Monday-Friday 6am - 6pm | Saturday 8am - 5pm | Sunday Closed

2243 Thomas Jefferson Parkway/Rt. 53, C'ville, VA., 22902 | 5 min. W. of Lake Monticello, 5 min. E. of Jefferson’s Monticello

me2shoprt53@gmail.com | 434 297.2201

Stop by and visit, learn the history behind the property while making stops along historic Route 53 in Charlottesville Virginia – Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, Ashlawn Highland, Michie Tavern, Carters Mountain or any of the local vineyards and into Fluvanna County.  We’ll be happy to meet you and chat with you.

In 1734 a land grant was obtained by Henry Wood, the first clerk of Goochland, and great grandfather of V. W. Southall, for two hundred acres on the south side of the Rivanna at the mouth of Buck Island Creek.

The store sits on property which in the late 19th century was a 27 acre turkey farm. The building was known as Nix Post Office. The original post office building is in disrepair and sits adjacent. Buildings include the duplex behind it, the main farmhouse duplex, the old post office, outbuildings, slave quarters and the fields across the road and behind it.

The store has been run by many over the years, but the property has had few owners. Most recently, the property was purchased in 1942 by the Mrs. Emily Eppard which it remains today.

 

Prior to 1942 a man only known by the name of Woody owned the property. Mr. Woody was known to have loved dancing and built the dance hall behind the store. (Later, Emily Eppard turned the dance hall into the duplex).  He sought to earn more money and found several workers to live in the former post office. He did not charge them rent but instead, he hired them out to clear power lines. One night, when Mr. Woody went to pick them up in his truck, he had taken to drink and wrecked the truck with the men in it. He lived, however he faced charges after one of the men died. Mr. Woody lost the estate. Mrs. Eppard purchased the property at auction. The store became one of the first Texaco stations in central Virginia but lost its gas pumps like many other country stores when the EPA regulations required that the tanks be dug up and replaced. Mrs. Eppard rented the store to a Roy Sprouse during a few months in 1942 before he was "possibly drafted." Soon after, a Mr. Allen rented the store until his death in the mid 1940's. The next documentable shopkeepers were the Woodsons who took up shop in 1969. The store was then renamed "Woodsons Store at Buck Island."

After around a quarter of a century of Woodson's, the store was renamed again to the popular name of "The Buck Island Store.*" It went through several shopkeepers until 2006 when Bob and Helen Pitts began renting the store and they renamed it Buck Island BBQ.

Today the property is rented by "me2" father and daughter Michael and Mackenzie Eurell. Serving up the best home-style cooking around.

Buck Island Creek

Designated from the beginning. It is a mistake to write it Buckeyeland, as if derived from the deer-eyed tree. The name was taken from an island in the Rivanna opposite its mouth, and as in the case of so many objects of natural scenery, was suggested by the great numbers of deer found everywhere in the country.

Buck Island (Buckeyeland) Church

A simple frame church located on the west side of Buck Island Road (Rt. 729) south of Buck Island Creek was typical of the rural churches built in Albemarle County in the late 19th century.

According to oral tradition, a group of local Methodists organized a congregation in the 1820s and first built a log church on the site. The church served as a place of worship for both Methodists and Baptists until the 20th century, when it became solely a Methodist church. The church’s long history and name were noted in an 1860 deed, which made reference to “Buck Eyeland Church – located there for a long time past.” Other documents referred to “Buck Island” Church, using the same name and spelling given to a nearby creek, island, and farm. Malcolm Hensley, a former member of the church, told state surveyors in 1981 that the congregation built a new church in 1890 because the log structure had become infested with fleas as a result of pigs living under the building.

Buck Mountain Church closed its doors in the 1950s as a result of declining church membership. In 1981, a local resident claimed ownership of the property and partially dismantled the church before being stopped by the local Methodist Conference, which held the deed to the church. The church has since collapsed. A large cemetery still remains just south of the church site.

– Albemarle Historical Society

*cvillepedia: "Interview with Merle Bingler." Personal interview by Ben Cosgro. 06 Dec 2012; "Interview with Bob Pitts." Personal interview by Ben Cosgro. 29 Nov 2012.