I recently posted a question on Facebook to my friends. It was "If you could pause a time in your life, what time would that be"
My answer was....
It would be the summer before my grandparents died. I was 13 and my sister was 9. We were all staying at this old hotel on Virginia Beach, called the "Avamere". The type of place where you dressed for dinner and have the same Waitress (yes, they said WAITRESS back then) and have drinks on the front porch at sunset.
To explain why we stayed at this wonderful hotel, we must go back in time a little bit....
When my mother was a little girl, she and her family would stay at "The Sinclair" which was a cottage type hotel located next to the big, beautiful, historic "Avamere Hotel". My Great Aunt Abby was a Hostess at the Avamere when she was a teenager.
My grandparents rented a place at The Sinclair every year and they would stay for a week. The McComb Family owned the hotel and during her summers at Virginia Beach, my mom's boyfriend was the owner's son, Jack. Her name is Diane, isn't that funny? She told me recently that she knows that hotel like the back of her hand and can instantly call up images of every single room. She recently told me that her most vivid memory was walking between the Avamere and the Sinclair hotels. The sand was mushy from the dripping window air conditioners and you could feel them softly blowing air when you past them. But the most amazing part, was the smell of baking bread, from the Avamere kitchen. Every sense was heightened, walking through those two hotels, on the way to the beach.
By the time I was born, The Sinclair was gone. My Aunt and Uncle stayed at the Avamere for several summers and in the summer of 1982, after my grandfather had a stroke, we decided that was where we would come for our family vacation. It was important to go back to the place where my mother's family enjoyed their summers.
I remember that vacation so clearly. We met my grandparents, my Uncle Allen, Aunt Nancy and our 3 year old cousin, Whitney. We had magical days on the beach and nights on the front porch in rocking chairs watching people walk on the boardwalk. Before going down to the dining hall, we would meet in my grandparent's room for a pre-dinner visit with drinks and snacks. I remember we had Frito Lay Cheese Balls in the can and Corn Chips. Of course, I WOULD remember the food we ate.
I remember one night leaning close to my grandfather and holding his hand. I knew that he was not well and it worried me. I felt like if I just stayed there on that porch, holding him tight, he would never leave me.
That was the last time I saw him.
"The Avamere" and "The Sinclair" were a part of my family's history and it meant so much to my mom's family that she and my uncle decided to spread the ashes of my grandparents in the ocean in front of those great hotels.
Here are some pictures of those two places to bring you back.....
http://www.vbgov.com/sites/libraries/history/hotels_avamere.html
http://flickr.com/photos/craige/2575437022/
The Avamere
On the Ocean at 26th Street - Virginia Beach
by Edith Schermerhorn
The Avamere was one of several cottage inns and beachfront hotels established by the Leggett sisters who migrated from
Scotland Neck, North Carolina, to Virginia Beach after World War I. Lena Leggett Smith opened the hotel in 1935. Originally an
18 room cottage, the building was expanded three times to a maximum of 55 rooms.
Mrs. Smith named the Avamere after another family owned hotel, the Avalon, and “mere”, which means sea. After her
death in 1971, her son, Clarence Smith, Jr., inherited the property. With his wife, Peggy, and later their daughter, Bonner, the family continued to maintain a decades old tradition of offering its guests the “Modified American Plan” which was a room and two meals a day.
Best remembered by generations of family guests for its old fashioned hospitality and tasty Southern cooking, the Smith’s Avamere refused to succumb to the usual expectations of the modern tourist with the exception of an in-ground pool which was added just a few years before it’s demolition in the spring of 1994. A year later, its next door sibling, the Halifax, the last of a breed of the old beachfront hotels, also returned to dust.
13 comments:
i used to stay at the Avamere every summer. Clarence Smith, the owner, used to let my friend Ed and I behind the counter and pretend like we were checking people in. Fond memories...
My family stayed at the Avamere every summer from the time I was about 10 years old until it closed. I actually burst into tears (at the age of 40-something) when my husband drove me by the demolished building. We last saw Peggy the year before she died and Clarence a year or so later, but have lost touch with Bonner, Kirk and Skip. I would love to be in touch with any of them if anybody knows an email address.
My parents always had room 302 on the oceanfront and I was usually stuck in a back room overlooking Atlantic Avenue. The meals were wonderful (our "waitress" was Florence who told us what we would be having for breakfast).
Do I remember correctly that some of the china and a front porch rocker are in the VA Beach Museum.
