Buckingham County, Virginia

I wasn't sure about doing this trip. This is my forty-fourth county in this series, and I sometimes think "Enough already." Then, I'm trying to run a political campaign for state delegate, and Joe and I are going to Israel for the CCAR (Reform Rabbis) convention at the end of the month.

Buckingham County is between Lynchburg and Richmond and an hour south of Charlottesville. It's the geographic center of Virginia. To get to eastern Virginia from Morgantown means going over the high point of the Appalachians in winter. I learned when Joe went to Charlottesville with me in December 2012, that the weather can be fine in Morgantown and deep into Virginia, but it can be snowing, windy and cold in the mountains on the way. I don't know how people ever got from Morgantown to Richmond before the Civil War. Maybe there were passenger trains at one time, but before that?

The 2010 census reported 17,000 people in the county at a density of twenty-six per square mile. I found two motels in the county online. Both had terrible reviews. I broke a rule I made about staying in the county I visit, and booked my usual chain motel in Farmville, in Prince Edward County, twenty miles south of Dillwyn, the only town in Buckingham County. I had eleven places to find from the National Register of Historic Places. I came on the weekend because the weekdays are filled up with meetings about the election.

I followed Google maps to get here. They took me on back roads in Garrett County, Maryland to get to US 48 (Corridor H in West Virginia), a lovely four lane divided highway that at this point goes nowhere. It was in the low 20s F. with blowing snow. I stopped at a gas station just before 48 and got a bottle of iced tea and a pre-made turkey and American cheese sandwich on white bread. Local cuisine.

Farmville is a college town, like Morgantown. Longwood University is there and Hampden-Sydney College is nearby. I found a little coffee place and had a trendy salad for dinner.

Today was my day in Buckingham County. The National Register lists "Buckingham Court House" as a historic spot on "both sides" of U.S. 60. Buckingham Court House is the name of the village where the courthouse is located. There are a handful of homes and offices, some dating back to the eighteenth century. The original courthouse, designed by Thomas Jefferson, burned in 1869. The "new" courthouse dates from 1873. There is an Egyptian-style obelisk on US 60 with an inscription praising Confederate soldiers who "...fought for a just cause."

Buckingham County Courthouse, 1873

Buckingham Court House village, across US 60 from the courthouse

an inn, now used as a bed-and-breakfast and event center, west of Buckingham County courthouse

an 18th century house (porch and roof later?) just east of Buckingham County courthouse

The monument to Confederate soldiers and cannon across US 60 from Buckingham County courthouse

The James River forms the northern border of the county. I drove up State Road 56 looking for a house named Perry Hill. I found a sign saying "Perry Hill" and followed a long driveway up to the house- a privately-owned home. I turned around in the drive at the back of the house, and had started back. I thought I would take a picture from down the road and not disturb the owners.  A man came out and shouted at me from the house. He wanted to know why I was there. I told him I was looking for historic houses. He asked where I was from and I said "Morgantown" which seemed to work, because he asked me to come back. His name is Mark. He is in his early sixties, I guess, and was wearing sweats. He apologized for the shabby clothes, but said he was fixing up the basement. He told me the house was from 1851, built for a man who had fought with Admiral Perry in the War of 1812, hence the name. Mark lives in Richmond; this is his country home. He has a grown son who tried organic farming on the land for a time, but couldn't make it financially worthwhile. We talked for a half-hour or so.

Perry Hill.1851, Saint Joy

The view from the front of Perry Hill. That's lavender planted in rows.

Up James River Road, there is a sign for a state park ten miles west. That would be James River Park, and much of the road was crushed gravel and not paved. At the Visitor Center, exhibits explain the importance of James River to commerce in early Virginia, how it runs from the mountain peaks in Alleghany County (visited February 2013), through the town of Buchanan (Botetort County, last summer), past Charlottesville (December 2012) to Richmond, where it becomes a tidal estuary heading out to the ocean by way of historic Williamsburg and Jamestown to present-day Norfolk. 

View across James River from the state park

Green Hill Pond, James River State Park

It was already after noon, and I was hungry. I thought I would head to Dillwyn, the only incorporated town in Buckingham County, just north on US 15 from US 60, east of Buckingham Court House. The census gives the town population as 447. I looked for a place where cars were parked, and that was Pino's Italian Restaurant. I almost didn't go in, because there was a car in the lot covered with stickers expressing how much the driver hated President Obama. There was also a sign in the window advertising some big church revival meeting. I went in anyway, and the place was homey-looking, the waitress friendly and upbeat. A big guy at the next table shot me a look. I smiled and said "Hi!" and that was the end of that. I had a mini-pizza with mushrooms and a salad. It was good, but I'm supposed to be watching my salt and fat content.

I visited the library in Dillwyn and asked the two librarians where they would go in Buckingham County if they had a day here and had never visited before. The two of them, a pretty young African-American woman and an older stylish European-American woman looked at each other and laughed. They couldn't think of anything. I told them I had been to Buckingham Court House and James River Park and the younger one said"You've pretty much seen it." They said they go to Appomattox (30 miles), Charlottesville (also 30 miles)  or to Lynchburg or Richmond (each at least an hour) to do anything. I asked about the antique trains across the street, and they thought they might run on Saturdays, just not today.

Dillwyn Town Hall

Buckingham Branch Railroad Station, Dillwyn

old passenger car, Dillwyn

I tried to find some of the other historic places in the county, but they were hard to find- country houses on confusing back roads. I found Guerrant House, now with another name, north off US 15 near the hamlet of Arvonia, and the Buckingham Female Collegiate Institute Historic District, in Gravel Hill, northeast of Dillwyn. The school there operated from 1837-1863. There was also a plaque honoring Carter G. Woodson, who was once a coal miner in West Virginia, and was the first African-American to earn an advanced degree from Harvard. Woodson founded African-American History Week (now month). He was born in Buckingham County.

Guerrant House, probably early 19th century, Arvonia

In the Buckingham Female Collegiate District, Gravel Hill

In Buckingham Female Collegiate District

I had seen a local drive-in in Dillwyn and stopped for an ice cream cone before heading back to Farmville. I purchased no-fat, low-salt, low-sugar, vegan stuff for dinner in my room. It was enough.

A friend said on Facebook today "Come back from racist Virginia." I did see some Confederate flags around, and there are monuments to Confederate soldiers in Farmville and Buckingham Court House. Some of the desk clerks and guests at my motel are African-American, as were some of the people eating at Pino's Restaurant and shopping in the grocery store. It looks more integrated than Baltimore when I was growing up. I remember watching on the news around 1960, about how Prince Edward County closed all its public schools in defiance of Federal orders to integrate. Not that long ago.

I also noted that the major industry here is forest products. There were factories along US 15 north of Dillwyn that processed wood into chips. I saw them loaded into trucks and rail cars. There are many acres of devastated land where every growing thing was ripped out to provide wood, and there were trucks carrying logs along the highways. In places, there are replanted trees, almost always white pine, although the natural forest is hardwood and a different pine mix. Like West Virginia, the land loses where there is money to be made from extraction.

I'm back home tomorrow, probably via I-64 over the mountains to avoid possible bad weather. Today the temperature ranged from 21 F. in the morning to 46 in the late afternoon. Average, according to weather.com, is 26 and 50, noticeably warmer than Morgantown (21-40) at this time of year.