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By Root 990 0

Remember that Y shape of the original settlement? This tour more or less outlines it, with Main Street somewhat where the trail to Manassas Gap was, and Chester Street being the original road linking the Shenandoah Valley over the Blue Ridge via Chester Gap. Named for Thomas Chester, the early entrepreneur who started a ferry across the Shenandoah River in 1736, the street became home to the leading families in the area and has 17 historic buildings remaining. One is the Chester House Bed & Breakfast (stop #10). Stop #14 is Cozy Corner (64 Chester Street), the Victorian home the Buck family built when they were forced to sell their ancestral home, Bel Air. Lucy Rebecca Buck published a journal of Civil War life in Front Royal: Sad Earth, Sweet Heaven.

The Warren Rifles Confederate Museum houses Stonewall Jackson’s signal cannon and the Union flag surrendered to him after the Battle of Front Royal. The battle took place on May 23, 1862 at the beginning of Stonewall Jackson’s famous Valley Campaign. The museum is open April 15- Oct. 31. (95 Chester S., tel. 540-636-6982)

The Warren Heritage Society inside Ivy Lodge contains exhibits on local history. Next door is the Cottage of Belle Boyd, the Southern Teenage Spy, who carried information about the Union troops from Front Royal to Stonewall Jackson that helped him win the Battle of Front Royal (101 Chester Street, tel. 540-636-1446). To learn more about the battle, check out the self-guided driving tour of the Battle of Front Royal.

Main Street is a quaint historic district with a healthy row of shops – antiques, furniture and clothing stores, restaurants and coffee shops. Stokes General Store (tel. 540-635-4437) has supplied Front Royal shoppers with shoes, cookware, clothing, leather chaps and cheese since 1944. Their motto: “If you need it, we have it.” After a day of shopping you might need some fresh air and exercise. The Happy Creek Trail begins right outside the store and follows the stream for a quarter mile.

A testament to Main Street adaptability is the Murphy Theater, 131 E. Main, built first as the Methodist Church, then serving successively as Colonel Murphy’s Vaudeville Theatre, a silent movie house, a candy store, fruit stand, post office, clothing store, and a computer center.

There seems to be a thing about “doggies in the window” in Front Royal. At least two shops – Grandma Hazel’s Attic and Goldsmith Jewelers – have pet dogs that sit in the windows and people-watch. At Grandma Hazel’s, the small dog has his own canopy bed set up in the window. There’s even a furniture store with a couple of wooden dogs propped in the window.

Another Main Street curiosity is the “Not so National Zoo and Aquarium” (stop #34 in the brochure). Local artist Pat Windrow has painted zoo and barn murals on the sides of buildings leading to her Windrow Gallery and Murals. Her whimsical scenes make it look as if there’s a second street running alongside, and as though elephants and horses are peering out of doorways. You can see more of her work inside the Main Street Mill restaurant.

TABOO: Don’t stretch out Front Royal to anything as pretentious as “Roy-ale.” In fact, true locals pronounce it “Front Rawl,” and Warren County as “Worn County.”

Recreation

Front Royal is known as the Canoe Capital of Virginia, thanks to the South Fork Shenandoah River, a wide, steady-flowing river with some class II whitewater. Several outfitters offer canoe and tubing trips: Downriver Canoe Company (tel. 800-338-1963, www.down­riv­er.com), Front Royal Canoe (tel. 800-270-8808, www.front­royal­canoe.com), Shenandoah River Trips (tel. 800-RAPIDS-1, www.shen­an­doah.cc).

Front Royal Canoe also offers guided horseback rides April through October, as does Highlander Horses, (tel. 540-636-4523 www.high­land­erhorses.com), and Pandhandle Trail Rides (tel. 540-635-6294).

The 195,000-acre Shenandoah National Park (tel. 540-999-3500, www.nps.gov/shen) attracts millions of visitors with its magical Skyline Drive and backcountry wilderness. Three lodges in the park offer food and one, Skyland,