More small towns in Virginia with big appeal

Virginia’s Main Street towns beckoned us to pull out our maps and suitcases once again. In March, we took readers to Gordonsville, Strasburg, Syria and Culpeper, small towns with charm and a laid-back vibe. This month we bring you Virginia’s Main Streets, Part II. Two of our stops — Lexington and Harrisonburg — offer spectacular views of autumn foliage as well as quaint shops and cozy restaurants. We also sent a travel expert to scope out Portsmouth, where you’ll find a 10-foot-high lighthouse lens, among other treasures.

And don’t miss executive editor Chad Anderson’s return to Loudoun County, where he grew up a few miles south of Lucketts, the hamlet he highlights this month. His travels show that even amid development and big-box chains, familiar spaces continue to thrive.

We’re not the only ones with our eyes on Virginia’s small towns. Harrisonburg, where you’ll find the Harrisonburg Children’s Museum and the Virginia Quilt Museum, is one of several designated communities in the Virginia Main Street Program, which promotes downtown revitalization through the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Main Street Approach. So, to find more hidden gems for fall weekend getaways, including the recently designated Blackstone, visit http://dhcd.virginia.gov/mainstreet or call 371-7121. —Sarah K. McDonald


Crisp Air, Juicy Pears
Shopping, history and football in Lexington
By Sarah K. McDonald


With my immediate family hailing from Virginia Commonwealth and Radford universities, football games and tailgate parties were a lost dream — until my youngest brother, John, enrolled at Virginia Military Institute. I know what you’re thinking: VMI’s football team is nothing to brag about (they ended the 2006 season 1-10). But the cool mountain air, fierce school pride and the beauty of Lexington nevertheless invigorated us.

John graduated in 2005, so last fall I got my Lexington fix when my husband, Tim, and I made a weekend of it. On our way, we stopped at Buffalo Springs Herb Farm (540-348-1083 or www.buffaloherbs.com), where the gardens are available for tours. Be sure to check out the gift shop: We found some moth-deterring sachets that are a nicer-smelling alternative to mothballs. Tim and I also hiked up to the Chelsea labyrinth — some quiet meditation is nice after a long car ride.

Once in downtown Lexington, we enjoyed lunch at Blue Sky Bakery (125 W. Nelson St., Lexington, 540-463-6546). Eating the Great Smokey sandwich (smoked turkey, homemade salsa, avocado, lettuce and Monterey Jack) on the picnic tables outside is a great way to see the town pass by. With stomachs filled, we popped in and out of shops, including the Lexington Art Gallery (540-464-8080 or www.lexingtonartgallery.com). Here we found breathtaking black-and-white nature photographs by Roman Loranc. Later, we enjoyed our cranberry bark (dried cranberries in chunks of dark chocolate) and chocolate-covered graham crackers from Cocoa Mill Chocolate Company (540-464-8400 or www.cocoamill.com) in Hopkins Green, a small park right outside the shop.

We couldn’t visit Lexington without going to VMI. There was a rugby game on the lawn, but we took a peek at the VMI Museum (540-464-7334 or www4.vmi.edu/museum). Located in the lower level of Jackson Memorial Hall, this museum houses a replica of a cadet’s room in the barracks and a uniform coat belonging to Stonewall Jackson, who was a VMI professor.

Having recently become obsessed with the Asian pear (it’s crisp like an apple, juicy like a pear), I insisted on visiting the Virginia Gold Orchard (540-291-1481 or www.virginiagoldorchard.com) in Natural Bridge, open late August through December. Owners Paul and YoungSuk Estabrook allowed us to taste a few available varieties of their organic Asian pears before we purchased a 10-pound box for $20 — a steal compared to grocery-store prices — before checking into our bed-and-breakfast.

