Dear Ace: The Shoppes of Clover Lawn is a shop-ping center on Rockfish Gap in Crozet. Why do the businesses in that area, including Blue Ridge Builders Supply across the street, have Charlottesville addresses and not Crozet ones? —Biff Clavin
Biff: Bear with Ace, because the answer to this question may be slow going. But first, to lighten the mood, let Ace provide you with a joke: Knock knock! (Who’s there?) Juno! (Juno who?) Juno why the turkey crossed the road? It was the chicken’s day off! (Ace’ll have you notice, that was a two-for-one special.)
And now back to the task at hand. Ace thought, as you did, that the address conundrum was very peculiar. Especially since, on one map Ace found of the Shoppes, it looked as though they were located in a veritable no man’s land (postally speaking, of course) somewhere between the city and Crozet. So he called Mason Graham, a Real Estate Agent for Downer & Associates, which leases the Clover Lawn properties, and she told Ace that even they weren’t aware the properties had Charlottesville addresses until they needed one for the first tenant. “But,” she said, “that’s just the postal standards!”
The addresses all have 22903 zip codes, despite their Crozet location. Ace thought about calling the post office to get more answers, but he knew better—waiting to talk to a postal worker would eat into his holiday party time (like a post office, Ace has his priorities). And so, being the sly, creative investigator he is, he approached the question from a different angle. He “addressed” the source you mention.
The helpful man on the other end of the horn from Blue Ridge Builders Supply had this to say: “We’re in the Charlottesville delivery area; we’re not under Crozet.” Hoping to get more out of him, Ace prodded further: Does this confuse your customers? “Yeah,” the man said. Ace appreciates his brevity. After all, he’s got those parties to go to.
You can ask Ace yourself. Intrepid investigative reporter Ace Atkins has been chasing readers’ leads for 19 years. If you have a question for Ace, e-mail it to ace@c-ville.com.