A Brief History

Back in 2002, one of our neighbors Pam Carney, who runs the unofficial Tall Timbers Facebook group received this email from Richard W. Glover sharing a brief history of the creation of Tall Timbers including the reason behind each of our street names:

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Subject: Dick Glover Update - Tall Timbers

 

Greeting to residents of Tall Timbers,

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When unpacking after our recent move to CrossRidge, I ran across a paper that had been given to me in the early 90s. Keep in mind as you read this that it was written prior to certain mergers of banks and also prior to the building of section "G" which is the first section as you enter Tall Timbers off of Staples Mill Road. Also, I think the street that Mr. Keith refers to as "Aktekin Lane" is actually "Ismet"...however, you can see that the street carries the last name "Ismet" instead of "Aktekin".

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Jack Keith, the developer of Tall Timbers, recorded and sent this information to me concerning a brief history of your neighborhood (Tall Timbers). I thought you might find this information interesting and would like to know how street names were chosen for Tall Timbers.

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I hope you find this information interesting and this might satisfy your curiosity as to where the names came from for Tall Timbers.

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Sincerely,

Dick Glover

Brookland District Supervisor

Henrico County

 

Tall Timbers: A Brief History

By Gloria and Jack Keith

Written - July 24, 1993

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What is now Tall Timbers and Bretton Woods was originally one tract of land owned by Albert Anderson Harvey. Shortly after his death his executor, State Planters Bank and Trust Company (now SunTrust Bank) sold that portion which is now Tall Timbers to Laurel Glen Corporation by deed dated April 9, 1946 (DB361, p185).

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Laurel Glen Corporation was owned by Harry J. Schultheis and his son, Billy (William P. Schultheis). John W. Keith, Jr. (Jack) grew up as a member of First English Lutheran Church at Lombardy and Monument Avenue in Richmond. The Schultheis family along with Eddie Schmidt Sr., and A. D. Smith, Jr. families were also long time members, and needless to say, they were good friends.

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After attending Virginia Military Institute (Class of 1948B) Jack was called into the U.S. Army before graduation, as was most of his World War II class. Upon his return from the Philippines he attended the University of Virginia from which he received his BS and JD degrees. He worked at the United Nations on the legal department staff in New York as an intern under Dr. Oscar Schacter, the then head of the UN legal department, and later returned to Richmond to practice law, where he has specialized in real property law for over forty years.

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In the fall of 1958 Helga Attems, an Italian Countess, came with her uncle, Mr. Stkyr (former Danish Consul to Russia under the Tsars, and her son, Federico Christiano Attems, to Richmond with the intent to purchase raw land for investment. Upon her arrival in Richmond she went to see A. F. Dietrich (Ally), who was also a long time member of First English Church and a good friend of Schultheis, Schmidt, Smith and Keith. Ally was head of the Foreign Department of First and Merchants National Bank (it became Sovran, later Crestar Bank and now SunTrust Bank). She asked him to recommend a real estate lawyer to her. Because of Jack's familiarity in dealing with people from other countries and his legal specialty of real property law, Ally recommended Jack as her attorney. Thus began a friendship and attorney/client relationship that exists to this day.

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Jack called Harry Schultheis for recommendations of potential sites for purchase, and after screening several properties, Jack recommended and the Countess purchased 122 acres of the Harvey tract owned by Laurel Glen Corporation. About 16 acres of this was zoned B-1 for a shopping center and the rest was zoned R-2 single family.

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On April 20, 1976 Jack wrote the Contessa and inquired if she would be interested in selling the 122 acres. Negotiations ensued and she agreed to and did settle the sale in October of 1976 of all but the 16 acres at the entrance then zoned B-1 to a corporation owned by Jack, known as Tall Timbers, Inc.

Development did not commence until about 1980, and thereafter Sections A-F comprising 193 lots were developed and sold. In the early 1980's Charley Johnson, then the Brookiand District Supervisor caused the entrance 16 acre tract to be down zoned from B-1 to R-2 for reasons that are not necessary to relate here. The Countess sued, but lost.

