Lance and I took one of our very rare holidays this year. It was so much fun! It was only a three day trip but it was fabulous! We highly recommend it to everyone to consider it as a mini vacation spot.
We took the scenic route to get there. One of the places we stopped was on the Blue Ridge Parkway, Moses H. Cone Memorial Park. It was lovely and very interesting. I picked up a book there (What? You're surprized? HA!) called The Art of Acquiring: A Portrait of Etta and Claribel Coneby Mary Gabriel. They were the sisters of Moses Cone. It is a fascinating read about little known sisters who became figures of power and daring in their own right as well as collectors who came to mean more than any other to Henri Matisse.
Abingdon, Virginia is known for it's rich history. The area now called Abingdon was first surveyed by Dr. Thomas Walker and the Loyal Land Company, in the years 1749-1750. Between the years 1765 and 1770, several men purchased land from Dr. Walker and the Loyal Land Company, one of whom was Captain Joseph Black. Captain Black built with the assistance of neighbors, a small fort, called “Black’s Fort.”
An Act of the Assembly of Virginia in the fall of 1776 established Washington County. By a provision of that Act, Black’s Fort was designated as the county seat. It wasn’t until October of 1778 that the Town of Abingdon was established by Act of the Assembly of Virginia. However it’s early history makes it the oldest English speaking settlement west of the Blue Ridge Mountains!
We enjoyed visiting the Fields-Penn house and listening to reenactment historical buffs. Below is a woman who lectured on women who fought in the Civil War and a picture of a Robert Lee reenactment actor who gave a truly impressive talk on why Lee supported the Confederacy.
A scenic 4.2-mile drive leads from Valley Street in Abingdon through a picturesque valley to White's Mill, built in 1790. One of the only water-powered mills in existence in Southwest Virginia, White's Mill continued water-powered milling until 1989.
The decade at the end of the twentieth century saw it out of service until the White's Mill Foundation formed and purchased the property in 2001.
The 22-foot diameter steel wheel and original grinding stone have been restored. The mill is a Virginia Historic Landmark and now on the National Register of Historic Places.
Lance and I had a fabulous high tea at Camella’s Remember When. It is a genuine tea room located at 165 E. Main St. in Abingdon. The house is the third oldest in the historic little town, built in 1792, and when you step through the door you really do seem to leave the 21st century behind. Porcelain tea pots, linen napkins, scones, and dainty sandwiches are the order of the day. Every tempting morsel is homemade, and your tea choices take up an entire page of the menu. The owner greets you with a history of the house and a mouthwatering description of their complete fare.
Tea parlors are a rare sight these days...Lance and I discovered that a tea parlor is a place of relaxation and beauty, a place where you can leave the outside world and step back in time to a more gracious era.
The reason we went to Abingdon is that I bought six antique dining chairs on E-Bay and the dealer was going to be at a show in Abingdon and would bring them there for us to pick up. It was a huge antique show! Lance and I had fun and I picked up a couple of other things beyond the chairs (of course *grin*): An outstanding turn of the century blotter and a lovely sudgalite art nouveau bracelet.
