History of Thalia / Aunt Penny's Park

History of Thalia, also, Aunt Penny's Park. . , History of Thalia. The word “Thalia” is derived from the Greek “thallein”, mean­ing to flour­ish and bloom. The community of Thalia is gen­er­ally bounded on the west by Thalia Creek, on the east by Lynn Shores Road, on the north by the Eastern Branch of the Lynnhaven River and on the south by the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway. Thalia is a part of the Edward H. Mosley estate known as “Summerville Plantation”, and appears in the offi­cial deed of record book at the Princess Anne County (now Virginia Beach) Courthouse dated 1807. Thalia was a sched­uled stop for the Norfolk, Albemarle and Atlantic Railroad. During World War II, Camp Ashby, (aka Camp Thalia) the German Prisoner of War Camp, was located on what is now the site of The City of Virginia Beach Central Library and the prop­erty adjoin­ing it. , Aunt Penny’s Park. This pri­vate park is to honor John J. and Paula L. “Aunt Penny” Collins for their unique con­tri­bu­tions to the com­mu­nity of Thalia. They estab­lished one of the very first com­mer­cial busi­nesses in Thalia, pre-1950. Their “Cabins-in-the-Pines”, at 4145 Virginia Beach Blvd., encom­passed a restau­rant, tourist court, hardware store and an Amoco gas sta­tion They were devoted to the com­mu­nity of Thalia and gave unselfishly of their time in pub­lic ser­vice. Among other con­tri­bu­tions, they played a lead­ing role in estab­lish­ing the first all-volunteer fire depart­ment in the City of Virginia Beach (for­merly Princess Anne County) at Thalia in 1952. In 1990, Aunt Penny realized her life­time dream with the devel­op­ment of Collins Square Shopping Center.