Durant Bayside Cottages
Advertisement for Durant's Bayside Cottages, Norfolk Journal and Guide, 1962. Note: address given in advertisement (901 Atlantic Avenue) refers to W. Shore Drive, not the present oceanfront Atlantic Avenue.
Known Name(s)
Durant Bayside Cottages (Primary) Durant's Beach (Secondary)
Address
3016 S. Elm Avenue Portsmouth, VA; (Primary) (1961, 1962, 1963, 1964) W. Shore Drive/U.S. Route 60 Princess Anne County, VA (Secondary)
Establishment Type(s)
Tourist Home, Luncheonette
Physical Status
Extant
Description
The primary address refers to the Portsmouth residence of Raymond J. Durant, the owner of the Durant Bayside Cottages. This dwelling has changed little since included on the 1950 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. The map shows a two-story frame dwelling with a one-story front porch and two small rear/west one-story additions and another small one-story addition on the south elevation. Roofs are noncombustible. Interestingly, at the rear of the lot behind the house stands a one-story cinder block automobile "stge" with firewalls extending 18 inches above the composition roofing. This building is larger than the house.
The Durant Bayside Cottages and Snack Shoppe property was located in Princess Anne County on West Shore Drive/U.S. Route 60, approximately .5 mile from the Lynnhaven Bridge (Lesner Bridge). The bayside beach was known as Durant's Beach. The lat/long given is an approximation of the location of the property.
Detailed History
Princess Anne County land records indicate that in 1954, Raymond J. (R.J.) and Hattie Ives Durant, husband and wife, purchased nine lots in the Lynnhaven Beach and Park Co. subdivision. Most of the lots (7) were purchased from Christie S. and Carolyn R. Baum, husband and wife, and the remainder (2) were purchased from John D. and Carole B. Steele, husband and wife. A 1958 historical aerial of the area shows a few buildings constructed on the north side of Shore Drive in the general vicinity of these parcels, but additional land record research is needed to determine whether buildings were standing on the lots when the Durants purchased them.
Research contributed by historian Edna Hawkins Hendrix, Virginia Beach.
Sources: Norfolk Journal and Guide (newspaper)
Princess Anne County Deed Book 351, Page 116 (Deed of Trust).
Princess Anne County Map Book 5, Page 71; Map Book 7, Part 2, Page 167.
