THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 26, 1994 TAG: 9411240506
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY PAIGE FLEMING, SPECIAL TO REAL ESTATE WEEKLY
LENGTH: Long : 156 lines
Perhaps it's the hunting and fishing that attract those who come to stay. Or maybe it's the affordable housing and large tracts of available land that can still be bought for less than a king's ransom.
Or it could be the friendly neighbors, peace of mind and a safe, small-town feel that make the Franklin area seem to be such a sane choice in a runaway world.
Wide expanses of field are green and lush in the summer, groomed and golden in fall. Huge rectangular stands of pine make a checkerboard patter on either side of the road.
And the constant drone of an Interstate highway is left for someone else to complain about. Franklin is a community with big ideas.
Franklin, a city about 45 miles from much of Hampton Roads, is in Southampton just west of Suffolk off U.S. Route 58. If you wanted to, you could miss it by taking the 58 Bypass. However, more and more people are slowing down to take a look at Franklin and cash in on promises of a calmer, quieter life.
``We moved here from Norfolk in April,'' says Diane Jones, who lives with her husband and two young children in the village of Boykins, about 10 miles southeast of Franklin.
``I should have come here 30 years ago,'' says her husband James. They say that for years they would pass by the area and often talked of moving there. But they never quite made that first move. Then one day Diane Jones got a call from her father.
``He was in Franklin looking at some property with a real estate agent and found a house he thought we would like,'' she says. ``I went to see it. Then my husband and I went back to see it again.''
Not long after that the Joneses bought their present three-bedroom, 2,300-square-foot Cape Cod ``right in the middle of peace and quiet,'' says James Jones.
``Although you can't run away from drugs and other problems,'' he says, ``you can get away from it to a degree. A car might pass our house every half-hour or so. I can send my 6-year-old son up to the store and not worry about him. He's safe. This area has many advantages.''
The Joneses say that the schools are one of the pluses. Children are noticed and extra attention is paid to those who make good grades. ``This is a small place,'' James Jones says. ``When you kid makes the honor roll, they put his name in the paper.''
The 600 square miles that make up Southampton County and Franklin date to one of the original shires of the colony of Virginia. And Franklin, comprising eight square miles, was born with the coming of the railroad in 1835.
The county is bound by two rivers, the Meherrin and the Blackwater, and bisected by a third, the Nottoway. This, coupled with the railroad and reasonably priced land - as low as $5,000 an acre for industrial parks - makes the Franklin area a deal for business as well as residents, says James N. Bradshaw, economic developer for the area.
Real estate agents report a tremendous increase in activity. ``A lot of folks from Hampton Roads are interested in Franklin,'' Bradshaw says. ``You can zip right on and off the four-lane road (U.S. 58) and be in downtown Norfolk in 45 minutes, traffic free.''
``We are seeing people move out here with the four-laning of 58,'' says Hewitt Bowman, owner and president of Venture Properties of Franklin. ``Yesterday, I had someone from Suffok interested. People are interested in being even more rural. We have a nice YMCA, nice country club, community college. It's an extra nice community.''
Franklin has just completed a 200-acre industrial park geared to light industry. Electronic companies, pharmaceutical firms and distributors are looking at the small city.
Also, four miles outside the city is the state's first agribusiness park, which is targeted toward equipment manufacturers, good processors, cold-storage facilities, aquaculture and horticulture.
These industrial parks are a community effort, says Bradshaw. Bonds are sold to the community in order to pay for the parks. It's everyone's concern and to everyone's benefit when they do well. ``For a little community of 8,400 people to put this up was quite an undertaking,'' he says.
While a map can outline industrial parks, state routes and list statistics, it shows little of Franklin's personality. Just off Route 58 southwest of the city is Paul D. Camp Community College.
Nearby an angular glass building juts out from a stand of pine trees. This is the Ruth Camp Campbell Memorial Library. On the other side of the highway is the James L. Camp Jr. YMCA, which boasts an indoor and outdoor pool, two gyms, six outdoor tennis courts and two more indoors, a Nautilus center and basketball courts.
It is well used, Bradshaw says, and as nice as anything in Virginia Beach.
Many of the newer buildings are named after the Camp family. As family members died, they left their money to the city in a foundation. The Camp Foundation has since pumped close to $3 million back into the community and helped support the new library and Y.
Residential communities include three lake-front neighborhoods, older areas full of brick ranches and heavily treed lots and newer custom-built neighborhoods.
``You can still buy a half-acre lot around here for approximately $20,000 to $25,000,'' Bradshaw says. ``You can buy a nice three-bedroom, 1 1/2-bath home with a living and dining room plus a family room for approximately $50,000. And if you spend $200,000, you could have a palace.''
About five minutes from a neighborhood that has a deer-crossing sign on its main street is the business area, a real, old-fashioned downtown. Two- and three-story turn-of-the-century buildings line the streets containing clothing stores, five and dimes, drugstores, a bookstore, a bank or two and several cafes. This a small but active place.
There are no empty buildings. And this is not a refurbished section. Franklin's downtown serves its community.
While few admit that Franklin has any shortcomings, some do complain about long-distance calls to neighboring areas. Bradshaw says Franklin's biggest weakness is the lack of job opportunities for women. ``We're trying to address this issue by targeting certain types of industries.''
Many residents commute to Norfolk, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach each day. But others come to Franklin to retire. That's what the Joneses did. And that's what Lon and Louise Carmony plan to do as well.
Lon Carmony visited Franklin in 1962 and he's been coming back ever since to hunt and fish. ``I've thought about retiring to Franklin for about 10 to 15 years now,'' he says. Living in Chesapeake is too crowded, he adds.
``I just got tired of living down here.'' The Carmonys plan to move to Franklin as soon as his retirement as a civil servant comes through in about 2 1/2 years. ``We've already bought the land and it's already for a house or a double-wide mobile home,'' he says. ILLUSTRATION: Staff color photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
On the Cover: More and more Hampton roads residents are discovering
the bucolic charm of the country. They're commuting to Franklin,
says James Bradshaw, area economic developer.
Photo
Franklin's modern libraries, such as this one, and its gym,
community college, lively downtown, small town ambience and low
property prices are luring commuters from Hampton Roads.
THE FRANKLIN AREA
TOP EMPLOYERS
Union Camp, 2,600
Southampton County schools, 500
Southampton Memorial Hospital, 500
State Correctional Complex, 418
MEDICAL
Southampton Memorial Hospital, 221 beds
Courtland Health Care Center
SCHOOLS
Two elementary, one high school and a vo-tech center
LIBRARIES
Franklin City, Camp Community College, Rawls and Campbell
Memorial, 225,900 volumes in all.
MISCELLANEOUS
58 churches, 312 hotel and motel rooms, six shopping centers and
more than 60 shops downtown.
by CNB