Riverside Hospital Huntington Avenue

What great pictures! I was born there also, 9-6-47, in the newer building (ha) and lived in the shipyard apts. That's
also a great ad from North End Pharmacy! We always got our prescriptions from there! The Pharmacist for years
was Irving Adelson and was the sweetest man! I always said hi to him every time I went in there, and also,
they had a fountain counter there and had the best milkshakes! YUM!

- Sarah Puckett Kressaty ('65) of VA - 08/13/03
Thanks, Sarah!

The ad from the North End Pharmacy brought back memories. My mother worked at the pharmacy and thereby I knew
all of the young guys( older teens, young college guys) that made the deliveries in that Jeep. Many times they took me
along for the ride. Top secret of course, since I wasn't supposed to be in there.

One ride in particular stands out. Anyone that played 8th & 9th grade basketball will remember that we started practice
at the same time as the JV's & Varsity, but didn't play a game until January! We were the best "practiced team"
in the world (two months, plus). One year on that team was enough! Anyway, the day was finally coming for our first
game. And then, a "BLIZZARD"! No school, no game. Shucks! But the prescriptions still had to be delivered.
Along I went with the driver, enjoying every slip and slide of the day, as "we" delivered the medications. It was a fun day!

- Wayne Stokes ('65) of VA - 11/24/03
Thanks, Wayne!

The photo of what used to be The North End Pharmacy is of special interest to me. The appearance of the building has
changed significantly. In my time, the entire building was "obviously" all brick. I had seen the renovation to the first floor
that created a branch of the NNSB Credit Union, taking away the obvious NE Pharmacy and the "Rainbow Soda Shop".
The soda shop was owned by the parents of George Anas ('65 - of VA). You can't even tell that it was ever there!

Additionally, "they" have applied stucco or paint to the rest of the building. In my day, above the pharmacy and soda shop, were 3 apartments. As you look down the 2nd story side of the building (50th Street), all but the first single window were windows of our apartment. The second set of double windows was my room. I had quite a view! The Smith's, Steve ('65), his sister Cheryl (?) and their mother, lived in the apartment whose windows include the one single on the side and all of those across the front of the second floor.

Beside the building, facing Huntington Avenue next to the soda shop (on the right), was a brick house owned by one
of the grumpiest "old ladies" that ever existed and next to that, a very nice church (51st & Huntington) with a slate roof.
They don't exist anymore! We moved to that apartment from the "spacious townhouses" of 45th Street. From there,
in 1963, my folks did the most unthinkable thing by buying a house in Hampton!! Then I had to live among "the enemy"!!
It turned out alright, I married one of them 37+ years ago.

The shot of the front of the hospital would not have been possible, from the angle taken, in "my" day. There were
houses all along 49th and 50th, and Huntington. The shot would have to be taken across the street in front of the
hospital; you couldn't have "gotten the whole thing"! Now, ugly gravel and asphalt parking lots. No houses!!

The view looking down Huntington toward downtown from 50th Street is a view I saw many times. But it was a much
different view. It was alive then!! Who I am to stop "progress"? It's easy to destroy something. Making it "better"
is a different story.

- Wayne Stokes ('65) of VA - 08/12/03
Thanks, Wayne!

I remember North End as well! Thanks for the memory! North End Pharmacy is where we got all our meds and the Pharmacist - Irving Adelson - has remained our friend since then.

Also another memory about that building ( I saw it recently also) was that they had the BEST milkshakes ever!!

I remember the houses across the street from Riverside Hospital (where I was born). I even think I remember the
grumpy old lady!! :-D If you are looking away from Riverside down 50th Street, my aunt lived near Warwick
Boulevard. Riding the bus to the phone company I remember rounding that corner, seeing the hospital and all the
Shipyard Apartments. The Apartments are all gone, and the hospital is boarded up (sad) and you know about the pharmacy!

Thanks for the memories!

- Sarah Puckett Kressaty ('65) of VA - 08/13/03
Thanks, Sarah!

I really appreciate all of the pictures you are posting of then and now. I used to live in a house right across the street
from the Riverside Hospital. Daddy could not get the soil to support plants so he moved us away from the "city",
first to the Buckroe area, and shortly after that to the Highland Court house where Sonny ('66) and I actually grew up.
The visuals stick with me in ways text does not.

- Frances Goodson Wang ('65) of MD - 08/16/03
Thanks, Frances!

Hi Carol:

Just thought I would add to the North End Pharmacy spot. My husband, Myles Hudson (Warwick HS - '60), drove the little Jeep the Summer of 1959 when he worked for the Adelson's. Sam ran the front of the Pharmacy and Irvin was the Pharmacist.

- Cathy Slusser Hudson ('64) of VA - 09/27/05
Thanks, Cathy!

Demolition of the old Riverside Hospital in downtown Newport News
began Thursday, March 20, 2007.

