THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 17, 1994 TAG: 9411170682
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 180 lines
IN PUGHSVILLE, ``neighbor'' means much more than someone who lives nearby. Members of the community straddling the Suffolk and Chesapeake border demonstrate that a neighbor is someone who sees a need and responds by helping.
Melvin Copeland, Wayne White, Welton Gaines and his brother, William, are but a few of Queen Mitchell's neighbors. They have spent nearly every weekday this past month building a new home for Mitchell, who couldn't afford even minor repairs.
The small, one-story, shingled house on Town Point Road where Mitchell has been living is dilapidated, the floors rotting and the roof leaking. In the back yard, dense tangles of underbrush covered the septic field.
``In this day and time, people don't have to live like that,'' said Mary Richardson, president of Suffolk's Pughsville Civic League.
When some men in the neighborhood heard Mitchell's roof needed fixing, they tried to patch it but immediately saw the house was beyond repair.
``The Lord laid it on the hearts of the men and people in the neighborhood to do what needs to be done,'' said Copeland, vice president of Chesapeake's Pughsville Civic League.
The roof repair soon turned into a remodeling job and addition, then quickly into a project to build a new house and demolish the old one. The new house, being built onto the front of the old one, has a living room, kitchen, two bedrooms and a bath and will be covered with vinyl siding.
``For this project, we walked out on faith,'' said Copeland, who's referred to as ``boss'' by his co-workers.
The volunteer effort, known as the Pughsville Community Project, is sponsored by the two civic leagues representing the proud, tight-knit community where most of the old-timers know one another and many are related.
Pughsville, while split between the two cities, is unified in spirit.
``We're one, big happy family here,'' said Virginia Gaines, William's wife and president of Chesapeake's Pughsville Civic League.
Representatives of the two leagues met and decided to tackle two house projects: the first in Suffolk, then Geraldine Walker's on Old Pughsville Road in the Chesapeake portion of Pughsville.
``As soon as we get this one finished, we'll be going over there to try to get her some better living conditions,'' said Copeland, a retired longshoreman.
The men had tried for some time to help Walker and her disabled son. In fact, they had intended to work on Walker's house in Chesapeake first. And recently, they were able to get all the necessary permits to buy the lot next door because she could not get a clear title to the house she lives in.
But while that process was going on, they heard about Mitchell's plight on the Suffolk side.
``So I guess the Lord directed us here,'' said Copeland, 51, as he watched Welton Gaines installing a window at Mitchell's house on Town Point Road.
Gaines, who had retired from the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, had built his own home about two blocks away and had drawn the plans for Mitchell's. His friends call him ``the master builder.''
``Our next big job is the plumbing, then the heating,'' said Gaines, 73. ``We get that and we're home free. We're shooting for Christmas, and I think we're going to make it.''
About four or five men have worked daily on the project. Some are retired, but others, like Wayne White, also hold down full-time jobs. White, vice president of Suffolk's Pughsville Civic League, shows up about 8 a.m. after watching his daughter get on the school bus. He helps until nearly 2 p.m. then leaves for the 3-to-11 shift at Norfolk Southern Railroad.
Others, from time to time, come by to offer a hand.
About 15 men have helped, each one doing whatever he knows how to do, like pouring the foundation or laying bricks, said White, who lives nearby on Coltrane Avenue.
``They assist in whatever they can,'' he said. ``Everyone has done something.''
The women help by bringing food, seeking donations and doing the cleanup.
People from other areas have asked them to build houses for them, but the Pughsville residents tell them they are not in the ``business.'' They encourage others, however, to copy their example.
``It takes somebody in the neighborhood to come out and say, `Hey, there's a need. Let's do it,' '' White said.
People also have called to offer contributions or to donate materials.
Habitat for Humanity officials donated materials left over from a recent project they completed in Portsmouth. A local church gave several boxes of tiles, and companies have donated windows and other building materials.
