Former J.R. Yates Store / Adams Store in Java

In continuation of learning the roadside history of Route 640 in Pittsylvania County, last week’s article ended at Shockoe. Further north–a little more than a mile–along the left side of the road drivers will see a cluster of store buildings that were owned by Glen Adams several decades ago. Among them are a brick carwash with two ports, then a wide frame building with a red metal roof, accompanied by a metal building with a sign bearing the name of the merchant. Glen was a WWII veteran and longtime tobacco farmer whose family had deep roots in the Java community. Back in the 1920s, however, Glen’s store building was originally an old schoolhouse called Forest School. A surviving photo from around 1929 shows that the building originally had a double-door entrance with sidelights and a transom window. It had six identical windows across the front, whereas the middle window on the right has been turned into another entrance with an extended porch roof. Otherwise the original form is still recognizable beneath several alterations. 

About one-half mile further north sits the community’s oldest store which also served as the post office for many years. Before 1907 the community was officially known as Lola since 1881. The grand old store at the intersection of Stone Road and Java Road has the classic architectural features of an authentic country store. It is a broad-fronted, gable-roofed frame structure covered in weatherboard siding, with a full-width shed porch supported by simple square posts. The large store windows were among the only light sources for customers when the store was constructed. It is a gem in local community culture and will hopefully continue to stand and be preserved for future generations to witness. The store was previously owned by John Randolph Yates (born ~1850) throughout the 1880s and the following three decades. He provided local farming families with most of what they needed to get through the year. As of 1900, census records listed neighboring families with the surnames Adams, Edmunds, Edwards, Hodnett, Johnson, Lester, Rice, Terry, Tune, Watkins, and others. At the store, Mr. Emile Groff from Switzerland worked as a grocery clerk for Mr. Yates and later succeeded him as postmaster. It was under Yates’s term in 1907 that the community changed names from Lola to Java. 

Eventually the store changed hands to Burton Dillon Adams who worked as a mail carrier according to the 1920 census and later ran the store for about two decades. In relation to Glen Adams, Burton was his uncle. Glen was also a grandson of former Miss Mary A. Yates, a sister to the previously mentioned J.R. Yates. After Burton’s passing in 1942, his son William Burton “Jigs” Adams ran the store for thirty more years, followed by his wife Janie in 1973. Another old building peeks out from the trees beside the store. In Pops Osborne’s “Remembrances Volume II” he remarked that this smaller frame building was relocated from the Riceville community and had historically been a place to manufacture tobacco products and to also a workshop to build wooden furniture. The more modern post office and fire department are situated about a quarter-mile north. 

Many have passed along this road on the way to enjoy a swim at Elkhorn Lake & Campground, which is about a three-mile drive from the historic heart of Java. A USGS map from the 1950s showed “Elkhorn Park” with a lake covering over 100 acres that had been developed under the ownership of Dan River Mills and operated for use by their Danville employees to enjoy time swimming and camping. Years later it was sold and improved to include the current swimming pools, water slides, campgrounds, and other buildings present. Opposite the entrance to Elkhorn Road, Terry’s Drive-In operated for several decades. Historically the Terry family also has deep roots in the Java vicinity and are related to the previously mentioned Adams and Yates families.

This adventure up Route 640 continues in a part three to this roadside history.