	Riverside Hospital Huntington Avenue at 50th Street Newport News, VA

THEN AND NOW:

	August 10, 2003	Ad from the Daily Press - 04/26/60	August 10, 2003	August 10, 2003
OLD RIVERSIDE HOSPITAL		And here is where the North End Pharmacy once was at Huntington Avenue and 50th Street. Another Family Story says that my dad, the Sailor, and several shipmates were hanging around there on liberty in 1943 when some North End gals, among them one of my mom's cousins, enticed the boys to follow them, and they led them down 47th Street ..... right past my grandparents' home with my mom sitting on the porch. As they say, the rest is history.		And, finally, a view looking down Huntington Avenue from 50th Street toward Downtown. The church steeple on the left is Calvary Baptist Church.
	I was born here in 1946. The Family Story says that my father, while carrying me down those steps for the first time, dropped me on my head on them. I suppose that would explain a lot.
- Tim Parsons ('73) of VA - 07/17/04 Thanks, Tim!	- Dave Spriggs ('64) of VA - 08/10/03 Thanks, Dave!	Carol Buckley Harty ('65) of NC - 11/23/03	- Dave Spriggs ('64) of VA - 08/10/03 Thanks, Dave!	- Dave Spriggs ('64) of VA - 08/10/03 Thanks, Dave!

		I have... attached is an image of a card I purchased. I am not sure where this was. It may be the old Buxton. Any guesses? - Richard Dawes (NNHS/HHS - '62) of VA - 03/19/06 Thanks, Dicky! But we don't need to guess on this one We have a definitive answer for you, straight from the Wizard of Wonderment himself, Dave Spriggs ('64) of VA:
1916 - Forerunner of Riverside Hospital	postmarked August 17, 1916
THIS 1916 POSTCARD IS THE ORIGINAL RIVERSIDE HOSPITAL ON HUNTINGTON AVENUE..... Actually, I think your PC is the original building (opened 1916) of what would evolve into Riverside Hospital on Huntington Avenue at 50th Street. Of course, that original structure was long ago razed as the more modern hospital was constructed. *Dave offers this image as further proof:*
	On this web page ( http://www.riverside-online.com/about_riverside/history.cfm) Note the design of the porch railing in the background and match it to your PC. - Dave Spriggs ('64) of VA - 03/19/06 Works for me...... Thanks, Dave!
*(This image does not enlarge.....)*

Carol, Remember all that controversy over which structure was the original Riverside and which was the original Buxton? The answer was right on the site all along. This image appears on the Riverside page and tells all. Best of all, it places the original building with the newer building. You can see how the original building disappeared and the North End Pharmacy constructed in its place. - Dave Spriggs ('64) of VA - 03/29/06 Thank you, Dave!
			- Tim Parsons ('73) of VA - 07/17/04 Thanks, Tim!


The Old Dominion Demolition Company is tearing down the old Riverside Hospital building located on the Huntington Avenue and 50th Street in downtown Newport News.
Images by Dave Bowman, Daily Press / March 20, 2008
03/24/08
Not at all surprising. Primo real estate; unusable structure; great view for condos ... or parking >:-o I wonder how many of us were born inside those walls ... or said our final words to dying grandparents. I did both. - Dave Spriggs ('64) of VA - 03/24/08 That's exactly what struck me, too, David. Its loss is understandable - but ever so sad.

Thank you for sending the article about the demolition of Riverside Hospital......where I was born, in there twice for pneumonia (first and second grade), and had my tonsils removed. When I was home last October, my sister (Nat Woolard Cunningham, Hampton HS '60), and I took Mama for a ride and went by there. I told my sister to stop, so I could jump out and take pictures.......now, of course, I'm soooo glad I did. Another nostalgic memory gone! :( - Gloria Woolard Price (HHS - '65) of FL - 03/24/08 It's always a good thing to follow those promptings. I'm glad you did, too! Thanks, Gloria!

Tearing down the old Riverside Hospital. How sad. This would break my parents' hearts if they were still alive. That is where they met....or should I say "re-met". Originally, Dr. Nelms, who had just graduated from medical school at UVA, took over a practice from an aging doctor in Mathews County. He became my mother's family doctor when she was 13. Years later, after WWII and his divorce from his first wife (my two step-brothers' real mother), he re-met my mother (when I was 7 or 8) who was in nursing training at Riverside. Besides his practice at the corner of Kecoughtan and Elizabeth Road, he was on staff at Riverside. She had been a stay-at-home mom when she divorced my biological father (who was also a doctor and a graduate from UVA) when I was 4, so she decided to go into nursing. And the rest, as they say, is history. - Chandler Nelms (HHS - '63) of MD - 03/25/08 WOWZERS! Thank you, Chandler!

I know this will be painful to many readers, but the demolition must be documented. I expect that we could fill the pages of several newsletters with the names of Typhoons who were born there or had kinfolk who were born or died there. A good case could be made that Riverside Hospital and North End Pharmacy and the entire intersection of 50th Street and Huntington Avenue constituted the social hub of North End. So much of what we recall of North End with such great fondness revolves around that intersection. Without Riverside, it will never be the same.

Thursday, May 29, 2008
- Dave Spriggs ('64) of VA - 05/29/08 Thank you so much for these superb images, Dave! You're right. I had very limited connection with this end of town, nevertheless it grieves me to know that it is forever gone.