Yesterdays

Urbanna Creek Circa 1945

Virginia artist, Franklin A. Saye, has released a print in conjunction with the 1998 Urbanna Oyster Festival. "Yesterdays" depicts a historical scene on Urbanna Creek dating back to 1945. Everything depicted in the painting is no longer there. Hurley's Restaurant and Hotel was a local favorite and was demolished in the 1960's. Payne's Crab House, once a thriving seafood business, was torn down in the late 1980's and replaced with a new smaller building. The John Branford, tied up at Payne's, was converted from a sailing bugeye and was built at the turn of the century at Fishing Island, Maryland. The Muriel Eileen was built in the 1920's in Guinea, Virginia with an unusual two story pilot house and was owned and worked by the Lord Mott canning factory at Urbanna Creek.