Buddy Boy Johnson’s Place

If you’re traveling between Southampton County and Petersburg you’ll pass by this building.

The most intriguing thing for me is that I've passed by this for 4 years and there's always a light on inside.

Melissa Neave Darden wrote, “My Great Uncle and Aunt's store Buddy Boy and Eva Johnson. I ate many a good meal there. The present owner, their daughter just passed away at 95 yrs.old. The cabins were supposed to be some of the first built on the new 2 lane Rt. 460. There was a closet in the living area that had a peep hole in the wall so my Aunt could see who was in the store. Buddy Boy was the Johnson of Bracey and Johnson Oil Company in Ivor , later Ivor Oil Co. I think it was built in the late 1920's.”

Liz Hobbs provided this photograph of the store.

This "way station" is off RT460. Probably a store with living quarters. Also on the property is a garage and some small "houses" possibly like little hotel rooms for weary travelers. Or bungalows for itinerant farm workers.

Those bungalows turned out to be “little motel rooms.”

Lori Carter commented, “The small building to the right were little lodges. At one point I went to a cell church there.”

Sonja Golden-Ansell wrote, “I was about 7 weeks old and stayed in that last cabin of Feb. 1964. Mom and Dad were traveling across the country and they got snowed in. I slept in a warm pulled out drawer.”

Keith Barrett remembers this as, “…a corn crib. I remember it well. Complete with a pet black snake in it to eat mice and rats.”

And they left the car. And no - the keys weren’t still in the ignition.

It seems that the last person living there passed away some time ago. So there it sits, as it has for some time. Empty and abandoned. Except for memories. Which it seems a lot of people had and filled in the history of this place.