The Banks of Dendron
The first time I discovered the town of Dendron was in November of 2019. I had written, “Here, where I live, we're getting a semi-tropical kind of storm. But I drove 60 miles inland and found Dendron, Virginia. Cotton country, with a 2000 census population of 297, it has six churches, and two of the strangest "brick" buildings I've seen in a while. They were more like stone, but not granite.
Here they are, and they were facing each other in this small little town.”
The Bank of Dendron, Bill Richardson, a local historian with the Dendron Historical Society, wrote me that, “Tom Parker was a Director at the Bank of Dendron. Also, his future son-in-law worked there.”
The Bank of Sussex and Surry
Like many towns in Surry, Virginia, Dendron had its roots in the railroad and lumber. A newspaper article from the Virginian Pilot, dated June 28, 1995, states that, “Until the lumber mill opened in the late 1800s, though, there basically was no town, Hart said. There was just a post office named Parker's. When the mill moved in, people and businesses followed.”
When the town was incorporated in 1906, they called it Dendron which is a Greek word (δένδρον) for tree. A fitting name for a town centered around a mill and the lumber industry. Lumber was brought by rail to the mill and from there went to be shipped by barges from the Scotland Wharf on the James River. Like many small towns in that area and era Dendron grew and at its height had a movie theater, ice cream parlor, fashion and a hat shop, general stores, an auto dealership, and banks. Two of them. The Bank of Dendron and the Bank of Sussex and Surry.
How that Bank of Sussex and Surry looked in its prime.
It was these banks that attracted my attention because of how they were built. After some investigation I discovered that they were probably an example of a cement building (quite the rage in the early 20th century) and the Sears Wizard Block Making machine could be purchased for only $57.50. In the early 20th century Sears offered pre-fab home kits as well as the ability to make decorative cement blocks for buildings.
It seems that, at the beginning of the 20th century cement building was quite the rage and the Sears Wizard Block Making machine could be purchased for only $57.50.
Like many excursions, I just wanted to get out in the country and found more than a photograph, I stumbled across history.
