Rediscovering America_ Exploring the Small Towns of Virginia & Maryland - Bill Burnham [65]
Information
Loudoun County Visitor Center at Market Station, Harrison Street is open 9 am to 5 pm daily. (800-752-6118, www.visitloudoun.org)
TRIVIA: Leesburg was originally called “George Town” to honor the king of England.
Side trip: Waterford
Five miles northwest of Leesburg is a village it seems time has forgotten, thanks to benign neglect in the first half of the 20th century, and national recognition of its historic value in the second.
Driving through the tiny, storybook town of Waterford, just 40 miles from Washington DC, you might feel a bit like an intruder. While the 1970 designation of the entire village as a National Historic Landmark preserves this gem for everyone, these are private homes, so tread lightly. Park the car, get out and walk the narrow, winding streets, paved with brick and lined with old, mossy stone walls. Tone it down a notch, and get in step with the country pace. There are no restaurants or hotels, no trendy boutiques, and not a whole lot to do, so take your time.
If you’d like to know the stories behind the buildings, pick up the “Walk With Us through Waterford” publication at the Waterford Foundation office located in the Corner Store at Main and Second. It details the history of practically every structure in town – 120 of them. The office is open weekdays only, 9 am-5 pm, so if you’re there on a weekend, look for a brochure rack outside, or ask at the Peaceable Kingdom art gallery.
Stop in at the Waterford Market on Second Street, a general store since 1883. Play a game of checkers, or sit by the pot-bellied stove on a cold day.
Time your visit with the bi-monthly Sunday Waterford Concert Series at the Old School, which is preceded by a guided walking tour. (tel. 540-882-3018, www.waterfordva.org)
The Waterford Mill has peaceful, park-like grounds with picnic tables and benches along a tinkling stream. The rushing waters of Catoctin Creek persuaded Pennsylvania Quaker Amos Janney this was a good place to settle in 1733. The brick mill was built in the 1820s, the third one at this location. The Waterford Foundation had the foresight to buy and preserve it way back in 1944. The mill isn’t open regular hours, but there are interpretive signs outside. It operated until 1939, and now serves as the headquarters for the Waterford Homes Tour & Crafts Exhibit. Held the first weekend in October, this is one of the few times when Waterford sees a crowd – up to 40,000 people come to get a peek inside the historic buildings. The three-day festival features traditional crafts for sale and demonstration, military re-enactments, art exhibits and tours of homes. Several homes and the Old School may also open to the public during Historic Garden Week in April.
Private tours for groups can be arranged through the Waterford Foundation (tel. 540-882-3018, www.waterfordva.org). Contact the foundation for more information about Waterford.
Old Town Manassas
Our entry into this small town was delayed by, of all things, a 30-car eastbound container train that crosses the main road into Manassas. The Norfolk Southern train was no doubt headed to Norfolk International Terminal where cargo would be loaded onto huge barges. (As residents of Hampton Roads, we see those container ships all the time. It was interesting to actually see them on a train.)
As inconvenient as it might be to 21st-century drivers, the railroad is the reason this town sprang up. The Orange & Alexandria and the Manassas Gap railroads joined here in the 1850s, and this tiny hamlet known as Tudor Hall was renamed Manassas Junction. The railroads formed a long-awaited transportation link between the Shenandoah Valley and port cities below the Great Falls of the Potomac, and served as a means of shipping farm goods to larger, East Coast towns and cities. Overnight the small village became a bustling railroad depot. It was such an important location that in 1861 the Confederates