980 units, “Built by the Defense Homes Corporation with funds furnished
by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. The 280 acres on which Stuart Gardens
is located was annexed from Warwick County in December 1940,
immediately following plans for development of the area.”

- Newport News During the Second World War

- Courtesy of Norm Covert ('61) of MD - 05/09/08
Thanks, Norm!

Location: Oh, c'mon, everybody knows where Stuart Gardens is!  It's on The Beach! 
Or it was, until somehow they made the beach disappear. 
Would someone please explain to me once more how a beach can be made to disappear - and WHY?!?

WAY, WAY BACK THEN:

"This is the overseer's house on the Parrish Plantation which was located near the Small Boat Harbor in present day Newport News, VA. During World War I, this land was incorporated into Camp Stuart and in the World War II era became the Stuart Gardens apartment complex."

Saturday, October 28, 2000
1353 Roanoke Avenue

Tuesday, September 3, 1963
1126 Garden Drive
Shari - age 3-1/2 and
Carol Buckley ('65) - age 16

- Dave Spriggs ('64) of VA - 05/08/08
Thanks, Dave!

I loved the Stuart Gardens Apartments.  You may remember Baba would let me stay up with you and her and watch the Twilight Zone  - a privilege for me to be treated like a mini-adult.  I remember Baba tying strings to "June Bugs" legs and my spending hours in the dark with friends I made there catching lightning bugs; your making a snowman with me, and the beautiful blue flowered hydrangeas.  The funniest thing I remember (and you may have heard it a gazillion times) was the day Baba threw water on me.  Just in case you haven't heard or forgot I remember I had done something bad ?? and seeing Baba angry, I bolted for the door with Baba right behind me.  She threw a pitcher of ice cubed filled water on me which drenched my little yellow dress with a ruffled collar that probably made me appear to be innocent. 

There was a black lady all dressed up with hat and gloves and she loudly exclaimed, "Oh Lawd", something like, "How could you do that to that sweet child?!"   

Poor Baba, cold me, and the look on both that lady's and Baba's face - priceless!   Baba brought me back in quickly and apologized and hugged me and let me wear something else while my dress dried and what I remember thinking is, "My grandmother is really, really fast!" 

I know at the most I was 7, but I'm thinking 6 and mischievous; it was before Mom and Dad separated.

Have fun at your reunion! Be careful; as you know Newport News isn't as safe as it used to be.  I just met a guy in our Wal-Mart who grew up there and he stated, "It's fun to go back to visit, but the crime is just too high for me."

Love,
Shari

   WILDEST GIGGLES!!!  Shari, you are a hoot!  I never realized you had such a gift for understatement!  Until I met a couple of my own dear sweet angelic children, I think you were about the naughtiest little kid I ever met!  You had an marvelous gift for making someone instantly mad enough to want to kill you, and to think they were doing the world a favor!  HA-HA-HA-HA!  I had forgotten that story - what a gem!  And you're absolutely right - I remember thinking years later that Baba could have beaten me in a foot race when she was well past 75!  I never had the nerve to put it to the test.

   I had forgotten the snowman story too - thanks for the memory!

   I remember in the fall of '62 when you were four years old, I had sent off for a special offer from Glamour magazine, and received some dreadfully expensive Christian Dior red lipstick in the mail which I dearly loved - and you ate it!  Of course, that was after you smeared it on my homework, and a buncha stuff in my room!!!  You're still alive, so somebody must have held me back.  That was probably Baba, too.  She was also the strongest woman I ever met - spiritually and physically.  When I was little, she told me that she posed for the Arm and Hammer Baking Soda logo.  I was so proud!  I took a box to school one day for Show and Tell.  Somewhere in the eternities that teacher is probably still laughing hysterically....

   I remember those beautiful blue hydrangeas that we all loved so quite well.  They're all gone now.  Last fall when I took those last shots posted above, we had to leave quickly, as the police were there on a domestic violence charge.  As we were speeding away, we heard gunshots fired, followed shortly thereafter by more sirens.  SHEESH - all I wanted was a picture of what's left of my beloved Stuart Gardens Beach!

   Thanks, Shari!  I'm glad we all let you survive!  You're a rare jewel!
 

I have some history in Stuart Gardens myself. 

While on summer leave from the Naval Academy in 1968, I hung out at John Bluxome's ('64) apartment on the water side of the 1000 block of Garden Drive. 

After I graduated in 1969, John Scull ('64 - of VA) and I rented an apartment for a short time, also on the water side of the 900 block of Garden Drive.

Then, after I married in January 1970, we lived
at 1300 Roanoke Avenue, the corner apartment
at the intersection with Garden Drive. Lived there until May 1971. (Actually, I was at sea most of the time.)  Back then it was a great starter apartment for newlyweds on a budget.  I have several photos, but they show very little of the apartment as backdrop for the human (and dog) subject of the photo. . .  

