THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 7, 1994 TAG: 9412060173
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 155 lines
WHEN SYBIL McDANIEL heard that colorful old Princess Anne Farmer's Service on Virginia Beach Boulevard would be torn down this month, tears welled up in her eyes.
``Not this beautiful old place,'' she said she told owner Lee Carey Jr. ``Lee, it's been here forever. I remember coming by here as a little girl.''
McDaniel, whose maiden name is Gray, first remembers the building from the early 1940s when she was a youngster. She said she thinks she identified with the store at the time because its name was Gray Feed and Poultry Co.
Then, she remembers shopping there when Lee Carey's father, Lee Carey Sr., owned the store and the name had changed to Princess Anne Farmer's Service. McDaniel purchased animal feed of all kinds to feed the menagerie of pets owned by her five children.
Today at Princess Anne Farmer's Service, she buys bird seed for the birds that come to her backyard feeder and seed for her two cockatiels. Now it's Lee Carey Jr. who is the proprietor of the ramshackle little store on Virginia Beach Boulevard just west of Military Highway.
Through all that time the little white shingled building, said to have been built in 1908, has hardly changed at all. Slightly tilting to one side, with red and white checkerboard Purina curtains in the windows and surrounded by car dealerships and other modern businesses, Princess Anne Farmer's Service is one of the last reminders of busy Virginia Beach Boulevard's rural heritage.
No wonder McDaniel was dismayed at the thought of its demise.
But Lee Carey Jr. explained to her that he is tearing down the ``showroom'' because he needs more parking for a farmers market he will open next year. And when he told McDaniel that the original old warehouse, also built in 1908, will be saved and renovated as the new sales area, she was more approving of Carey's plans.
``He's preserving the heart of it,'' Norfolkian McDaniel said.
Although the ``heart'' of the old building really has stayed the same for most of the century, its purpose has changed over the years, reflecting the changing times in Virginia Beach and Norfolk.
When the then 24-year-old Lee Carey Sr. purchased the store in 1948, it was in old Princess Anne County and was basically surrounded by farms, thus its name. When Norfolk annexed 13 miles of the county in 1959, Princess Anne Farmer's Service found itself with a Norfolk city address although the rural location had not changed appreciably.
Then, the main focus was to serve the many poultry farmers in the area because in mid-century, raising chickens was big business in old Princess Anne. There were poultry farms everywhere, Lee Carey Sr. said.
But as its name also implied, Princess Anne Farmer's Service was more than just a feed store. ``We built the business as a feed supply house which also provided services,'' he added.
Lee Carey Sr. was trained by Purina to identify poultry diseases. He would visit local farms and vaccinate the chickens and serve as doctor, too, when necessary.
``He would bring a dead chicken back and dissect it on the counter over here to see what was wrong with it,'' the younger Carey recalled, pointing to one of two small counters at the back of the store.
Before too long his father also was raising chickens and turkeys in a big way on his land down in the Pungo area of Virginia Beach. He began selling not only service and feed but also fresh eggs and turkeys at Princess Anne Farmer's Service.
``We'd come to the store and grade eggs at night - the whole family,'' Lee Carey Jr. said.
A quaint old Zenith egg grader is still part of the store's eclectic furnishings. Each egg was placed in a small egg cup on the scale and weighed to determine whether it was a small, medium or large egg.
Although the egg scale is not in use now, an old fashioned Howe platform scale that weighed 100-pound bags of chicken feed for the older Carey is now weighing out bird seed for his son.
In 1974, Lee Carey Sr. had a heart attack and his son began a lease-purchase agreement with his father and took over the business. But even though he had to retire at age 49, Princess Anne Farmer's Service had been good to Lee Carey Sr. and he was able to support his retirement.
``The most amazing thing about this is we did over $1 million worth of business a year and most people bought on credit,'' he said. ``And I didn't lose $5,000 in 30 years.''
Soon after Lee Carey Jr. took over, it appeared that the poultry feed business wouldn't be as good to him as it was to his father. Poultry farms and other farms in the area were making way for development.
Feed sales were drying up, the younger Carey said. He made the decision to focus on bird seed and pet supplies instead of agriculture products.
``I thought he was crazy,'' his father said.
``He said, `You've lost your mind!' and he walked out!'' Lee Carey Jr. related. ``I switched to what the consumer was buying - bird seed, guinea pig food . . . ''
Now Carey even sells bird seed packaged under his own label, Princess Anne Gourmet Wild Bird Seed. Everywhere you look across the little store, there's a different kind of bird feeder or bird house and different kind of animal feed, from rabbit chow to dog chow.
``But I think now after 18 years, he might think I know what I'm doing,'' Lee Carey Jr. said. ``For a business to last 48 years, you have to make changes.''
And now it's time for one more change - a big one. As of Jan. 1, the name will change from Princess Anne Farmer's Service to Carey's Farmers Market Ltd. Although Lee Carey Jr. will still be selling his bird seed and pet food, he is going to appeal to his suburban customers even more with plants, trees and shrubs. He also will add fresh local produce and, bringing the store full circle, he plans to have fresh turkeys and eggs for sale again.
``We're going back to brown country eggs, turkeys, Bergey's milk, homemade jellies and jam,'' he said. ``It's more of a major change than we've ever made.''
The ``showroom'' will be razed in the middle of this month, he went on. The store's foundation is four huge logs with the bark still intact.
Lee Carey Jr. plans to save the logs and use them to mark off the parking area. He also has prints of Princess Anne Farmer's Service, drawn by Chesapeake artist John Harman which he's selling for $9.95. He hopes to frame some of the prints with pieces of board from the old building.
Renovations are already under way in the warehouse. The original tongue and groove flooring and the open ceiling with its large rafters will be preserved and some of the wood from the old building also may be used in the renovation. Lee Carey Sr.'s walk-in cooler will be put back in use for fresh eggs and produce.
``I know this is a drastic change, to take down something that's been here for as long as I've been alive,'' Lee Carey Jr. said. ``But it's sort of outlived its purpose. There were once 10 to 20 feed stores and now it's one of the last in the area.''
However, it's for sure the memories won't be outlived, at least not if McDaniel has anything to do with it.
``Lee's going to give me a board (from the old building),'' McDaniel said. ``He said, `You be sure to come back and get your board.'
``You can believe I'll go back and get my board.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color cover photo and inside staff photos by CHARLIE MEADS
Located on Virginia Beach Boulevard just west of Military Highway,
the original white-shingled showroom building and warehouse were
built in 1908.
Lee Carey Sr., who purchased the business then known as Gray Feed
and Poultry Co. in 1948, began a lease-purchase agreement with his
son, Lee Carey Jr., in 1974 after suffering a heart attack.
Sybil McDaniel has been a customer of Princess Anne Farmer's Service
since before Lee Carey Jr., left, was born. ``He's preserving the
heart of it,'' McDaniel says of the renovation. ``Lee's going to
give me a board (from the old building). You can believe I'll go
back and get my board.''
ABOVE: Lee Carey Jr. moves a stack of Sunflower Hearts in the
warehouse, which will become the renovated business's new store
section.
BELOW: The business sells a vareity of animal food, including
corn-on-the-cob for squirrels. The new business will appeal more to
suburban customers with plants, trees and shrubs. It also will add
fresh local produce and return to its old stock of fresh turkeys and
eggs.
by CNB