Nearly all the labor has been donated, although the men hired an electrician to do the wiring. Monetary donations are used to buy materials and pay for expenses like sewer hook-up fees and permits and to buy land. To get the project started, Melvin Copeland, Linwood Copeland, Jasper Taylor, Welton Gaines and William Gaines each put up $1,000 seed money.
``So many people have really, really opened their hearts to help,'' Copeland said. ``So far, we've been blessed in not holding the project up.''
Occasionally, however, money gets tight - then another contribution comes in, like a recent check from a Chesapeake church.
``I had to say a little prayer yesterday morning,'' William Gaines said on a recent workday. ``And the guy came up with $1,500 last night.''
William Gaines, who operates Gaines Bus Service, has made the construction his top priority, leaving others to drive his charter buses.
Pughsville, which has more than 200 homes - most of them modest, single-family dwellings - has been around for generations, settled by ancestors of many of today's residents.
Once there were several stores and a train depot, Boone's Station, where a local man would load barrels of turtles he had caught in a nearby creek to be shipped to New York, William Gaines said.
Many early inhabitants farmed or worked at the coal terminal at Lamberts Point in Norfolk or nearby factories such as Planters Peanuts in Suffolk or a Chesapeake factory run by ``old man Pugh,'' for whom the area apparently was named, Gaines said.
Pughsville, split between the two localities, was divided again recently when Interstate 664 was built, leaving most of the community just west of the highway. But nestled under the new Chesapeake water tower east of the interstate are several homes along what is now Station House Road and a cemetery where many Pughsville residents' ancestors are buried.
The recent building project is not the first time Pughsville residents have helped their neighbors, said Audrey Copeland, who lives with her husband, Melvin, on Old Pughsville Road, realigned now into a dead-end street.
Years ago, some of the men built a house for an elderly widow, she said.
But Pughsville residents are also forward-looking. They realize the interstate has suddenly opened up their community, linking the area to all parts of Hampton Roads. And recently, water and sewer lines have been extended to the Suffolk homes, making the neighborhood attractive for developers. Sewer lines are promised for the Chesapeake section of Pughsville by next year.
``For Sale'' signs dot vacant lots along Town Point Road, and several new houses are for sale.
The Pughsville residents want to be ready for growth, with better houses and with a larger church to accommodate the expected influx.
New Hope Baptist Church, where many of the volunteer builders are members, is adding a wing to its facility on Pughsville Road, Audrey Copeland said.
``We're remodeling because the neighborhood's going to be increasing,'' she said. ``We want to be prepared, to have more facilities.''
The church is the heart of the community, said her husband, Melvin Copeland.
``The community has been good to us. We feel like we owe something back.''
Helping those less fortunate brings satisfaction, William Gaines said.
``I'm sore when I go home at night. But when you help people, it's a good feeling. I ain't had no better feeling. It's a joyful feeling, a good feeling. I want to shout all up and down. ''
His brother, Welton, agrees.
``I'm a firm believer that if you know a situation and you can do something to better the condition and don't do it, I believe the Lord will hold you accountable.
``Do it, and I believe you're going to get a blessing.'' MEMO: Donations to the Pughsville Community Project may be made to the
Pughsville Civic League, Suffolk and sent to Mary Richardson, 4429
Marlin Ave., Suffolk 23435 or to the Pughsville Civic League,
Chesapeake, and sent to Virginia Gaines, 5113 Old Pughsville Road,
Chesapeake 23321. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Civic league president Mary Richardson has spearheaded the effort to
build a new house for Queen Mitchell. She has mustered a crew of
neighbors to do the work.
AT LEFT: Melvin ``Boss'' Copeland, right, and Burnett Bowman hang
wallboard on Queen Mitchell's new house.
AT RIGHT: Wayne White, left, works on a window frame from the inside
while Bowman reaches new heights on the outside. When the men finish
this house, they'll work on another Pughsville house in Chesapeake.
Map
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ON THE COVER
The picture on today's cover was taken by staff photographer John H.
Sheally II. by CNB