What's in a name? | Wayside Village Shoppes

Here's a shopping center that once was so far off the beaten path it used "wayside" in its moniker.

Today, it's in the thick of Virginia Beach development as the city continues to change.

Wayside Village Shoppes, anchored by Willis Furniture Co., is on Virginia Beach Boulevard about a mile east of Town Center.

The furniture store opened in 1950 and was called Willis Wayside. It became a second location for the Willis family's business.

John Willis Jr., the son of a Northampton County farmer, had opened a furniture store on Main Street in Norfolk around 1892. The location of the original store changed several times. By 1932, Willis Furniture Co. was on Granby Street.

The family closed the Norfolk store a few years after buying the Beach location, said Ben Willis III, 48, great-grandson of John Willis Jr., and the current president and owner of the store.

The property expanded into a shopping village in 1984.

The furniture store was once a hospital for tuberculosis patients, and the site was a camp for German prisoners of war in World War II.

The Tidewater Tuberculosis Hospital Association formed in 1930 to create the hospital, according to the book "Princess Anne County and Virginia Beach" by Stephen S. Mansfield.

It was called Tidewater Victory Memorial Hospital and dedicated in late 1937. Willis said he has documents listing the donors.

"It struck me that it was a fairly significant number of groups, small groups, that got together and did that," he said. "These people relied on each other to build a resource that would benefit their community."

It was thought that tall pine trees in the area would be therapeutic for patients. But Willis said the hospital was not successful because the patients did not respond well to the humidity.

The state took control of the building in 1941, then leased it to the Army when a POW camp was built around the site, according to Mansfield's book.

Prisoners were primarily Germans captured in North Africa or from sunken U-boats, Willis said. They worked on nearby farms.

Today, Wayside Village Shoppes looks modern. The view of the anchor building is partially obstructed by a newer unit with stores. A cornerstone on the furniture store, however, shows the year 1937.

The business climate for furniture remains difficult, but Willis said he's hopeful.

"What we're in is downtown Virginia Beach now," he said. "We're in the center of the city."

Most of the pines that surrounded the property are gone. But in front of the shops, a handful remain.

Patrick Wilson, (757) 222-5150, patrick.wilson@pilotonline.com