Cooperative Living August 2016 - 33
The Tiny
Village
of Bacova
(Clockwise, from upper left) A row of houses along a Bacova road. Another view of a Bacova house. David Powell working in the yard of
his historic home. The Powells' home, which used to be the commissary for Tidewater Lumber, then the plant for the Bacova Guild.
group, " says Mary Lynn Riner, a local
resident and character actress who's
appeared in movies like Nell with
Jodie Foster.
Her family, which settled in Bacova
in the 1920s, is so much a part of the
quaint town that a lane is named after
it, and Riner can't imagine living
anywhere else.
" This is where my people are, " she
says. " Bacova was a real company town.
You didn't get paid in money necessarily.
You didn't need it because the company
owned your house, and you just went to
the commissary to get what you needed.
" It was a prosperous little town, "
Riner continues, " until right after World
War II when things were very difficult.
Many families just couldn't make it. We
did okay. But after the mill folded, the
town was pretty much left to
deteriorate. "
Riner's father had gone to college after
serving in World War II and landed a job
at the neighboring Homestead Resort as
an engineer, eventually starting a local
service station from which the family
made a good living. But many families
did not fare so well.
www.co-opliving.com
People left Bacova to find work. The
community fell into disrepair.
More than a decade later, a northern
industrialist came to the rescue. As Riner
describes it, " Malcolm Hirsh came in,
bought the town and refurbished it. "
'This is where
my people are,'
says Riner.
BACOVA AND THE GUILD
In 1957, New Jersey native Malcolm
Hirsh bought - yes, bought - Bacova
to keep it from bankruptcy. He was
president of a land-development
company in New Jersey as well as the
director of his father's company, Lock
Joint Pipe Company.
Hirsh was familiar with the area,
having spent a lot of time as a boy on his
father's Bath County horse farm nearby.
For a few years in Bacova, he focused
on improvements like fixing the roofs
of the houses, painting them and
replacing broken windows, hoping to
attract industry. When those plans didn't
work, he decided to start his own
company - what later became known
as the Bacova Guild.
Mary Lynn Riner has lived in the
area her whole life.
In 1965, Hirsh, along with newly
transplanted North Carolina artist Grace
Gilmore, formed the Bacova Guild.
Hirsch's industrial experience and
Gilmore's artistic talent meshed into
colorful fiberglass products that
became the hallmark of the Bacova
Guild and have since garnered quite a
following, though the guild moved to
Low Moor in 1996.
August 2016 | Cooperative Living | 31
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Cooperative Living August 2016
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Cooperative Living August 2016
Cooperative Living August 2016 - 1
Cooperative Living August 2016 - 2
Cooperative Living August 2016 - 3
Cooperative Living August 2016 - 4
Cooperative Living August 2016 - 5
Cooperative Living August 2016 - 6
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