The Craddock-Terry Warehouse / Central Virginia Processing Warehouses / Green Front Furniture / Dunnington Warehouse

Craddock-Terry Warehouse

The Craddock-Terry Shoe Factory was originally built as a tobacco prizery in the early
20 th century and was remodeled by Farmville to attract an employer to town during the Great
Depression. The company would produce shoes for the U.S. navy during World War Two and
continue to provide jobs for decades to come. Today this building is occupied by Green Front
Furniture.

Before the construction of the modern warehouse, an older tobacco prizery stood in this
same place. The former prizery was owned by notable men of Farmville including James T. Grey
who served as a justice in Prince Edward, and a trustee in the Farmville Women’s College and
Wiley P. Gilliam who was elected sheriff and President of the Tobacco Board of Trade. The
Factory as it stands today was originally constructed by C. M. Walker and Sons between 1901
and 190. W. G. Dunnington began operating this prizery for the Walker estate by 1918 and
would do so until it closed. The Craddock-Terry shoe plant opened in this building in 1934.
During World War Two this plant produced shoes for the United States navy, 75% of its entire
production during the war would be for military use.

The Prince Edward Industrial Company (PEIC) remodeled this building from an old
tobacco warehouse to a shoe producing factory. After the building was remodeled it was offered
to the Craddock-Terry firm as a branch plant and the PEIC promised to give the deed to the firm
if they could pay out $750,000 in wages to Farmville employees within seven years. The shoe
firm fulfilled this requirement within five and a half years. By 1934, they would have 106 employees. In 1947, the number more than doubles to 264, and by 1967 they employed
somewhere between 250-499 people from the local area. By 1987, the firm and all of its
branches, which employed more than 2,300 people in Virginia, filed for bankruptcy due to a
“flood of imported shoes.”

Sources:

Sheet 2. Farmville Prince Edward, Virginia. New York: Sanborn Map Company, 1905.

Herbert C. Bradshaw, History of Prince Edward County, Virginia, (Richmond, The Dietz Press, 1955), 569.

Dunnington Warehouses

The Dunnington Warehouses seen here today were built after a fire in 1898. These
buildings served as tobacco prizeries, also known as factories or warehouses. Tobacco acted as
Farmville’s primary economic venture for most of its history. These buildings get their name
from a notable member of the community, Mr. Walter G. Dunnington, who by 1925 owned or
operated three separate prizeries in town. Today these buildings are occupied by Green Front
Furniture.

The Dunnington tobacco warehouses as they stand today were built following a large fire
on January 2, 1898 that consumed the three-former tobacco prizeries that previously existed
there. A tobacco prizery was a building that was used to dry tobacco, strip the leaves from the
stem, and press those leaves by layers into “Hogshead Barrels” that commonly weighed one
thousand pounds. The fire initially broke out at a factory and warehouse on the corner of North
and Third and spread due to strong winds and “two terrific explosions of blasting powder” which
caused the fire to destroy multiple tobacco warehouses and other buildings in town. These two
warehouses that now house Green Front Furniture were completed the same year of the fire and
the rebuilding of the warehouses were recorded by the Farmville Herald.
The Warehouse located directly on Main Street was owned by R. S. Paulett until
Dunnington began operating the prizery for the estate of Mr. Paulett before fully owning in by
1925. W. G. Dunnington was one of the largest producers of tobacco, overtaking C. W. Blanton
as the first-place tobacco dealer in Farmville. His shipments were some of the few that were
bound for sale in foreign markets such as Europe. It is recorded that on September 1, 1902,
Dunnington shipped 30 cars worth of tobacco out of the westmost factory destined for
Norwegian markets. The old Dunnington warehouse that originally stood on this site would
play host for at least one meeting of the Farmville Democratic committee, led by the Gold
Democrats who believed the primary democratic candidate of the 1896 election was
unfavorable.

Sources:

Farmville Herald, January 7, 1898.

Sheet 2. Farmville Prince Edward, Virginia. New York: Sanborn Map Company, 1925.

Herbert C. Bradshaw, History of Prince Edward County, Virginia, (Richmond, The Dietz Press, 1955), 527.

Herbert C. Bradshaw, History of Prince Edward County, Virginia, (Richmond, The Dietz Press, 1955), 540.

Comprehensive Plan: Town of Farmville, Virginia and Vicinity, (Town of Farmville, 1967), 14.

“Craddock-Terry Shoe Corp. May Sell to N.Y. Firm,” Washington Post, Dec 16 1985,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1985/12/16/craddock-terry-shoe-corp-may-sell-to-ny-firm/56fd99f1-b36d-4978-b3fb-454cbc3df757/