THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 11, 1996 TAG: 9608090227
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: 87 lines
If you tour historic Upper Wolfsnare one Wednesday afternoon this summer, think of Anna Pritchard and Randy Drake.
Upper Wolfsnare on Potter's Road is their home as well as the home of the Princess Anne County-Virginia Beach Historical Society. And thanks to Pritchard and Drake, the 18th century brick house will be sparkling for your visit.
The pair would have risen early that morning to get ready for you and other members of the public who can tour the historic structure from noon to 4 p.m. on Wednesdays through August. (To find out more, call 491-3490.)
The lawn and flower beds would be neat and clean and the house would be sparkling. Drake would have vacuumed the floors and Pritchard would have arranged the flowers. Looking after and living in an historic house in need of lots of tender loving care did not come naturally to the couple.
Pritchard works for the city's Planning Department and Drake is studying for his masters degree in physical education and teaching part time at the College of William and Mary. Living at Upper Wolfsnare was an altogether new experience. Take 18th century flower arranging.
``The flowers,'' Pritchard said, ``well, we've learned how. That takes a long time. On tour day we wake up at five in the morning!''
The couple has been living at Upper Wolfsnare for more than 1 1/2 years. They have an agreement with the historical society that in return for living quarters, they will tend to the grounds and keep the house up, a never-ending task in a home as old as this one. And sometimes a discouraging one.
``It's hard to remember how much better it is now than it was when we moved in,'' Drake said, ``because there's always more to do.''
It takes about six hours alone simply to mow the huge lawn, almost six acres. Then the flower beds must be weeded and honeysuckle that encroaches from the perimeter of the property must be held at bay, among other yard chores.
Drake describes their association with Upper Wolfsnare as a love-hate relationship. Once the lawn is mowed and the most recent repair is complete, the pair take to life in an 18th-century home as well as any pioneer.
Although they use electric fans and have modern screens in the windows, they've adapted to life minus air conditioning without any complaints. They have come to appreciate the way the house is constructed because hot air is carried straight up the stairwell to attic vents.
``It stays fairly cool considering this big fan,'' Pritchard said. ``But I don't know how they did it back then without screens!''
They've also come to appreciate Upper Wolfsnare's 18 inches of solid brick exterior walls. They have discovered that the modern kitchen addition is the coldest room in the winter and the hottest in the summer because of its relatively thin walls.
They love entertaining in the formal dining room using only candlelight.
They tend to the Upper Wolfsnare herb garden and also grow their own vegetable garden. Corn, okra, squash, tomatoes and other vegetables are thriving in the soil that Thomas Walke IV once trod. Upper Wolfsnare was his home in 1788 when he was one of Princess Anne County's two delegates to the Virginia Convention which ratified the U.S. Constitution.
Pritchard has made jars upon jars of canned tomatoes and basil, sun-dried tomatoes and olive oil, zucchini marmalade, rose geranium jelly and stowed them away.
``She's become the earth mother,'' Drake said of Pritchard.
But then there were the ants that kept coming into the kitchen. As a colonial woman would do, Pritchard put sprigs of tansy, a herb which is said to repel insects, across the doors and windows. But the modern ants needed a modern deterrent.
``It didn't work,'' Pritchard said, ``and we got the Raid out!''
P.S. A VIVACIOUS GREEN PARROT with a reddish breast, known as a sun-capped conure, has flown the coop down in Fox Fire. Owner Ronale Todd (430-1742) said the small 7-inch-tall bird has a raucous squawk that you can't miss and a blue band on its leg.
HARPIST BARBARA CHAPMAN is the soloist at Lynnhaven House's Colonial Music Sunday Concert at 2 p.m. today at the First Church of the Nazarene on Wishart Road. A reception and tour of historic Lynnhaven House next door to the church will follow. Admission is $4 for adults and $1 for children, 6 to 18. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know
about Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555.
Enter category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY REID BARROW
Upper Wolfsnare residents Randy Drake and Anna Pritchard tend to the
vegetable garden at the historic home. Corn, okra, squash, tomatoes
and other vegetables are thriving in the soil that Thomas Walke IV
once trod in 1788. by CNB