Prizery History
The role of tobacco is integral to the heritage of the town of South Boston. Halifax County has always been one of the top tobacco-producing counties in Virginia and the United States. For a period before the Civil War, Halifax County was the largest tobacco-producing county of all, as well as the largest slave-holding county.
In the first half of the nineteenth century, a series of flue designs improved the curing process, which helped transform the farm-based industry to a factory-based operation. Just after the Civil War, a farmer named John L. Wade manufactured the first bagged, granulated smoking tobacco in South Boston, called "Bull Doze." When Wade later sold the business, it was moved to Durham, North Carolina and became the,famous "Bull Durham" brand.
The earliest tobacco warehouse in South Boston was constructed in 1870 by W.B. Ellison, and a second warehouse was built the following year by N.L. Wade, who began conducting sales by public auction. Proximity to the Dan River'and the Richmond and Danville Railroad depot spurred the construction of numerous additional warehouses from the 1870s on, and the growing community was incorporated as a town in 1884.
In 1893, the Slate Seed Company, the largest producer of tobacco seed in the world, moved to South Boston, and by 1916, the company supplied about 90% of the world's tobacco seed. In 1907, South Boston had become the second largest brightleaf tobacco market, with over 13 million pounds sold. Sales exceeded 20 million pounds in 1927, and the town retained its number two market status until the Depression.
Between 1935 and 1941, South Boston hosted the American Tobacco Festival, which was attended by up to 100,000 people as well as celebrities and politicians from across the state and nation. At the time the population of the town was only about 5,600. Gradually, however, the industry declined and the warehouses emptied. In 1962, the Slate Seed Company closed, and for the past several decades, most of the warehouses have been vacant or converted to other functions.
Based on previous descriptions of the Prizery, we had believed that the building was constructed by the R.J. Reynolds Company in the 1890s. However, after researching the Sanborn Fire Insurance Company maps of the time, we have discovered that a building does not appear on the site until 1902, and this structure is listed as the W.A. Willingham & Company Tobacco Prizery. While similar in form to the Prizery, this building was a four-story structure, extending further to the east than the Prizery does. None of the existing adjacent buildings are shown at this time. It is interesting to note that a spur of the railroad passes directly at the north end of the building to facilitate shipping. The 1907 Sanborn map does show the current building as the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, in almost exactly the same location as the Willingham building, although clearly a different structure. It is possible that the first warehouse was destroyed in the "great fire" of March 1906. South Boston's 1984 Centennial booklet also mentions a 1907 fire in the Reynolds Tobacco Company, although it is unclear whether the fire destroyed the building.
The Sanborn map also indicates the uses of the Prizery: the basement is noted as the cooper shop (for manufacturing barrels), the first floor as storage, the second floor as receiving, and the third floor as drying. The one story extension is shown at the northeast side of the building, indicating that it was original. This area contained the engine shop for the coal boilers.
The American Tobacco Company's warehouse to the west of the Prizery is also shown on the 1907 map. The 1913 Sanborn map shows a small one-story office building near the southeast corner of the Prizery. It also shows the 16,000 gallon capacity of the tower water tank. By 1923, this building had an extension attaching it to the Prizery at the current southeast door. The 1929 Sanborn map adds information about the heights at the perimeter of the building.
The Prizery is a building where tobacco was "prized," or pressed layer by layer into hogshead barrels often weighing up to 1000 pounds. After the autumn harvest, the plants were first "stemmed," or stripped of fibers and then packed. The barrels were then taken down to the river or the railroad for shipping. The Prizery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the South Boston Historic Tobacco Warehouse District, and is considered to be the most architecturally prominent and interesting of the 15 buildings in the 20 acre district.
