What happened to the Rodman Club’s “Virginia Dare” lemonade?
NEW BEDFORD — If there was a taste of growing up in New Bedford, at least several generations would say it tasted like their favorite Virginia Dare lemonade, be it orange, pineapple, cream, sarsaparilla or one of the many other varieties once bottled and sold at the Rodman Club Beverage Co., 331 Nash Road.
Today, less than three decades after its closure, signs that this popular store ever existed are surprisingly rare.
“I keep looking for pictures of it and can’t find any,” said Barbara Lanagan, granddaughter of Rodman Club founder and owner Antonio Fernandes.
Lanagan said her father, John Fernandes, started working there when he returned from military service during World War II and remained there for most of his life.
“He worked there until he retired; he was the last one,” Lanagan said.
Although she doesn’t know exactly when that was, Lanagan said her grandfather started the business because of a dispute between him and Jose Mendes, the owner of Manhattan Bottling in New Bedford. According to Lanagan, the two men were unofficial partners in Manhattan Bottling until a dispute led Fernandes to leave the business and open the Rodman Club.
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“They ended up like the Hatfields and the McCoys,” Lanagan said, referring to the historic feud between two American families in the 19th century.
According to opencorporates.com, Rodman Club Beverages, Inc. was dissolved as a corporation on April 5, 2001.
Who can fill the gaps?
Although she has many memories of watching lemonade being bottled and sold as a child, Lanagan – who believes she may be the last living family member with firsthand memories of the business – said she is unsure of details such as when her grandfather opened the Rodman Club.
Even Spinner Publications – home to a number of local newspaper archives, including the Standard-Times – came up empty, as did a search of local historical materials at the downtown New Bedford Free Public Library.
When asked how unusual it was, in his experience, that information about such a well-known and long-standing entity as the Rodman Club was so sparse, Spinner Associate Publisher Jay Avila explained that it doesn’t take much for local history documents that have not yet been digitized to be virtually impossible to find among literally millions of paper files waiting to be scanned and cataloged.
“Maybe it’s still there, but the problem is often that a lot of people have had their hands on it over time and sometimes things don’t get put back,” Avila said.
Rodman Club Site Enters the “Crow City” Era
As for the Rodman Club memorabilia that one can come across today, the most common are old bottles and boxes sold as collectibles online on sites like Ebay.com.
Shad Samagaio, owner of Crow City Motoring, is one of the leading sources of information on what happened to the lion’s share of these and other remaining relics today, having moved his vehicle customization business from its previous location to the former Rodman Club space around 2008.
“I tried for years … they didn’t want to get rid of it, but when the last remaining partner died, his daughter wanted to sell,” Samagaio said, crediting a stroke of luck for getting the upper hand on the purchase.
“One day a friend of mine came into the store… and I saw he had this beautiful antique roll-top desk in the back of his truck,” he continued. “I asked him where he got it and he said, you know the old Virginia Dare building? Everyone called it that, but it was the Rodman Club. He said they were cleaning it out.”
“To make a long story short,” Samagaio said, his offer of a down payment was enough to convince the owner not to list the property and sell it directly to him. Crow City Motoring still operates there today, offering products and installation services.
Samagaio said he could not recall the identity of the woman he dealt with when purchasing the property, but Lanagan had said she was not the one involved in the sale. Documents at the land registry list the family member who was put in charge of managing the property after John Fernandes’ death, but that person could not speak due to health reasons, according to someone who answered a listed phone number.
What was left of the Rodman Club? Virginia Dare products?
Before Samagaio moved his business – then known as Crow City Customs – into the new building, he says he had some work to do due to the existing soda operation.
“It was left pretty much exactly as it was when they closed – the bottling machines were there, the blending room was still intact, the bottle capping machines…” he said. “The daughter who inherited the property didn’t want anything to do with the building. In fact, they were going to give me a discount if I took all the stuff with me.”
“There was so much going on, we joked about getting business going again, but no, that’s not my thing.”
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Besides all the machinery – which Samagio said he scrapped to find metal – “thousands and thousands” of bottles remained. But much of it was lost in a major fire in 2010, he said. Now all that remains is a handful of old signs that he keeps in the shop, and some bottles and boxes that he and his wife took home.
History repeating itself?
Samagaio, 52, is a New Bedford native and knows exactly what his business in its previous incarnation meant to the community.
“When people noticed life coming back to the store, they started coming by and thinking that maybe (Rodman Club) would come back. People would bring old cases and bottles that they still had,” he said, noting that he himself grew up a Virginia Dare drinker. “Back in the day, the supermarkets didn’t have sodas in all kinds of flavors like pineapple and things like that, but I think what happened is that the bigger companies started crowding out the smaller companies.”
Samagaio has been in the vehicle customization business since 1998 and says he recognizes that a similar phenomenon is emerging in his industry.
“I’ve seen this coming for years. A lot of people just order stuff online from the big companies and watch YouTube to learn how to do the work themselves,” he said.
“People keep pestering me to buy (this site) because it will be next to the train station. … If someone offered me the right amount, I would definitely consider it.”
Crow City has been in business since 1998, initially focusing on customizing imported small cars, the kind popular in racing and movies like the original “The Fast & The Furious.” Today, Samagaio says, elaborate customization is more commonly seen on trucks and Jeeps as trends have changed.
“We do a lot of window tint, rims – lots of rims and tires in different sizes,” he said. “The demographics have completely changed. … Trucks and Jeeps are the big thing now.”
Does Virginia Dare lemonade still exist?
While the company – headquartered in Carteret, New Jersey – did not respond to requests for comment, Virginia Dare’s website seems to indicate that it remains an active company today, engaged in “high-quality, sustainably sourced liquid or dry extracts and concentrates” for food and beverage development.
Although it is not stated directly, the language on the website suggests that the company is geared towards the restaurant/food industry rather than the average consumer. Information such as available product quantities, pricing, or how to order is not directly found on the website.
For more information, visit virginiadare.com.
For more information about Crow City Motoring, 331 Nash Rd., New Bedford, call 508-996-5965 or find them on Facebook and Instagram.
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