Handsome Homes on Railroad Avenue

Last week we continued our stroll along the High Bridge  Trail in Prospect with a stop at the Tavern. The three two-  story homes built in the early twentieth century at the  western end of Railroad Avenue catch our attention today.  As we stroll westward, older Prospect citizens remember  the first home (right in the photo) as the home of R. L.  “Bob” Taylor. Apparently the home was built by someone  who worked with the railroad and was sold after he  transferred to another town. A photo dated 1914 shows R.  L. Taylor standing on the porch of the home. During the  1940’s and ‘50’s, Willie Chick owned the home. Bob  Taylor’s daughter Christine Toadvine bought the home in 1959 and lived there with her father and her son Jerry  Fanchler. Once she was unable to handle such a large home, she sold it to William Orange and his mother in 1969.  Some of the rooms feature high ceilings, bead boarding, chair rails, and five fireplaces, now enclosed.  The second home (second in photo) was built by Ray Glenn on property that he purchased from the Chicks. Ray  Glenn owned and operated a service station located almost directly behind the house next to the Prospect school,  located on the Northside of the then two-lane U. S. 460. For a time he also operated a store in a small house that was  located just beyond the third house in this handsome trio. Glenn’s wife Margaret taught at the Prospect school.   The Carrington Doss family purchased the home after the death of the Glenns. Richard Glenn, also of Prospect,  remembers visiting and playing with the Doss children in the large rooms of the home. After the Dosses moved across  the Norfolk & Western tracks to live in the old restaurant/home next to the fire house, the home was rented out in  apartments to many who still have homes in the community. Bill and Mary Lou Foster owned the home for a while and  then sold it to John Horn. The Jones formerly of Pamplin bought it in 1986 lived in the home for a number years before  it was purchased by the Lundeens.   Claude and his wife Ora Harris Chick once owned the third home (left in photo) as well as much of the surrounding  property which had extensive gardens and orchards. According to the entry in Prince Edward County Virginia 1754-  2008, the house built around 1909, began as a small one-story home and was remodeled with the addition of the  second level.  Tom Young, as a young boy, had one of those “where were you moments” waiting in the family car parked in front of  the Chick home while his parents visited inside with the family. Listening to the car radio, he heard the news of the  bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.   For a time, Chuck Maillet, the first voice of WFLO radio, and his wife Bea LaForce Maillet rented an apartment and  lived with the Chicks. On July 4, 1947, members of the LaForce family were gathered in the front yard of the home to  watch young USAF airman Glen A. LaForce buzz Prospect in his AT-6D plane based at Wright Field in Ohio. To their  horror they watched as he circled the large crop field across the railroad tracks from the home, accidently clipped  power lines, and crashed to his death.   After the Maillets moved, Woodrow Carson, store owner and accountant,  and his wife Kathleen Glenn Carson lived  with Claude Chick for a time.   After  Chick’s death in 1965, John and Jewell Seay resided in the home for a while.  Presently Roger and Deborah  Lundeen own the home.  written by Edwina Covington