Dates: 1906-1915

Collection Number: MS 167

Physical Location: Archive Room Shelves

Extent: 3 items.

Creators/Collectors: Charles King and Sons Co. (Charlottesville, Va.)

Access Restrictions: Collection is open for research.

User Restrictions: No restrictions.

Preferred Citation: Charles King and Sons Co. Account Ledger, MS 167, Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information: Archival transfer.

Biographical/Historical Information:

Charles King & Son was founded in Alexandria in 1877. It opened a branch in Charlottesville in 1890, which eventually became the firm’s main operation. (The Alexandria portion of the business closed in the late 1930s.)

When the company’s original Charlottesville location on South Street was destroyed by fire around the turn of the century, 1897, the firm moved to a newly-built warehouse on Water Street beside the C & 0 train station.
The King Warehouse distribute dry goods to the City of Charlottesville and the surrounding counties. The operation boomed during the First World War resulting in its expansion to include the complete city block.
In 1917, the original portion of the Water Street warehouse, which was constructed in 1897 and 1898, was expanded with an addition that was the western portion of the block between East Fourth and Fifth Streets.
Charles King & Son Co. Inc. had been Virginia’s oldest and Charlottesville’s only surviving wholesale grocer until 1979. In the end of October, 1979, the three-story, block-long brick warehouse on Water Street , after more than eighty years as a local landmark, finally closed its ‘doors. The business was closed and the King Warehouse was sold.
In 1981, the new owner of the King Warehouse had a renovation plan, which was in accordance with the Department of Interior historic rehabilitation guidelines, thus assuring the preservation of the unique character of this turn-of-the-century structure.

Scope and Content: The account ledger for Charlottesville's grocery firm Charles King and Son Co.

Corporate Names: Charles King and Sons Co. (Charlottesville, Va.)

Subjects:

  • Grocers--Virginia--Charlottesville
  • Grocery trade--Virginia--Charlottesville

Record Types: Account books.