29 defined areas of Mecklenburg County, Virginia

I’ve spent a lot of time pondering ways to share and sort information by locality. I’ve had so many questions about places. For example, there is a church on highway 47, almost seven miles east of Chase City, that has a Chase City address. But there’s a VDOT sign near the church that says Drapersville. Which place name would help people find that church? Which place name would locals associate with the church? What place name would people associate with that church who have never been to Mecklenburg, and have only looked at maps?

I want to know things like, why does Google maps list rural place names without reference to the county? Like “Invermay, Virginia”, or “Antlers, Virginia”. Both places used to have post offices in Mecklenburg County, but they haven’t had post offices for decades. I also wonder if the name Palmer Springs changed to Palmer Crossroads? Or is Palmer Crossroads the name of the intersection and Palmer Springs the name of the area? If so, why is Palmer Crossroads what shows up on maps now? The same questions apply to Hanford and Hanford Crossroads.

My husband pointed out to me that most of my questions revolved around trying to define a rural place. But there isn’t any set standard for defining rural areas. Independent cities, counties and towns have clearly defined areas. “Non-incorporated communities” and large farming areas do not have defined areas. I decided that the solution to my challenge, was to designate my own clearly defined areas, according to boundaries that make sense to me, to make it easier to organize information on this website. For instance, if I call something “area 12”, I can show all the place names within that defined area (area 12), past or present.

I am still writing up area descriptions as part of the collaborative map and for the website. Place descriptions will be at the top of each numbered place page, on the website. That same description will be included in the information box of each area on the map, as shown below.

Here is an example of area 1, the northwest corner of the county:

This map allows you to type in the search box to search for a specific pin. Or, as shown above, you can click on an item in the list to see the corresponding pin or area. The example shown above, was made visible by clicking on “1” in the list.

“Area 1” includes Black Branch Baptist Church and the old Finneywood post office. I visited Berean church last year. The church and the cemetery beside the church would be in area 2. There is also a cemetery on the west side of Highway 49, across the street from the church. The cemetery across the street is part of area 1. I will make a notation in both area 1 and area 2 that there are tombstones on both sides of the road.

Drapersville is listed as “Drapersville, Virginia 23924” on Google maps, which is a Chase City zip code. My new method of organizing by area, places the Drapersville street sign on the boundary of areas 2 & 3. The sign is on the east side of Old Cox Rd, so the Drapersville sign in area 3.

I hope organizing this website by 29 defined place areas will be helpful to you in your Mecklenburg County research!

One response to “29 defined areas of Mecklenburg County, Virginia”

  1. Julie,

    The term “a can of worms” was created to describe the problem you have identified.

    Those of us who deer hunt small areas with dogs have the same problem in

    attaching a name to a spot of importance. Only the astrophysicists have a working system,

    and theirs works because it’s an arena which doesn’t have a known history.

    Reg

    Liked by 1 person

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