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In the fall of 1992 the Countess expressed a wish to sell remaining 16 acres , and following negotiations, TTG, Inc., a corporation owned by Jack's wife, Gloria C. Keith , purchased the land, and is now in the process of developing it into the final 23 lots, making a total of 216 lots in the subdivision. Bob Bain and Mark Waring (Robert P. Bain Construction Co., Inc. t/a Bain-Waring) have contracted to purchase the 23 lots, as they did most of the 193 lots and are currently building under R-2 zoning. All of the preceding sections were developed utilizing R-2 Controlled Density, which means smaller lots (80 x 150 vs 100 x 150), common area and a homeowners association (Tall Timbers Association, Inc.).

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This article arose as a result of a conversation between Dick Glover and his wife, Joan, with Jack and Gloria at the Youngblood Tyler and Associates Christmas party at the Comino Country Club at Wyndham in December of 1992. The topic of the origin of the street names in Tall Timbers came up, and Dick and Joan thought it interesting enough to ask them to write this article about it, for their and the Tall Timbers homeowners' benefit. Not being superstitious, but cautious, the writing was delayed until Section G was "put to bed," and under construction.

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GLORIA SUGGESTED TO JACK THAT WITH HIS INTERNATIONAL CLIENTS AND THEIR MANY FOREIGN FRIENDS THAT IT WOULD BE NICE TO GIVE THE SUBDIVISION AN INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR, THUS THE ORIGIN OF THE STREET NAMES.

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FOLLOWING IS THE NAME OF EACH STREET IN THE TALL TIMBERS SUBDIVISION, ITS CORRECT PRONUNCIATION, AND ITS ORIGIN. WE HOPE THAT YOU WILL FIND IT INTERESTING. WE ALSO THOUGHT THAT IT WOULD BE FUN IF, AT THE ANNUAL PICNIC, THE FLAG OF EACH NATION REPRESENTED WAS FLOWN ON THE STREET SIGN FOR WHOM THE STREET WAS NAMED, SO THAT PEOPLE COULD TRULY SEE THE INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR OF THE SUBDIVISION, AND BETTER UNDERSTAND HOW SMALL THE WORLD IS, AND THAT WE ARE ONE GLOBAL COMMUNITY.

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• Tall Timbers - The credit for the name Tall Timbers goes to John Cochran of Youngblood, Tyler and Associates P.C., the engineers for all sections of the subdivision.

• Attems Way - (at-tems) Obviously named after Contessa Helga Attems, the Italian Countess who owned the property.

• Christian Drive - (chris-ti-a-no) He is also Italian, and is the son of Countess Attems.

• Contessa Drive - (con-tess-a) The Italian word for Countess.

• Wilf Court - (wil-f) Wilfred Hooper, retired managing director of a "nuts, bolts and fasteners" company in England, lives in Slough, England just outside London. He and his wife, Waddy, had been close friends of Jack and Gloria since February 1966, where they met on the beach at the Emerald Beach Hotel in Nassau, Bahamas.

• Heritage Lane - (her-i-tage) This street was originally Wilf Lane, and the residents changed the name to create an American flavor.

• Klaus Court - (klaus) Klaus is Jack's German cousin who lives in Schwabisch Hall, Germany. He has a lucrative business selling ads for the "yellow pages," which in Germany is under the jurisdiction of the Post Office. He is also a master clockmaker, and has opened a clock business in Schwabisch Hall northeast of Stuttgardt.

• Aktekin Lane - (oct-ti-kin) Octagon Soap is the easiest way to pronounce it. Ismet Aktekin is from Istanbul, Turkey where he maintains his principal residence. He sells tobacco factories-yes factories, for TMC (Tobacco Machinery Company) with headquarters in Bologna, Italy. He operates out of and maintains an apartment in Jug, Switzerland. Zug is a suburb of Zurich. He is literally a world traveler and a close friend and frequent visitor with Jack and Gloria. Incidentally, they often have as their house guests foreign friends and customarily fly the flag of the "country in residence".

• Edel Court - (e-dell) Donald Edel grew up with Jack and has been like a brother for 60 years. Donnie was the world buyer for K-Mart. His last "tour" with K-Mart was three years in Hong Kong as Director of all Far East operations for K-Mart. He is now retired and lives with his wife, Mary Aim, in Salisbury subdivision in Chesterfield.

• Alf Court - (all-f) Alf Torp Pedersen is from Copenhagen, Denmark where he is president of an insurance company. Alf and Jack served together at the United Nations in New York at the time the Korean War started. They have maintained a close friendship ever since 1950.

 

With Italy, England, America, Germany, Turkey and Denmark represented Tall Timbers has an international flavor of which everyone can be justly proud.