
Since in 1925 the girls were students at Harrisonburg
Teacher’s College (now James Madison University - Go DUKES!), I could not
imagine why they would have been staying at an inn. And where was it?
A search for the Edge Lawn Inn brought up a brief mention
of it noting it was south of Harrisonburg. By “brief,” I mean THAT was the
extent of the information. No picture. No history. Not even an exact location. My
inquiry at the Harrisonburg Rockingham County Historical Society produced
nothing either.
So I gave up on trying to find out more. After all, what
is there to be gained other than perhaps a little factoid that had nothing to
do with Velma or her friends?
Leave it to Sepia Saturday to make me look again. A broad
Google search for a misspelled Edge Lawn - I typed “edgelawn” - gave me this ad
for the Edge Lawn Inn.
from Automobile Blue Book, vol 2 on Google Books |
Velma Davis, Leta LeVow, and Thelma Hockman March 25, 1925 |
The picture of the inn rang a bell. I remembered another
photo of the same group of girls in front of a house that I always assumed was
the home of one of Velma’s friends. I reasoned that the girls probably spent
the weekend with a friend from school. I knew it was not Thelma Hockman’s house since she lived next door to Velma in Shenandoah. Maybe it was Leta LeVow’s
house in Waynesboro. Maybe it was Elise Taylor’s home in Staunton.
Velma Davis and Thelma Hockman Elise Taylor March 25, 1925 |
I checked the date. 25 March 1925.
I checked the clothes. Same clothes.
The house was apparently the Edge Lawn Inn.
Using my online newspaper subscriptions, I found several
mentions of the Edge Lawn Inn as the venue for reunions, birthday
parties, card parties, bridal showers, and other social events. The Edge Lawn
Inn placed an ad promoting its Thanksgiving Dinner menu. A small notice
advertising dishes and furnishings for sale hinted that perhaps updating was underway
at the Edge Lawn Inn. Coincidentally - or not - there was an estate auction next
door to the Edge Lawn Inn on March 25, 1925. Were the girls there to bid?
I saved the best for last. The news article is not about
the Edge Lawn itself but about its former owner. What a headline!
from Harrisonburg Daily News Record 14 Oct 1927 Newspaperarchive.com |
There you have it - the sum total of what I have learned about the Edge Lawn Inn.
However, I learned quite a bit about the Automobile Blue Book in which the ad appeared. Published between 1901 and 1929, the Blue Books were a series of guides for people traveling the United States and Canada by car. The highway system was in its infancy. Roads were built for local travel, not intercity. The Blue Books relied heavily on maps and landmarks denoting when and where to turn since road signs did not always exist. Originally the aim was to provide point to point directions along routes connecting automobile supply businesses, auto repair and auto maintenance businesses. Advertisements were primarily for hotels, restaurants, auto dealers, and garages.
Unlike today’s GPS devices that point to shortest or
fastest routes, the Blue Books followed the routes that offered interesting
scenery and places for rest and maintenance.
Places for rest - like the Edge Lawn Inn. “Nothing too
good for Tourists.”
Follow the route to Sepia Saturday - no Blue Book
necessary.
Wendy
© 2019, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.
I haven't heard of the Blue Books. I like how you put the information together.
ReplyDeleteIn more recent times, the term "Blue Book" has been associated with books that assess the value of used cars. I'm guessing the 2 are related but I don't know.
DeleteNice post and an excellent bit of sleuthing. Advertising of businesses like this in newspapers and other publications are great clues to fill out ancestral stories -- and you have found some great ones here!
ReplyDeleteYou're right about the newspapers. I tend to use them to search names of people, but I should think more about places and businesses too.
DeleteAnother mystery solved! Those old inns had the original B&B charm that was probably more like home than school for fledgling teachers like Velma and her friends. The last sentence in that toilet death report was the best punchline! When I'm doing my research on musicians I frequently get distracted by inane reports like that.
ReplyDeleteI thought the same thing, that this inn looks like a house, not a hotel as we know "hotels."
DeleteAs for the death story, I am immature - I get sidetracked thinking, "OK, now we know who had to go to the bathroom and when."
You certainly are a good sleuth with the work that you do and how you research things. Glad you were able to piece together a bit of this story.
ReplyDeletebetty
Still incomplete, but I have more of the story than before, and now I also know what pictures go together.
DeleteA great detective story - I find the newspaper archives online fascinating and you can come up with gem findings as you have done with Edge Lawn.
ReplyDeleteI agree - old newspapers are quite interesting with a different attitude from today about telling a story.
DeleteLeave it to Sepia Saturday, all right! I've become a much better sleuth and observer and 2nd, 3rd, and 4th looker at things since I got started with this group. Great that you solved the mystery of the unknown house.
ReplyDeleteI know! I've had to LOOK hard at things, do some digging in order to meet the challenge. I hate to be defeated.
DeleteFor years I heard that my grandfather's brother died on the toilet at their office. One thing I've learned from genealogical research is that I don't think it happened quite like the family stories told to me.
ReplyDeleteGeez - what an image to be left with. I can't get over the use of the term "toilet" to mean the ROOM itself. However, I clearly remember my high school principal getting on the loud speaker to order students not to stand in the toilet. What?
Delete