This brought tears to my eyes remembering "when". My Uncle John owned the Sinclair Hotel and the "Jack" your mom fell in love with was my cousin. Clarence was of course as close as any family member. I too loved the "feel" of that era, the Avamere, and especially the Sinclair. Thank you for the trip into a world too many know nothing about.
WOW! Cindy, that made my day, hearing this news. I also had no idea there were other comments on this blog talking about "The Avamere" and "The Sinclair". Thank you for sharing your own memories. They are just wonderful!
Wow. Thanks for sharing these memories. For my family it was Kiawah Island outside Charleston, SC. I have many wonderful memories of summers spent there as a child. In 2009 I got to spend a couple of days there with my 13 year old daughter. She was there for a couple of days before me and it was such a joy to let her "show me" the island. I could feel the same joy and adventure that she was feeling.
Thanks again for sharing this wonderful story of your family.
Thanks for sharing my photo! I also have fond memories of that place, although I was 6 when we stopped going so I only remember little snippets. For some reason , the shrimp cocktail stands out vividly in my mind! I suppose I thought it was very fancy at the time.
We too fondly remember the Avamere. My father took us on his church youth retreats and we stayed at The Sinclair, next to the Avamere. Both places were somehow magical and yet simple. We remember the smells coming from the Avamere kitchen and we also remember the cool water in the sand from the dripping window AC units in between the hotels. The porches were the place to be, although as young kids, we didn't appreciate it at the time. We just wanted to be in the water! Thank you so much for this site. I would love to hear more about the Sinclair also.
-Jeff Lawrence, Richmond Va
My family were regulars in the 50's and 60's. Yes, if I could go back and hit "pause," that would be the place and time.
Larry
I was the only northerner he ever hired, Ms. Bertha and Mr. Joe were the Avamere, fresh rolls rising all day, Mr. Joe making fish
Growing up in Va Beach in the 40' & 50's there wasn't alot to do during the winter. Days were spent playing in the different hotels owned by families of childhood playmates. One of those was the Sinclair. I loved that hotel. A wonderful childhood memory.
Yes, it was just like this in the early 1960s, too: the narrow alley that separated the Avamere and Halifax hotels where returning guests would navigate under loud AC units dripping water that pooled on the dimpled surface of the concrete walks. And of course, you knew it was close to dinnertime when you were greeted with the late afternoon aroma of baking bread and fried foods. Had to dress for dinner--sport coat and clip-on tie.
Does anyone recall the walk north on the concrete boardwalk to the Seaside Park amusement area? By the late 1960s, the bands that played the dance halls there had discovered The Doors. I guess that spelled the beginning of the end of Old Virginia Beach, as we, like so many other families, discovered condos.
What a pleasure to find this blog. In reading it, how it took me back in time. We reflect constantly of the years at Virginia Beach's one and only Avamere. We were not there when it was demolished, and rather glad we were not, but a dear friend Jim Story (many year seasonal employee of the Avamere) was kind enough to send us a coffee cup and saucer which is fondly remembered on the great front porch before breakfast after a morning "dip". AHHH Florence, Bertha, Mr. Joe treasured employees of Clarence and Peg Smith. I remember many nights staying up and sopping, wringing and replacing at the doorways during hurricanes. To us then, they were not frightening as we had the protection of the great stately AVAMERE.
Anonymous of 7/7 said he was the only northerner, both of our daughters worked there after graduation from high school, but everyone blended in so well no one knew of another "northerner". Our family started going to the Avamere in 1948, giving 3 generations the pleasure of fond memories. Memories of the smell, never having to lock our doors at night, the transome that let in hallway air / let out heat of the room with the breeze of the windows, no air conditioners needed. Yes, the concrete walk to the amusement park every evening, even if just to stroll, there were times people would congregate on the sidewalk and join in a singer. One stands out in my mind, he came from Ft. Story and how he could sing in his baritone voice, everyone would listen in awe and join in from time to time, I remember once my father invited him to dinner at the Avamere.
The Dairy Queen, Kitchen's Kitchen great times there. I suppose I could go on and on, but for now I will close and ponder the good times that were.
Ginny
No, I was the only northerner hired! I worked there 3 summers during college, and knew about the place because I had gone with my grandparents, my parents honeymooned there, and my dad went there with his grandparents. I worked there in the mid 80’s. Anybody remember the twins, Teddy and Suzanne, the Darden sisters, Betsy, Catherine, or Skipper Easterbrooks? Ms. Bertha often added leftover pancake batter to the rolls, and I think that was her secret. We would sometimes sneak down to the kitchen from the attic and steal icecream from the freezer. I remember once I got strep throat with a high fever, and Peggy and Clarence made sure I saw a doctor.
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