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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Walk on Main Street

time-temp collage0318Recent temps have struggled to get out of the 50s during the daytime, yet just a couple of weeks ago it was a different story. For a brief time, temps soared to nearly 80 degrees on the VA eastern shore. As this bank time/temp sign shows, it was a warm evening  when Grenville and I took a walk along Main Street.

Here’s a photo tour of some houses and buildings seen on our route.

The collage below shows some Main Street buildings. The brick one in the middle of the first row was the old Farmers and Merchants Bank and now serves as a church. In the 1900s, the row of stores on the bottom left housed several businesses, including a pharmacy, post office, Western Union, and movie theatre. The white building (second one down on the right) is a RR freight station, the only remaining one on the Eastern Shore that’s still in its original location. There was also a passenger station as well, but it was relocated years ago and is now a private residence. The bottom right photo shows a portion of Main Street – fairly quiet.

main st collage0318There are many diverse architectural styles in this small town (pop. just over 500) from four-squares to cottages. Most of these older homes are nicely maintained in comparison to a previous post that featured some abandoned homesteads.

onley houses collage1It’s not uncommon to see many of the large older homes with turrets. This was a popular Victorian style and these homes are very striking.

Onley turrets collage031811Since the VA eastern shore is “the south,” there are many homes with front porches – open air or enclosed. Back “in the day” folks would “porch it” and spend warm evenings outdoors, more than is done today. Of course, TV was not as prominent, then.

houe porches collage0318A series of houses with red, including a barn that’s located just down the street. These homes differ from the “standard” house colors of white with black shutters that are all too common in these parts.

red houses collage0318Our home, The Frog & PenguINN, once had a black and white color scheme and is now ivory and blue with a front porch and rockers too.

2004 house frontsmrhouse front

Let us know, anytime you want to come and “porch it” cause we do that often in warm weather.

19 comments:

Lois Evensen said...

Thank you for the tour of your lovely town. :) I like your color scheme very much.

grammie g said...

Hi Beatrice...Has cooled down here to, how did we get through the winter lol
Loved the tour...wonderful homes...your place is darling and I to love your color scheme!!

HermitJim said...

What a great looking little town! That's the kind of place I need to live!

Like I've said before, you have such a beautiful place!

Anvilcloud said...

I hope you'll soon be enjoying many hours of perching on the porch.

MadSnapper said...

i am in love with every home in all the collages. wonderful old homes, all of them. the one i would choose to live in, is bottom right, first collage. and i would want it close to the downtown stores so i could walk past the store fronts.

Unknown said...

Love those magnificent houses with the massive front porches and the turrets! I do not think it is spring at "home" yet either. We are in Oklahoma to visit friends, it is colder today than any of our trip temps, a prelude to what awaits as we are northward, homeward bound.

Tammy@Simple Southern Happiness said...

I love your home, so peaceful and I bet that porch comes in handy when the weather is warmer.

Think Spring... I am trying, we lost our high 70's and are back in the 50's... ouch...

Hope your day is blessed.

Anonymous said...

I do like the look on that town! We do have some of those Victorian styled houses here too, but the rest of Your architectural style is so different from ours.

We reached 49F here today and now the temperatures will rise even more :-) Well except for tomorrow when some rain is coming, but they said it would rain today too and so far only sunshine here :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

Out on the prairie said...

I spend lots of time on my porch also, it is a lot better than watching reruns.

Cicero Sings said...

What a lovely small town. I live in a small town too but shabby in comparison.

Your porch looks most inviting ... but I'm afraid a little too far away for me to drop by for a rock and a chin wag.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Hi Folks, thanks for all the lovely comments about the town we're living in and especially our home, the Frog & PenguINN. It's our choice of name and we'll tell why we choose it in a future blog post. We would surely welcome any and all of you to visit and sit on the porch, but realize that may not be possible.

This small town has its charms along with its pitfalls. Generally, the good things outweigh the bad: such as low crime rate, low taxes, not too many stores yet we now have a Walmart next to the YMCA; both are within a 5-minute drive of our home. Living here is definitely a slower pace than our former home in NJ. You soon get used to the fact that you know more people in this area than you ever knew living in an area with 10 times the population. And that's a good thing!

Country Gal said...

I love the look of the town and all those lovely homes. Our village has only 600 people in it , it is spread out though not as close nit as a town is when it comes to houses and buildings. Lovely photos and info. Have a great day !

Elaine said...

Lovely collages showing the architecture in your town. It looks like a lovely place to live. You never know, on one of our rambles we might just show up to porch it with you a while.

martymom said...

Thank you for the tour Beatrice. Wonderful collages. LYF, Marty

DeniseinVA said...

I love the look of the old homes in Virginia. Loved all your photos also. Thanks Beatrice, for such a nice post and for stopping by.

Connie said...

Pretty houses. I wish I had a front porch with a rocker on it. We just have a little stoop on the front of our house. Barely enough room to stand, let alone put a rocking chair out there. Great pictures! I enjoyed the tour. :)

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

So glad more folks have enjoyed this little tour. I plan to do a follow-up soon showing more homes because there are not really many businesses anymore. Going North, we travel 45 minutes to Pocomoke, MD or 90 minutes to Salisbury, MD for larger stores and a mall. Heading South, would be 90 minutes to lots of stores in Virginia Beach but there's a toll for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge- Tunnel - $17 round trip within a 24-hr period. We shop online for lots of things!

Welcome CountryGal, I've enjoyed seeing postings about your village. It has its own unique charm.

Thanks Marty, Denise, and Daisy - we enjoyed taking the walk to present this tour - the first of several. And, yes a front porch is a wonderful treat in nice weather!

Hey Elaine, you would be welcome anytime, just let us know. Glad you liked this tour.

Wsprsweetly Of Cottages said...

Oh to have an old fashioned looking home like that..I do the best I can with our little tract home..but...I still dream. I know now that I will never live in one of those. Maybe next time. :) You live in the home that is featured in your header, don't you? Can you hear me sigh deeply?
It reached in the 96 degree's here today. It was slightly miserable and our AC is now running.
I was hoping this would not happen until May..but it is upon us. My poor flower just wilted in the terrible heat.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Yes, Mona, our home is featured in our header and it is a traditional Victorian, built in the late 1920s. We bought it in 2003 and spent summers and school vacations (we had both returned to college) working on it before moving in 2005 from NJ. I think I heard your sign. WOW that was a hot day; rain here (VA eastern shore) and in the 50s. Hope we don't hit 90s until summer and it would be OK with me if we didn't!