The Talented Mr. Jones Takes On Prizery Role
By Pamela F. Murphy
Special to the News & Record, August 7, 2003
Mention the name Chris Jones in Halifax County, and some people will immediately think "theatre." Others will think of piano or voice lessons. Some will picture the organist/pianist and choir director at First Presbyterian Church in South Boston. Still others will think of "Bloomers," a creative florist business in the southern part of the county. And, of course, many will think of The Prizery.
Christopher D. Jones is an energetic, multi-talented person whose life encompasses all of these aspects and more.
A Halifax County native raised on a farm, Jones became interested in music at an early age. He recalls going with his father to milk the cow and feed the chickens early in the morning. His boyhood friend, the late Kenneth Cranford, introduced him to some varieties of music one did not normally encounter on the farm, including Cole Porter, Gershwin and British choral music. This started a lifelong interest in the arts.
In the early 1970s, Jones studied theatre at East Carolina University. He left the university to become an apprentice at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. After completing his apprenticeship, he was hired by the theatre to tour the high schools throughout the state of Georgia with plays by Shakespeare and others. The following year, he worked with the College of Puppetry Arts. In the late 1970s, he enrolled at the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music, where he studied piano performance.
For 17 years, he worked in sales promotion for Belk/Leggett. This job required him to travel extensively, with one of his responsibilities being to buy props and visual enhancement for 33 stores. He attended visual merchandising shows in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and the High Point Furniture Market. Throughout his employment with Belk/Leggett, he remained involved in music by teaching voice and piano. Upon returning to the local area several years ago, he became involved in Little Theatre, and often directs musical plays.
When Belk moved its corporate headquarters to Richmond, Jones decided to stay home in Halifax County. With a partner, he started a business called "Bloomers" and became a florist. This also allowed him to devote more time to local arts organizations, such as the Community Arts Center Foundation (CACF).
Jennifer Mackintosh and Kenneth Cranford got him involved in CACF, which had the wild idea of turning an old warehouse into a community arts center. In 1996, John Cannon and Eva Harris donated the building known as "The Prizery" to CACF, and scores of volunteers went into action cleaning and preparing the building for its first event. In 1997, CACF and the Parsons Bruce Art Association sponsored a gala art show entitled "The Prizery Turns a New Leaf: An Art Exhibit." The elegant opening featured continuous live piano music by Cranford and Jones, played on a baby grand piano owned by Jones.
Over the next few years, Jones continued to serve on the CACF board, becoming President as well as Chair of the Architecture Committee. In the latter capacity, he worked closely with The Prizery's architects, Hanbury Evans Vlattas Wright & Company, on the design for the renovation. The resulting structure will serve many needs of the community.
Earlier this year, he became the Executive Director of The Prizery. In addition to his artistic talents, he will use his administrative ability to guide The Prizery through the renovation process, including the necessary fund raising activities. The Visitor Center is already open, and some events have taken place in the finished part of the building.
Increased cooperation with the public schools is planned, and in fact has already begun. A summer theatre program was recently completed, and there are plans for a fall after school program featuring music, dance, theatre, and the visual arts in cooperation with local schools and the Mentor/Role Model program. Jones hopes to some day have a string instrumental program, which is not currently available in the school system, and a performing dance company housed in The Prizery.
Jones said he first realized what could be done with a community arts center when he directed a show at the Lynchburg Fine Arts Center in the early 1990s. "I have always been interested in how the different arts pieces could work together," he said. "This is what is happening in The Prizery."
As well as an arts center, The Prizery will serve as community meeting space. The Chamber of Commerce, the Wild Turkey Federation and Ducks Unlimited are some of the organizations which have used the space for meetings. The versatility and universality of the project is evident from the diversity of The Prizery's registered user groups - Halifax County Little Theatre, Parsons Bruce Art Association, Halifax Woman's Club, South Boston-Halifax County Junior Women's Club, and the Halifax County Historical Society.
"Regarding The Prizery," Jones said, "I firmly believe that this piece, connected with Berry Hill and Riverstone Technology Park by walking and biking trails, represents an important part of the new economic development for our community."