THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 3, 1996 TAG: 9603050368
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEPHEN HARRIMAN, TRAVEL EDITOR
LENGTH: Long : 298 lines
THE CABIN, outlined by the silvery winter moon, sits at the crest of a snow-covered ridge beyond a frozen pond. Behind it, as if a theater backdrop, the shadowy shapes of skeletal white oaks reach their thousands of bony fingers into the dark sky.
Twin tire tracks in the snow, stark black on white, mark the narrow winding lane that leads to the warm yellow glow of light spilling from the little cabin windows into the chilly night.
This had sounded like my kind of country getaway place: renovated 1830s log cabin in the rolling Piedmont of northern Albemarle County. Each moment, as I draw closer, I am more sure that it is.
The cre-e-a-k of the old door hinge, wood on wood, breaks the evening stillness. Once they'd have hushed that with a touch of bear grease; now it is a pleasant, inviting, old-fashioned sound that says to me, ``You wanted country and country is what you've got.''
Sure enough, I have.
This cabin is part of Windrows Farm, a working farm, owned by Emily Chewning and John Smith. She's a schoolteacher and commercial vegetable and herb gardener. He's a builder, mostly of specialty residences, but also of barns and outbuildings and . . . log cabins. They have a few cattle and horses.
Their home is an expanded log cabin. This cabin that they rent to guests for $125 a night, including abundant breakfast fixings, was essentially reconstructed from a long-abandoned log cabin they found near the community of Kinderhook on the Conway River in Madison County, 20 miles or so to the north.
It's hauntingly similar to a cabin I have known for more than a quarter of a century in the same vicinity. It's almost as if I were meant to be here.
Everything's even arranged in pretty much the same fashion: huge stone fireplace with split logs and dry kindling waiting the touch of a match . . . the inviting aroma of previous fires . . . walls of rough-hewn chestnut logs, some nearly a foot square, gray with age and chinked with white plaster . . . 2-by-12 exposed beams above . . . country antiques, reproductions, jug lamps, throw rugs . . . and in the corner a four-poster, rope-strong double bed.
There are also modern conveniences. Purist that I am about some things, I do believe that country folk of ages gone by would have had things like electricity if it had been invented, and indoor flush toilets and showers if they could have afforded them.
So it's fine for me to have them on my let's-pretend country weekend. I'm quite happy with the modern bathroom in the corner opposite the bed, and a kitchen, complete with refrigerator, cooking stove and sink with hot and cold running water.
The Windrows Farm cabin is my kind of place. Maybe you'd like something similar for your country getaway.
This is a place where I can cocoon myself against the humdrum of the work week, against winter's best shot, where I can kick back and do absolutely nothing . . . except toss another log on the fire, listen to it snap and pop and eventually slump and disintegrate into a mass of glowing coals.
The cabin is one of about 50 accommodations in the Charlottesville-Albemarle County area (plus another half-dozen or so in nearby Nelson, Madison and Fluvanna counties) that can be booked through Guesthouses, a registry of small, high-quality bed-and-breakfast establishments operated by Mary Hill Caperton of Charlottesville.
I met Caperton several years ago when I stayed at her own in-town B&B, the delightful Upstairs in the Old Slave Quarters, and I was impressed with the thoroughness of her operation. She interviews each prospective guest and tries to match each with just the sort of place they will find appealing.
Guesthouses accommodations include rooms in historic or antebellum homes and in newer homes, deluxe suites and one- and two-bedroom cottages and cabins.
In addition to sampling the hospitality of Windrows Farm, I inspected six other country getaway places from the Guesthouses registry (phone 804-979-7264, 12-5 Monday-Friday; fax 804-293-7791). One was near the Windrows cabin north of Charlottesville, two were east of town near Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, one south of the city, and two to the west near the village of Ivy.
Basically I was looking for a neat retreat. My principal requirement, in addition to a country location, was a fireplace, or at least a stove, to warm my feet.
Here is what I found:
La Colina is a modern, detached mountaintop cottage in a lightly wooded area about 15 minutes north of Charlottesville, owned by Mary Ann Parr and Dennis Woodriff.
It has large windows, a sitting room-kitchen, bath, large walk-in closet and bedroom and is filled with books and antiques: a corner cupboard, ancestral portrait above the fireplace, Civil War officer's trunk and four-poster double bed. There's a patio and small swimming pool adjacent to the cottage.
Mary Ann owns the widely acclaimed Rococo restaurant in town. Dennis, who spent a decade as a pilot in South America, says La Colina - small mountain in Spanish - doesn't have any special significance other than that every place in the area seems to have to have a name.
It's not inappropriate. The mountain on which it sits at an elevation of about 1,120 feet (about 600 feet above Charlottesville) has no official name, but it is part of a long Piedmont ridge called the Southwest Mountains. From La Colina, on a clear day, you can see the Afton Mountain pass where Interstate 64 crosses the Blue Ridge to the west, and beyond that the ski slopes of Wintergreen.