(This) one looking out of my apartment across Roanoke Avenue pictures a snowfall and shows my wayyyy cool 1969 Pontiac and my wife's 1967 MGB. (The Pontiac is long gone, but the MGB is still in the garage and comes out to play on sunny days in the Spring and Fall.)  Because of the snow, it is difficult to see the apartments across the street.

(This) was taken in early 1971 from 1300 Roanoke Avenue looking south across Roanoke Avenue to the odd-numbered side of the street.

- Dave Spriggs ('64) of VA - 04/14/03 
Thanks, Dave!

We lived at 1353 Roanoke Avenue, on the outside of the court, just at the street. The bus stopped right outside our apartment. Carol Lee Campbell ('59) lived in our same building, and Bubba Taylor ('61) lived further back in our court. I think his sister, Sandra ('59), may have already married and moved away by the time we moved there. Several years later, the Levine sisters, Marlene ('64) and Joan ('67) moved to an apartment at the back of the court.

The previous occupants of our apartment were Mr. and Mrs. Marks. I can no longer recall their first names. His name may have been Harry. She was a long-time employee of Nachman's. They had left a mezuzah attached to the portal to our doorway. I insisted that we leave it there.

The neighbor closest to us, just kitty-cornered from our door, was Mrs. Rose Binder, grandmother of many NNHS graduates - Stanley ('62) and Wilma ('67) Binder come quickly to mind. For some reason, I'm thinking that Alan Gerber ('66) is also one of her grandsons, but that could be one of my "rearranged" memories
.
Mrs. Binder was the most remarkable woman I've ever known. During the persecutions around the time of the Russian Revolution, she hid out in the forests with her children for three years - a fact which boggles my mind each time I recall it. She spoke no English, yet I could somehow understand her meaning. I used to visit with her on her front step quite often. From time to time she would bake Mama and me delicious coffee cakes and bring them to our door. She would never enter our apartment; the mezuzah notwithstanding, she knew perfectly well that we were not keeping an Orthodox home, but she was one of the best neighbors we ever had. How I cried when she passed away! Mama took me out of school so that we could attend her funeral together.

My goodness! As Jean Poole Burton ('64 - of RI) said just the other day, these are precious memories! Thanks for causing so many of them to flood over me just now, Debby!

- Carol Buckley Harty ('65) of NC - 01/23/06

I lived across the street from Ms. (Rose) Binder on Roanoke Avenue, and across 16th lived Billy Bryant ('62). Down 16th lived Steve Sparkman ('63). They were both my good buddies.  I think of them often.

I was born in Stuart Gardens 836, the only house with 4 trees in the front yard....My house was on the corner when I went NNHS. I think it was 1225 Roanoke, Corner of 16th.

Memories! 

I remember quite well the day the old building was demolished.  That was probably in 1942 while the Stuart Garden houses were being built.  A bunch of youngsters and I were standing across the street in front of a partially constructed new home.  We were hoping to see some action.  Someone with a megaphone began shouting for everyone to evacuate because dynamite was going to be set off.  The other kids scattered, I slipped into the new house and hid in a closet just inside the front door. Nothing exploded, so in about 10 minutes I opened the closet door to see what was happening.  Just then the dynamite went off, making an enormous bang and raising a cloud of dust.  I felt something hit my chest and when I dared look I found a pea-size piece of concrete stuck there.  This was not serious and I just plucked out.  No need to tell parents.

I remember first going to the upscale Briarfield rink when I was in the 5-high at Walter Reed.  I wrote an essay about this event which my teacher, Miss Ruth Folkmann liked.  That would have been in about 1939. Surely the Old Dominion Rink would have met its demise by then.

Also near the Chestnut-16th Street Intersection (west side), down a remnant street from the Camp, was the clubhouse for the "Old Dominion Golf Club." When the Stuart Gardens project got under way, the clubhouse and golf course were bulldozed along with its several small hills.

I don't remember much about the Hygeia Rink (Wickham & Hampton Avenue) except it was built during, or soon after the Stuart Gardens Shopping Center.  Probably during WW-II to serve all the new nearby homes.

Few artifacts of old Camp Stuart can be found today.  One very distinct item is an old building, said to have been the Camp Stuart Officer's Club.  It survived, only because it remained inside the fence of the parcel that the Dodge Boat and Plane Co. purchased.  I found what I believed was that building, relocated and converted into a large home on Shore Drive.  Dave Spriggs ('64 - of VA) helped confirm that it is as I suspected. More on that story as it develops.

What I was less certain about was the construction of the Stuart Gardens Shopping Center on Wickham Avenue and the Hygeia Skating Rink across the street.