We stayed at The Keep, now sadly closed, but the Lexington area features a range of B&B’s, from the Magnolia House Inn (540-463-2567 or www.magnoliahouseinn.com) to Manor on Main (540-462-7122 or www.manoronmain.com). We dined at the Southern Inn Restaurant (540-463-3612 or www.southerninn.com), a Lexington institution, where our meal was good, albeit a bit overpriced, and our waitress was very attentive.

Lexington has a pretty quiet nightlife. Since VMI cadets aren’t allowed off campus too much and Washington and Lee University students congregate at posh fraternity houses, we didn’t find many post-dinner options. So we had a few drinks at the bar of the restaurant at the Sheridan Livery Inn (540-464-1887 or www.sheridan
liveryinn.com) before heading back to our suite, which didn’t have a TV, so — gasp — Tim and I actually had to talk to each other.

The next morning, we headed back home, deviating from our usual Route 81-to-I-64 route and taking a combination of Route 60, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Route 56, Route 29 and I-64 — a windy, dizzying route that I don’t recommend if you’re easily carsick, though I have to admit the views were spectacular.

In Love on Main Street
The draw of a college town in Harrisonburg
By Carrie Belt

After spending three years of college in Harrisonburg (one year fewer than most due to a year abroad), I headed toward graduation thinking I would not likely return to the little town for quite awhile.

However, like many of my fellow James Madison University classmates, I have since returned again and again for a chance to envelop myself in the nostalgia of my college years and the comforting small-town coffeehouse-style environment of Main Street. It’s funny how easy it is to miss the simplicity of a Main Street as soon as post-college to-do lists pile up.

Luckily for me, I found that I had many excuses to return to Harrisonburg for visits, the most compelling being my twice-monthly trips to see my boyfriend, Jonathan, who stuck around the small town for an extra year while finishing his degree.

Jonathan and I met just weeks before my 2004 graduation at a restaurant on Main called the Indian American Café (91 N. Main St., Harrisonburg, 540-433-1177). The café specializes in robust servings of authentic Indian-style food. What the single-room restaurant lacks in atmosphere, it certainly makes up for in taste. And though I had never previously tried Indian cuisine, I relished the new flavors of curry, pita and, surprisingly, green peas.

Thus began our path to falling in love on Main Street, and I must say, we enjoyed the majority of that time in restaurants. Jonathan and I had our first official date at Calhoun’s Restaurant and Brewing Company (540-434-8777 or http://callysbrewing.com), the landmark court-square brewery with a shiny cherry-wood finish throughout and a romantic rooftop deck. We ordered juicy steak dinners that we both let go cold as the conversation took over.

As we were leaving, we wandered past the Court Square Theater (540-433-9189 www.courtsquare
theater.com) and made a note to return together for one of the upcoming events, which cycle between live theater, films and music shows.

Weeks later, we took a trip into Glen’s Fair Price Store (187 N. Main St., 540-434-8272) to look for Halloween costumes. Glen’s is a classic throwback to a traditional five-and-dime-style store, with aisles packed with decorative trinkets, home supplies, toys and, yes, costumes in all sizes and persuasions.

When the mood struck for live entertainment and mounds of greasy food (as it often did), we headed to Dave’s Downtown Taverna (540-564-1487 or www.davestaverna.com). Dave’s is a two-story college-kid favorite that specializes in Greek food, burgers, live music and beer. Student bands, touring concerts and the occasional poetry night are all popular reasons to pack Dave’s wall-to-wall as many nights a week as possible.

For a treat, Jonathan would surprise me with detours to Kline’s Dairy Bar (540-434-6980 or www.klinesdairybar.com), which is located just off of Main Street and has been a local favorite since 1943. It is something of a tradition for many families and students to wait in a long line at least once a week to treat their palates to a new flavor every seven days (think pumpkin, apple strudel, eggnog.)

The best way to work off a Kline’s splurge is to rent a bike for the day (it’s only $35) from Shenandoah Bicycle Company (540-437-9000 or www.shenandoahbicycle.com) or hike the nearby Appalachian Trail (www.appalachian
trail.org).