Price tag for two: $150 a night, including supplies for a full gourmet breakfast.
Sunnyfields, in rolling hills east of Charlottesville and less than two miles from Monticello, offers a four-room cottage that was once slave quarters on property that was part of an original 1730 land grant.
Now owned by Rosa Carabelli, a ceramic artist and native of Turin, Italy, this was once the site of the home (1778-96) of Philip Mazzei, the Italian winemaker for Jefferson. The present Greek Revival manor house at the end of a half-mile, tree-lined lane dates from about 1833-40 and is the only home of a Jefferson builder that survives.
It was the home of William B. Phillips, who came to work for Jefferson at the University of Virginia in 1818. He was the principal brickmason for the Rotunda, the Anatomical Theater (the only Jefferson building pulled down), the serpentine walls, Pavilion X on the Lawn and Hotel C on the Range. He also assisted on Lawn Pavilions I and IX. Jefferson viewed his work as ``the best done there.''
The white brick guest cottage is composed of four rooms in a row that probably once each housed a slave family: a kitchen with an enormous elevated cooking fireplace (as well as a modern range and refrigerator), a sitting room with fireplace, a bedroom with four-poster double bed, and a bathroom that features a two-person Jacuzzi. In the rear is a deck overlooking the hills.
Unfortunately for prospective weekenders, a young couple was signing a six-month lease on the cottage as I inspected it. Check on its availability in late summer.
Price tag for two: $175 a night.
Auburn Hill Farm, also east of Charlottesville with a view of Monticello off to the west, is a working horse farm owned by Mr. and Mrs. Dennis Schauer. The farm is part of the original Jefferson estate; the manor house dates from about 1820 and is thought to have been built for one of the overseers.
The low brick guest cottage is the former summer kitchen. It has a cozy sitting room with fireplace, a bedroom with four-poster queen-sized bed and connecting bath and shower.
``We have people who come to stay for the weekend and never leave the cottage except to go out for dinner,'' said Mrs. Schauer. ``Guests are invited to come to the stables in the morning to help feed the horses,'' she said, but horses are not available for riding. There's also an indoor horse training arena.
Several walking trails cross the property, including an old carriage path to Monticello that still has Colonial distance markers that resemble gravestones.
Price tag for two: $100 a night.
Ingleside, owned by Ti and Will Hoare, sits high on a hill amid a 1,250-acre working farm (cattle and boarding horses), about 20 minutes south of Charlottesville. There are grand views in all directions of rolling pastures backed by steep wooded mountains.
The house was built in 1830 of bricks made from the farm's red clay by Ti's great-great-great grandfather, and the property has been in the family ever since. Will is a native of England.
This is one of two non-detached accommodations I inspected. The large antique-furnished guest room in the manor house has large windows, a double bed, fireplace and an adjacent private bath. Since this is a working farm, the accent is on comfort rather than elegance.
``If you like to walk, this is a wonderful place,'' said Will. ``Many of our guests go down by the creek, then up the mountain ridges.''
``Some of them get very adventurous and we begin to worry,'' said Ti, ``but the dogs (deep-throated basset hounds) usually go with them and show them the way home.''
Among those buried in the family graveyard is Thomas Mann Randolph Jr., grandson of Thomas Jefferson.
Tennis anyone? There's a hard-surface tennis court if you're up for a game.
Popular author John Grisham is a neighbor.
Price tag for two: $80 a night, including breakfast.
Balla Machree is one of those country places that make you say, ``I can't believe how lucky you are.''
Jack and Jane Townsend know they are lucky. They're smart, too. Their place overlooks 250-acre Beaver Creek Reservoir about 10 miles west of Charlottesville. There is only one other house and an abandoned barn in view; that and great expanses of countryside and mountains.
They were told, some 18 years ago, that the county owned all the land around the lake. They checked real estate records and found that there was one parcel of land in private hands . . . and it was available.
They grabbed it and had an architect design a contemporary home that snuggled into the hillside above the lake.
Below is a separate guest suite with a private entrance facing south and overlooking the lake. It has a large sitting room with adjacent kitchen and a wall-size fireplace built from bricks salvaged from the remnants of a 200-year-old house on the property. The bedroom has an iron-frame double bed and an adjoining private bath. There's also a composition-surface tennis court that requires proper shoes.
Balla Machree may be of interest to Civil War buffs. It's just off Brown's Gap Turnpike, not far from what was called Mechum's River Station in the 1860s. It's where Stonewall Jackson pulled off one of those slick, now-you-see-me, now-you-don't maneuvers that made his legend larger than life.
Pursued by three Union generals in the Shenandoah Valley, Jackson marched his foot cavalry from Port Republic eastward over Brown's Gap in the Blue Ridge down this turnpike to Mechum's River Station, where they boarded Virginia Central trains - not on eastward in retreat toward Richmond but westward to Staunton, where they dismounted and marched on to McDowell (now West Virginia) to register another victory in the Valley Campaign.
