And now, the rest of the story
, News Editor
02-09-2010
There’s a story behind everything, a solution to every mystery – if you only search hard enough.The former Fraternity of Eagles building, two doors west of the Farris Theatre at 110 S. Camden Street, is still clearly marked “F.O.E.” to signify its former lodge affiliation.
That’s the easy part.
The mystery thickens with an inscription across the building’s façade that reads “Pangborn Maison de Rapport.”
With its columns, the building looks like something you might find in New Orleans. But why, we wondered, would there be a French inscription on the face of a building in Richmond?
Our first theory, quickly quashed, was that the words had something to do with the lodge. But nothing on the Fraternity of Eagles’ Web site – yes, the fraternal order still exists – sheds any light on the enigma.
Yet Pangborn is a name we’ve seen around Richmond.
Aha, a clue.
There’s only one Pangborn in the local phone book, so we called it. Don Pangborn, who runs Pangborn Termite Specialists, offered some help.
“My mom had that put on there,” he said. “That’s just French for “the building belongs to Pangborn.”
“Maison de” is a very common French expression … “house of this,” “house of that” etc. The “rapport” part refers to some kind of human relationship.
That’s what reverse.net, a free translation service, says, so we’re stickin’ to it.
Don had a little more information about his mother, Karlen Pangborn, who’s still very much alive and now lives in Liberty.
“Mom was a Dumas,” he said. “She was French. Her mom’s side is French. She still has kinfolk in New Orleans.”
Hmmm, New Orleans. The French Connection. That was a movie, wasn’t it?
We left a message for Karlen, who returned our call and helped solve the mystery.
She and her husband, Don Sr. (now deceased), owned the former F.O.E. building from the late 1970s until the early 1990s. She operated “Strings & Things,” a music store that sold pianos, organs and guitars, and rented apartments upstairs and had a space in the back occupied by a beauty shop.
Karlen lived in Richmond 37 years, then moved to rural Liberty. But what motivated her to put a French expression across the building’s façade?
It seems her brother, a resident of heavily French (and now, Super Bowl Champion) New Orleans, has an inn there. And, when they’re not battling the fury of hurricanes, people in New Orleans have a thing for things French, like to party and tend to name their buildings.
“My brother has a hotel in New Orleans and we were around it a lot so we put the name on it,” She said. “And I’m French.”
So the next time you drive by 110 S. Camden – Friends of the Farris Theatre now owns the building and plans to convert it into a gallery and archive – you won’t have to wonder about “Pangborn Maison de Rapport.”
It’s just one of the many services provided by your “Daily News.”
One more thing before we go.
As a sidenote, we suggest you take a look at www.flickr.com/photos/fotoedge/.
It’s a collection of photos taken by Northland real-estate agent Bob Travaglione. Among the hundreds and hundreds of quirky, nostalgic, brilliantly colorful photos of Americana is the former F.O.E. building at 110 S. Camden.
“Since I only pass through life one time, I need to grab these little bits of quickly disappearing connections to our past,” Bob notes in his blog.
Same could be said, we suppose, for solving the little mysteries of life.
Photo: The former Fraternity of Eagles lodge at 110 S. Camden has an inscription that acknowledges a former owner’s French roots. (Photo by David Knopf/The Daily News)
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