Rediscovering America_ Exploring the Small Towns of Virginia & Maryland - Bill Burnham [81]
The Virginia Department of Fish and Game tracked a couple of Tundra swan tagged in Essex County on the Middle Peninsula in spring 2001. They migrate an incredible 5,000 miles to Canada’s Northwest Territories, diagonally across North America! (NOTE: To see maps of the swans’ routes, go to Tundra Trax: www.dgif.state.va.us/wildlife/swan)
We get close enough to shoot off a couple of pictures, then head back to the parking area, satiated by nature, but our stomachs hungry. The Jeep’s thermometer said 76°. By morning, it will have dropped to 34°.
Leaving the preserve, we stop at an unassuming white building, set off a in a field and looking a bit lonely. Shiloh School was the last one-room schoolhouse built in Virginia (the signs says it operated from 1909 to 1929). It might not even have a sign, or perhaps been left to fall down, if not for a fairly famous teacher – Jessie Ball duPont. Famous by birth and by marriage, a member of George Washington’s mother’s lineage, and the third wife of Alfred duPont, the chemical king.
Back at Route 200, straight ahead is an irresistible little junk store. “New stuff and junk,” the sign says. It’s closed, but purchases can be made by the honor system. Buy anything on the porch and put the money in the door slot. Coffee mugs and glasses cost 25¢.
Bill decides to look for Jessie’s ancestral home, Ditchley, which leads us down a windy road past modest homes. Ditchley is the exception. Large and brick, the 1752 house is used as a seasonal home. Bill chats up the caretaker and learns that inside, the furnishings are as when Jessie lived there, until her death in 1970 (her slippers are still under the bed!). The caretaker gives tours by appointment to groups of five or more. (I’m so starving by now, I’m secretly relieved there are only two of us.)
I had remembered a wine and cheese shop in Kilmarnock, but when we we got there, it was closed. Supremely disappointed, we head home through the tiny town of White Stone, where the White Stone Wine & Cheese shop is all lit up. A sign out front reads, “Wine Tasting Tonight, 4-7 pm.” I glance at my watch and see that it’s just 6 pm. Now that’s serendipity. A perfect ending to a perfect day.
Irvington
Around Town
An artful sense of humor has of late infected Irvington, population 673. Columns on the front porch of the town’s dentist’s office are 10-foot tall toothbrushes. Lampshades at Hope and Glory Inn are made of silly hats and, in the garden, there’s a bathtub for moonlight soaks. An outline of a giant bone graces the roof of Trick Dog Restaurant, where they hang a “sleeping dog” sign when closed.
These are all relatively new additions to this Northern Neck village. Once a thriving steamboat destination with an opera house, skating rink and markets, it succumbed to a fire in 1917 that destroyed buildings, but not spirit. The town is being re-created on a pedestrian-scale, rekindling that elusive vacation aura with the help of some moneyed and imaginative new residents. The Tides, Irvington’s 50-year-old resort on Carter’s Creek, underwent a multi-million-dollar renovation in early 2002 by its new owner, Sedona Resorts. The resort sits on a commanding spot on its own peninsula with a private beach, golf courses, marina and swimming pools.
In particular, one architect is responsible for much of Irvington’s new look. Randall Kipp moved here in 1998 and has since helped with the Tides’ update, designed the unusual dentist’s office, the new Steamboat Era Museum, and a quaint-but-hip retail row that houses a restaurant and boutiques. That row of shops, while brand new and trendy, recall Irvington’s small town roots. Each has a white picket fence, and the café’s open courtyard and fountain creates