Afton
Nelson County, Virginia
Decades ago a small country clinic was established in Afton at the intersection of Bland Wade Road and Route 151. Paging now retired, Dr. Bob Raynor. About 50 years later a brand new clinic is being built a few miles north of the current location. The original clinic was started by Dr. Bob and was acquired years later by Martha Jefferson Hospital.
“It’s very exciting and it speaks to how we are looking forward to next 50 years of service. That building was 50 years old. It will be a better flow for everybody. Patients and staff. It will be better situated for the future as we grow,” said Dr. Stephen Schmitz, who joined Afton Family Medicine about 5 years ago as Dr. Bob Raynor was preparing to retire. Dr. Schmitz is a second generation doctor in his family. His father, Dr Stephen Schmitz, (Senior) has been a urologist in Charlottesville for decades.
“We’re hoping to finish the project in the late summer of 2011, maybe sooner depending on the weather. We’re staring the project in the fall and we have a lot of brick to lay, so we’ve got a lot to do when we don’t have good weather,” says Jim Gates the general contractor for the job. Jim and Tommy Harvey of Afton developed the project and eventually landed the committment from MJH to locate the clinic at their location.
The main inspiration was the location. We’re in a gorgeous spot and it’s not really a city type area, so let’s take what’s around us. I tried to do something that had a feeling of the mountains and the rural-ness of this area but was still high tech in its building and facilities,” said Robin Meyer who is the architect for the new clinic.
Both Dr.’s Schmitz and Cole are also medical columnists in our NCL “Ask the Doctor” series published monthly in the printed and online editions.
Congrats!
