"The American Dream is alive and well to all those who choose to chase after it." -Jim Bickford
Town of the Arts, Abingdon, VA has won the national American Dream Town award 20006 online competition by collecting more than 20,000 votes world-wide. The voting was done last year from October to December on the website [--] Each voter could go to the American Dream Town web site once a day to cast a ballot, so the number no doubt represents also repeat votes by the same people. Still, the competition was heavy, 150 towns from 50 states ( three for each state). Mayor Lois Humphreys appeared on the American Dream® Show in Montauk (taped at Gurney’s Inn) and now it was our turn to discover the America’s Dream Town 2006.
Just west of the Blue Ridge Mountains lies a terrain that was once highly thought of by Indians and desperately sought after by the white men, they say. Nestled in the foothills of the Appalachians and secure in the valley formed by the Holston River is Abingdon, VA, a town rich in past and folklore, one the oldest English-speaking settlements west of the Blue Ridge. Founded in 1778 and first named Wolf Hills by Daniel Boone, Abingdon features a historic district of about twenty-blocks. Its Barter Theatre is the State Theater of Virginia and amongst the oldest professional residence theatres in the US, still performing in the second- oldest, performing arts space in the US. This very Barter Theatre launched the careers of such notables as Gregory Peck, Patricia Neal, and Ernest Borgnine. Abingdon has received other accolades as “One of the Top 100 Small Towns for the Arts in the US”; and many other distinctive honors. The Virginia Highlands Festival (held each August) attracts tens of thousands of visitors who enjoy the celebration of Appalachian culture. When the area was a rugged wilderness, the Cherokee nation, who lived to the South, and the Shawnee, who made their home to the North along the Ohio River, did not choose the Abingdon area as their home for a reason. Legend has it that the Great Spirit forbade them to come to this abundant area because the living would be too easy and the inhabitants would become corrupt. Here we have to part from most of the earlier history of the town for space reason but are referring you to their website [--] By 1800, Abingdon had become a well-established and populated center of Southwest Virginia, and this was the very Abingdon that attracted Francis Preston in 1830. It was in this year that he began building on his mansion-like home, which is now known as the Martha Washington Inn. That is the hotel where we stayed and enjoyed our stay thoroughly. Originally constructed in 1832 as private residence of General Francis Preston and his wife Sarah, in 1858 it was purchased as a facility for a woman’s college and then renamed the Martha Washington College. In 1860 Martha Washington College held its first session and despite interruptions was able to operate through the Civil War. In 1919 Martha Washington College consolidated with Emory and Henry College. In 1937 the facility opened as a hotel. It remains in a 19th century atmosphere where each room is decorated with antiques and is a most charming place to stay while discovering the town and area. A horse and buggy drawn carriage has a set space at the main entrance. Abingdon, unlike other towns, bounced back quickly after the Civil War (what do you expect?), and by 1875 prosperity had returned. By the early part of the 20th Century, Abingdon followed the trend that had swept the Appalachian Mountains: lumbering. The Depression, while causing the downfall of lumbering and the Martha Washington College, brought to Abingdon one of its greatest treasures: the Barter Theatre. In 1933, Robert Porterfield gathered 22 fellow actors and headed to his hometown of Abingdon. Here, he established the idea of "ham for Hamlet," bartering foodstuffs in exchange for a ticket to the theatre. Playwrights, including Noel Coward, Tennessee Williams, and Thornton Wilder, agreed to accept ham as royalties. One exception was George Bernard Shaw, a vegetarian like my Magna-Cum Laude husband man, who bartered the rights to his plays for spinach!!! Barter Theatre became the State Theatre of Virginia in 1946, with help from Eleanor Roosevelt; and in 1965 Lady Bird Johnson bartered a potted plant for a ticket. As we rode in the horse-drawn buggy down the shaded brick sidewalks, it was as if we had stepped back in time. Soon we arrived at Abingdon's oldest house, The Tavern, built in 1779. Faithfully restored, and located in the historical district on Main Street it now offers indoor and outdoor ‘rustic’ dining. The Tavern has served as a post office, stage office, inn, pub and restaurant throughout the years and is most delightful period restaurant serving great home-style ‘German food’ - the Smoked Trout filet appetizer would do just fine on any Seven Star table. After a most refreshing night sleep – we had refrained from the Sherry graciously offered on the dresser- we went for a swim in the natatorium, the new brick walls trying to match the ‘timeless façade’ of the other buildings. The Spa at The Martha was unfortunately sold out, so we could not try any of their signature treatments and got dressed for a romantic, elaborate breakfast for two. The potatoes pancakes were to die for. We met with our tour guides Rick Humphreys (he’s the Post Master for the Castlewood, VA Post Office, owns a B&B in Abingdon and is the Mayor’s son ) and CVB director Myra Cook at the lobby for an excursion to the near-by Abingdon winery and to visit to one of the historic gristmills, a four-story, 5,000 square foot timber frame structure. The winery we found on a little fairytale creek with buildings almost too new looking to be there. We enjoyed a most informative tour but the wine-maker himself. Then we were off to the delightful White’s Mill, four miles north of Abingdon on the headwaters of Toole’s Creek. This mill was originally constructed with two stones, a corn stone and wheat stone, and modifications around the early 1900’s moved the wheat stone out and replaced it with roller mills, bucket elevators, screening deck and a bolting sifter. Lunch we had at the Starving Artist’s Café, a local favorite featuring gourmet sandwiches and unique entrees for lunch and dinner, across the street from the old train station that now houses artists’ studios. The food was delicious, the paintings on the walls fascinating and the company delightful.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
