Rediscovering America_ Exploring the Small Towns of Virginia & Maryland - Bill Burnham [104]
Nearby, the Locustville Academy still stands in the 1859 building built to educate boys and girls headed for college. It’s the lone survivor of about a dozen schools of higher learning built in the 1800s. There’s a small museum inside, operated by the Society for the Preservation of Locustville Academy. It’s open only during garden week in April and by appointment. (tel. 757-787-4826)
A “come-here” has purchased and is renovating the Locustville Hotel (1820), and the Wynne Tref Bed and Breakfast has a private suite and serves breakfast. (Open March-October, tel. 757-787-2356, $$)
Locustville is located on the “seaside” of Route 13, near Olney. From the “T” intersection, turn down Burton’s Shore Road, then left on Seagull Lane to reach Burton’s Shore, once a popular place for sunbathing and picnics. The view is to Cedar Island where you can see the abandoned Coast Guard station.
Cape Charles – Kiptopeke
The Eastern Shore of Virginia boasts some of the best flat water kayaking in the United States. Paddling among Atlantic barrier islands through tall grass marshes allows an intimate glimpse of the Shore’s natural beauty. One of our more memorable kayak trips began in Cape Charles near the tip of the Eastern Shore. On this particular December Sunday morning, Main Street was quiet. Driving down tree-lined residential streets, past local churches, we saw residents dressed in their Sunday best hurrying to catch the start of services.
We left town from a public beach that, come summertime, would be crowded with sunbathers. As we paddled south, aided by a northeast wind, the shoreline morphed from the industrial forms of Cape Charles into high, red clay bluffs topped with loblolly pines. Near a set of gill nets, we surprised a deer swimming. Past Kiptopeke State Park, a sharp-eyed companion spied two bald eagles. Then wonders of wonders, fins broke the surface. For 10 minutes or more, we bobbed and watched, enthralled by a half dozen juvenile and adult dolphins that swam among our boats.
Already one of the Eastern Shore’s larger towns, Cape Charles will only grow in prominence as the Shore develops. The local concrete plant is a steady employer and the rail-barge ferry serves Shore farmers by shipping their goods 26 miles across the mouth of the Bay to international port terminals in Norfolk. Anachronisms abound on the Eastern Shore, and this shipping terminal, the last of its kind in the United States, is but one.
Farming and loading boats is how this small port town has made its living since it was carefully laid out in the 1880s by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Tracks end at the town’s protected harbor. It is still fascinating to watch cargo going from barge to railroad car and vice versa.
Around Town
Planners laid the town out on a grid. Eight streets run north-south and seven run east-west. The area contains more than 500 buildings, most built between 1885 and 1940, and many listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The nicest homes front the Bay. Diligent entrepreneurs have of late worked hard to restore them to their earlier Victorian charm, exemplified in tall windows, widow’s watches and wrap-around porches. Several are now bed & breakfast inns. These, along with some antiques shops and cafés, are within walking distance of the town’s marina.
Fishing is a major draw for Shore visitors, and Cape Charles is no different. In season, charters leave daily from the marina for sport fishing, pleasure boating and tall ship cruises.
Home-building is a growing industry on the Eastern Shore, fueled by lower property values and easy access to the water. Cape Charles officials