When asked about whether the Spady house ever served as a hotel Frank Spady, Jr. said it was at one time called a hotel. He remembers it being used for boarders by the Crumplers. This 1 ½ story house was probably built in the early 1800s.
The house and farm was once owned by Dr. Robert H. Tynes who died owing a small debt. His son, Robert H. Tynes, Jr. sold 1 ½ acres off first to pay the debt. The balance (“25 acres more or less”) was later sold on the Nansemond County Courthouse steps on 12-12-1898 for $1,525 to Lula E. (Crumpler) Pitt, grandmother of Frank Spady, Jr. The property was bounded on the North by the “main road passing through Chuckatuck from Suffolk to Smithfield”, on the West by “Mrs. James E. Godwin’s heirs, also on the West “by Charles B. Godwin’s lands”, on the East by the “main road leading to Suffolk”, and on the South “by lands belonging to the free school and the Masonic Lodge”. The deed was signed by Wilbur J. Kilby, Special Commissioner on 8-29-1899. It was also owned at one time by Charles B. Godwin.
Lula Crumpler Pitt was born on the Holladay Point farm. The family lived in an earlier house located where Mills Godwin’s home place was located. Her father died in 1892. Lula, her three children, and brother Matt Crumpler moved to Godwin-Knight home in 1892 and lived there until 1898 when they moved to the Spady house. She took in boarders who worked in the area as well as travelers. Lula transferred the house to her brother Matthew W. Crumpler soon after buying it. Lula died in 1906. Matthew W. Crumpler left the house to Frank A. Spady, Sr. who was married to Lula Pitt’s daughter, Maggie Pitt. The house was left to the three Spady children, Wilson, Frank, Jr., and Emma Mae. Wilson was the last one to live there. Following Wilson’s death, Frank sold his half to Emma Mae.