J. Eddie Callis was a prolific builder in Mathews County in the early-to-mid 20th century, and his grandson, Rick Hammond of Mathews, remembers him with fondness and respect.

Born in 1875, Callis was a major contributor to the rebuilding of Mathews Court House after a devastating fire in 1921 destroyed much of the downtown area. Many of the replacement buildings were made of brick for its fire-resistant qualities. But Callis’s contributions to downtown Mathews went beyond that single time period.

Among the buildings credited to him, according to a 1956 article in the Gazette-Journal, were Mathews High School, Hudgins Drug Store, Richardson’s Drug Store, Twigg Motor Company, Mathews Post Office (then on Church Street), and Mathews Memorial Library (then the Farmers Bank of Mathews). He also built the Mathews County School Board Office (then the Mathews Library), the Halcyon Building (then Foster’s Inc.), the Trolade Building (then Elsie’s Restaurant and French&...