Updated March 11, 2012.
Comment - Gary Montalbine: On June 16, 1900, Thomas H. Delon purchased 71 acres of land from O.V. Halstead and wife for $1900. This is the same tract of land conveyed by deed from Annie V. Bell to W. W. White dated March 31, 1893. Thence to O. V. Halstead March 10, 1898. The property is bounded by W. E. W. Capps on the North. On the West by Caleb Ansell and L.R. Fentress. On the south by Z. T. Fentress and on the East by Knotts Island Bay.
This property is North of Parker Lane. This house is one of two that were moved from Wash Woods to this site. In the picture is a young Larry Etheridge. They may have been the second family to live here. Johnny Foxx recently lived here. Next door, to the North, is the second house that was moved. It is the Parker house. When he purchased it he removed the second story.
March 5, 2012. In 1878 Deals Island Life Saving Station was established just south of the VA/NC line. In 1883 the name was changed to Wash Woods. In 1917 the Station was rebuilt a few miles south. It appears that Capt Tom DeLon who was the Keeper at False Cape purchased two of the old Wash Woods Station houses and moved them by barge to their present location on the property he had purchased in 1900. He retired in 1918. Is it a coincidence that DeLon had purchased property next to Zack Fentress who was stationed at Wash Woods in 1900? Perhaps they were stationed together earlier.
Tom DeLon and wife Mary moved into what we now call the Parker house (northern house) and his adopted daughter Beulah Corbell Grimstead and family moved into the Foxx house.
Comment - Janet Grimstead Simons: I've been in my family book trying to figure out when the two houses were moved. My Grimstead grandparents were married in 1917. Their first child was born in 1918 in Princess Anne County (Munden) when my granddaddy was in the war. I have two post cards from France dated 1918 & 1919 to his mother on Public Landing Rd. Their second child, my Aunt Frances (Sonny, Warren & Beverley's Mom) was born in 1920 in Currituck County. Tom Delon was Captain of the False Cape Life Saving Station until 1918. I'm thinking he must have moved the houses around 1920 as Aunt Frances, my Dad and his brother were all born on Knotts Island. Louise Doxey told me she remembered my Dad and his siblings walking out the long lane to her house at the main road. Then they would all walk to school. My Dad and Aunt Frances would be about Louise's age. Tom Delon died in 1933 and my Grimstead family moved to Public Landing Rd. shortly thereafter.
I talked with Florence Corbell Flanagan. She says Grandmother and Granddaddy Grimstead lived in the Foxx house, where Scott and Ruth Etheridge and their son Larry Etheridge lived!!
March 7, 2012. As noted above, Tom DeLon died in 1933 and
shortly thereafter the Grimstead family moved to Va Beach. Mary
Etheridge DeLon subdivided the property. The Foxx house was given about
3 acres of land and the Parker house the remaining 68 acres. Mary then
sold the Foxx house to her nephew Scott Etheridge.
Larry Etheridge said that the lane to the South End Rd was essentially
a dirt path that went from the Parker house directly thru the field to
the main road. In bad weather it was unusable and they had to park the
car near the entrance. After a few years Scott got tired of the bad
lane and sold the house to Pop
Evans. Johnny Foxx was the next owner. Joe Lewark said that the
beginning of the lane was swampy and flooded in rainy weather. He also
remembers the electric poles going down the middle of the field
alongside the lane.
Mary DeLon sold her property to Wilder around 1940 and moved to Ms.
Susie Litchfield's rest home in Blackfoot, until she went to live with
her Granddaughter Lucille in
Norfolk. Walter Parker probably purchased it in the late 1940's. He
remodeled the
house. Removed the second floor. His father, Luther Parker, moved in
after the renovation. Jim Parker said he had been living on a houseboat
moored to the pier. Barbara Crockett said Luther's brother Colin also
lived on the houseboat and remained on the houseboat after Luther moved
into the house. Walter moved the lane to the South side of the
property, now called Parker Ln, and dredeged the swamp and filled in
the property along South End Rd which he later sold.
March 11, 2012. The Foxx house is sitting on 1 row of cement blocks. The wood foundation under the outside walls is rotten in places. There were 3 long timbers running north and south in the house that provided the support for the floor joists. 2 had to be removed and the middle one is the only one that remains and it is sagging. The new owner is thinking about jacking up the house and replacing the supports. The inside has all been redone. The original back porch was turned into a kitchen.