Found this old 1959 directory ad for Maestas Funeral Home recently.. once located on 18th & Baltic. And I realized 65 years later, this building still stands. Had some square footage added, but still there, now housing a funeral home with a different business name..

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This is a pretty obscure recollection.. the short-lived Chuck E Cheese's at Hilltop.

It was housed in this building at Hilltop West circa 1983. Which is currently 1637 & 1639 Hilltop West. And was only open for a year (or two).

In 1982, the building was partially occupied by S&K men's clothing store (directory listing circled)..

By the time of the following year's (1983) phone directory, Chuck E Cheese's had moved in, and there was no longer a listing for S & K, so Cheese's must've occupied both 1637 & 1639, basically the whole building. (New listing circled..)

This was an interesting practice of these old city directories.. they listed the name of the business' managers. I cross-referenced the manager's name in the same directory, and he was living over in Green Run. But like the Chuck E Cheese, he wasn't there the preceding year, and was gone by the following year. You can see, by the printing of the '84 directory, the Chuck E Cheese's was gone.

Who knows why it came and went so quickly, early/mid 80s was when Cheese's was in its prime. And based on the general manager's phone listing.. seems like he may have specifically relocated to (then left) VB based on the job?

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This was a cool building that had been on Virginia Beach Blvd for a long time..

There was a nice bait & tackle shop at the front, the back and side was basically a small business park (I guess as part of Birchwood's larger business park there). Looks like a church was one of their last tenants.

The recent, regrettable end of that building. I saw that Atlantic Bait & Tackle did relocate, and rebrand tho..

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Sort of a quick then-and-now.. A newspaper ad from February 1980, advertising a new home at the back of Little Neck.

And the same house (different angle), 40 years later..

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For many years, there have been a couple of houses on Virginia Beach Blvd (near Hobby Lobby and Chesopeian Trail).. To me, they always embodied an earlier era in Virginia Beach's history, when it wouldn't have been out of place to build a residence facing what incrementally became a much busier road. Don't think there are many of these residential homes remaining/preserved right up on the boulevard.

The width of this trunk, looks like the tree had serious age on it.. the listing for the house in the background had it's construction date at 1930. 

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This random light pole caught my eye, because it was listed as property of Vepco, which is the long-gone name/predecessor of Virginia's Dominion Energy.

Looking closer, the Vepco sign made sense, the pole was apparently manufactured in 1978. Seems like a long life for a pole. A (cool) surviving monument to Virginia Beach 1.0's Vepco days. I'm curious, if someone who does street light work, etc knows: do light poles typically last this long (45 years and counting)?

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eating in Lynnhaven Borough.

 

Hurd's (seafood restaurant) inhabited the back of the Little Neck area for decades..

At the time, the area was not incorporated in to Virginia Beach, so it's location was characterized as Lynnhaven (Borough). Today, there is still a Hurds Road located in the area.

In the days when MasterCard was still mastercharge.

I like this hand-drawn art on their menu cover.. and check out the prices~

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