It’s also worth it to time your trip around one of several area festivals, including the International Festival (Hillandale Park, www.harrisonburg-international-festival.org), held this year on Sept. 29. Here you’ll find food, artisans and activities from cultures such as Latin, Cajun, Kurdish and Ethiopian.

After a day of exploring Harrisonburg, treat yourself to an overnight stay at the Joshua Wilton House Inn and Restaurant (540-434-4464 or www.joshuawilton.com). With multicourse meals at $40 to $50 per person, a 100-bottle wine list and five guest rooms decorated in period style antiques from 1890, you can experience the best of 19th-century life.

Same As It Ever Was
A lot’s changed in Loudoun County, but some of the best parts haven’t
By Chad Anderson

If you’re at all familiar with Loudoun County, you probably know of it as one of the fastest-growing counties in the country. It wasn’t always so. When I was growing up there, Loudoun was a collection of small towns and farms, and after the first signs of massive development started showing up in the late ’80s, “Don’t Fairfax Loudoun” bumper stickers were a popular adornment on many an automobile’s backside. Today that battle has largely been lost, but happily, the small-town side of Loudoun, full of all the quirky charm that implies, hasn’t been completely paved over. You may drive through more traffic to get to these pockets of personality than you once did, but it’s worth it.

The town of Lucketts is just such a spot, though it’s such a small town — one stoplight, no hotels — that you’ll probably want to stop in Leesburg, about seven miles to the south, for accommodations. The circa-1760 Norris House Inn (800-644-1806 or www.norrishouse.com) is a good bet. It’s located in historic downtown Leesburg, a walkable oasis of antique shops, restaurants, homegrown retailers and the Tally Ho Theatre (703-669-8444 or www.tallyhotheatre.com), a neighborhood movie house that originally opened in 1931. But that’s a travel story for another time.

Once you’ve settled into your antique-filled room at the Norris House, hop back in the car and head out of town on Route 15 North. A right-hand turn onto White’s Ferry Road will bring you to the last operating ferry on the Potomac River, the Gen. Jubal A. Early, which former owner and former Confederate soldier Elijah White named for his commanding officer during the Civil War. Purchase a $6 round-trip ticket, and you and your car will take the minutes-long trip across the Potomac to White’s Ferry, Md., where you’ll find a picnic-table-filled park overlooking the river, a bike trail along the former towpath of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal and, most importantly, the White’s Ferry Café (301-349-5200 or www.historicwhitesferry.com), where for $7.50 an hour (or $25 a day), you can rent a canoe (with paddles and life jackets), head upriver and picnic right on the river, on rocks jutting out from the water. Bring your own cooler of goodies or stock up at the café, where the hamburgers are made from local organic Angus beef and a small Styrofoam cooler is just $3.

After lunch and a return trip on the ferry, hook back up with 15 North, passing by plenty of planned communities but also more than a few holdout farms, their barns fading in the sunlight. Three miles later, you’ll be in Lucketts, the site of antiques nirvana at The Old Lucketts Store Antiques (703-779-0268 or www.luckettsstore.com). It’s hard to describe everything you’ll find on its 12 acres — which encompass the store itself; the Design House, a sort of decorator’s showhouse; and Beekeeper’s Cottage (703-771-9006 or www.beekeeperscottage.com), a separate business filled with furniture, bath products and more — but a select list would include: a room of stained-glass windows; a yard filled with plant stands, garden urns, arbors and statuaries; antique furniture and accessories; and those oddities that the best antique shops seem to specialize in, like a large metal 1950s-era sign for Detroit’s “Hippy Dip” ice-cream shop for $585. If you’ve still got the energy, across the street is Really Great Finds (703-779-7709 or www.reallygreatfinds.com), where you’ll find more antiques, furniture and statuaries.