Sections of the original Colonial-era Three Chopt Road (sometimes called Three Notched Road) that ran from Powhatan's village of Orapax southeast of Richmond to Staunton in the Shenandoah Valley can be traveled in this area.
Price tag for two: $100 a night, including continental breakfast supplies left in kitchen.
Ivy Rose Cottage, also west of Charlottesville near Mechum's River, is a jewel of a place that grew from the collective creativity of young owners Byron and Mary Ann Burk. He's a carpenter and she's a potter (both are into organic gardening).
The two-bedroom cottage with steep roof and cupola is eclectic and whimsical. Byron admits it's a ``little different.'' I'd say a LOT different. It's sort of what I'd call Carpenter Gothic; he says a friend labeled it Victorian-Gothic-Martian. What it is, is a conglomeration of barns Byron has taken down and materials he's salvaged - a make-do artistic project, designed as you go.
It's furnished with antiques, stained glass and lace, and hand-thrown floral pottery made by Mary Ann.
The ground floor, with gray-black Buckingham slate underfoot, has a double drawing room with a queen-sized, hand-wrought-iron double bed, a gas log stove, adjoining rainforest sunroom filled with plants, small bath and kitchen.
Upstairs in the steeply vaulted loft with open cupola, there's a carved double bed and half bath and a Romeo and Juliet balcony.
This prize is taken until June. Wouldn't hurt to look into booking now for sometime later.
Price tag for two: $150 a night, including gourmet breakfast. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
STEPHEN HARRIMAN
Guests can enjoy this view from the manor house at Ingleside, which
sits on a hill amid a farm about 20 minutes south of
Charlottesville. Price for two: $100 a night.
Ivy Rose Cottage, near Mechum's River west of Charlottesville, is a
whimsical place, constructed of materials salvaged by the owners.
Price for two: $150 a night.
Kinderhook Cabin, right and below, is a renovated 1830s structure on
Windrows Farm in northern Albemarle County. Price for two: $125 a
night.
Photo
STEPHEN HARRIMAN
The guest suite at Balla Machree, 10 miles west of Charlottesville,
features a large sitting room with wall-size fireplace.
Graphic
TRAVELER'S ADVISORY
Are you thinking of a kick-back-and-relax getaway, or are you
looking for something to do in the Charlottesville area as well?
Here are five places worth a visit (area code is 804 unless
otherwise indicated):
1. The University of Virginia - the old part, that is - Thomas
Jefferson's ``academical village'' including the Rotunda, the Lawn
and the Range. An architectural and historical adventure. Here the
father of the university is referred to as Mr. Jefferson, as if he
were in the next room. Skip the newer additions; those buildings
look just like any other State U. you've ever seen, despite the fact
that architectural apologists usually say they were built in the
``Jeffersonian tradition.'' By this they apparently mean they were
built of red brick with white trim. Free. Info: 924-3239. For info
on current events at the university, call 924-3777.
2. Monticello, Jefferson's mountaintop home. One of the most
remarkable residential structures in the world - 40 years in the
``putting up and pulling down,'' as he said. Admission charge. Info:
984-9822.
3. Ash Lawn-Highland, James Monroe's understated and
often-overlooked home just 2 1/2 miles from Monticello. Admission
charge. Info: 293-9539.
(If you want to go for a three-president sweep, James Madison's
Montpelier is just 25 miles up the road toward Orange. Admission
charge. Info: (703) 672-2728.
4. Michie Tavern, for a glimpse of 18th century ``ordinary''
living. On the road to Monticello. Admission charge. Info:
977-1234.
5. Downtown Mall. Charlottesville has made this concept work,
closing off Main Street to vehicular traffic. The revitalized heart
of town has a fine collection of shops, boutiques and restaurants
and plenty of parking. There's history, too: The 1762 courthouse was
the meeting place, briefly, of the General Assembly as it fled the
British army in 1781. Several members dallied too long and were
captured at the corner of Jefferson and Park streets by ``Butcher''
Tarleton's cavalry, among them Del. Daniel Boone from the district
of Kentucky. Tarleton's real objective was Gov. Jefferson, who got
away to Monticello and then to his other home, Poplar Forest, near
Lynchburg. He got away because Tarleton dallied, too, pitching his
tent under a still-standing oak at the corner of 9th and High. The
Albemarle County Courthouse Historic District includes the
courthouse, the Swan and Eagle taverns and some old law offices,
perhaps the most notable being No. 0 (``No. Nothing''). Free. Info:
296-8548.
Speaking of Jefferson (as is often done in these parts), he was
the first to try the winemaking business in America. Today, there
are a number of vineyards/wineries/cellars that can be visited.
Among them: Jefferson Vineyards (977-3042), Oakencroft Winery
(296-4188), Montdomaine Cellars (971-8947), Totier Creek Vineyard
and Winery (979-7105), and Horton Cellars (703-832-7440). For a
Virginia Wine Country map, call (800) 828-4637.
Additional info: Charlottesville-Albemarle Visitors Bureau,
977-1783.
by CNB