Robinson property an interesting acquisition for conservation department

When you pull up to the house of the late Bill Robinson III, it feels like you’ve jumped back 70 years into the past. A blanket of vines covers the expansive brick exterior, two chimneys stick out from the rooftop, and a stone wall lines half of the oval driveway cutting through the property.

     “From what local people tell me, it was quite the house in its day,” said Jason Gooder, Franklin County Conservation director. “Back in the Fifties or Sixties, I think it would have been quite the place.”

     Gooder’s department was willed half interest in the 16.25-acre property near the Hampton Country Club by Robinson III, who died in September 2013. According to Gooder, the Franklin County Conservation Board decided last week it would sell its portion and use the money for other county-wide conservation projects. He explained the house needs too much work, and even it were to get fixed, it seems there’s very little the conservation department could do with it.

Read the full article in the April 23 edition of the Hampton Chronicle.