Depending on the time of year, head back to Leesburg for dinner or simply check out the Lucketts Community Center (703-771-5281 or www.luckettscommunitycenter.org), where every Saturday from October through April, the sounds of bluegrass fill the auditorium. Tickets are $13, the music starts at 7 p.m., and homemade baked goods are sold alongside barbecue, hot dogs and other filling fare. Largely staffed by volunteers, this is just the sort of community-building event that exemplifies what Loudoun once was and, thankfully, still is.

Duty Free
Olde Towne Portsmouth is a relaxing 
getaway on the water
By Matthew Graham

Strolling along the streets of Portsmouth with my wife, Karen, it was quite easy to understand why the Colonial Americans wanted to kick the British out. The British taxed everything from the number of floors to the number and sizes of windows in your house. Damned Redcoats! A 20-block area in the heart of the city has one of the largest collections of restored homes in the United States from the 1700s and 1800s. Within the Olde Towne section of the city, there are 45 historic sites and homes in the Victorian, Queen Anne, Federal and Greek revival styles. The entire neighborhood is recorded on both the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register.

And on a guided or self-guided walking tour (maps are available at the Visitor Information Center, 6 Crawford Parkway, 757-393-5111), you can see examples of how Americans avoided paying their taxes … a great American tradition. We started at the corner of London and Middle streets at the Ball Nivison House. Built in the late 1700s, it’s an example of the “tax dodger” style. Taxes were collected on the number of floors between the basement and the roof. A Gambrel roof descends to the first floor, covering the second story except for the dormer windows. Thus only one floor is reported for taxes.

We continued down London Street to a beautiful brick Victorian built in 1874 at the corner of London and Court streets. Nearly every home in the Historic District looks, well, historic. However, the official homes on the tour are marked by signs with the name of the house and the year built. We turned down Washington Street and headed north to North Street. The varied architecture includes homes that look like castles, complete with turrets; Irish Row houses that reminded us of the painted white brick dwellings throughout Wales; and the Grice-Neely Home. This 1820 structure is reminiscent of New Orleans with its elaborate ironwork on the balcony and stairway.

All of the homes are private residences. The only one open for tours is the Hill House (221 North St., 757-393-0241), which is available to the public as a museum on weekend afternoons from April through December. The 17th-century home is a four-story example of an English Basement construction in which at least half of the basement is above ground level. By putting the entrance on the second floor up a flight of outside stairs and calling the first floor a “basement,” taxes were again avoided. The home is furnished with original pieces from the Hill Family, generations of which resided in the home from the mid-1800s until 1961.

Wishing to give our feet a break, Karen and I alighted to the Foggy Point Bar and Grill at the Renaissance Portsmouth Hotel (757-673-3000 or www.marriott.com). We sipped gin and tonics on the outside terrace overlooking the Elizabeth River. Our thirsts quenched, we walked down the riverfront as ferries and other boats cruised up and down the Elizabeth. Squeezed between a couple of apartment buildings, we ducked into the now landlocked Lightship Portsmouth (757-393-8741 or www.portsnavalmuseums.com). This lighthouse on a boat was built in 1916 and stationed in Cape Charles, Cape Henlopen and Nantucket. It and other lightships were stationed in areas where lighthouses couldn’t be built. The ship was decommissioned and donated to the city in 1967.

We passed by the ferry landing and a large diamond-like object caught my eye. Housed within a glass pavilion is a 10-foot-high, 2,500-pound lighthouse lens — a Fresnel Lens. The lens has 250 prisms that amplify light.

We completed our trip by walking up the town’s main drag, High Street. The wide avenue is lined with antique and specialty shops, restaurants, a brewery, a beer garden, a restored 1940s art-deco movie theater (The Commodore) and museums. Our evening plans included a relaxing Italian dinner — spinach and ricotta ravioli and vegetable lasagna — at Amore Restaurant (606 High St., 757-337-8382) and then kicking back in our well-appointed suite at the Hawthorn Hotel and Suites (757-392-1330 or www.hawthorn.com). The hotel’s sauna also sounded inviting. After all, we didn’t want to tax ourselves too much on our weekend getaway.