On Monday, my husband and I will have been married 30 years. I suspect that he and I will be using this as an excuse to celebrate all year. This weekend, we will start the anniversary celebration with a trip to Culpeper, a small town of about 15,000, just 30 miles west of home. Culpeper is not unlike a small-scale Fredericksburg. It has loads of Revolutionary and Civil War significance, but for much of its modern history, its historic downtown was in decline. Over more recent years, Culpeper has been slowly transformed into a tourist destination, complete with upscale restaurants, gourmet food & wine markets, antiques and gift shops, art galleries and winery tours. It’s even been written up in Southern Living magazine. The main difference between the two towns is that so far, Culpeper hasn’t been the victim of suburban sprawl the way Fredericksburg has. Yes, there are subdivisions and shopping centers springing up, but it will be years before the Culpeper area is as traffic-clogged and overdeveloped as Fredericksburg.
Here are a few photos from a trip I took to Culpeper last spring. Like Fredericksburg, Culpeper has a renovated train station (above, it doubles as the Visitor Center), restored downtown shopping district...
historic courthouse...
and a vintage streetcar that serves as municipal transportation (Fredericksburg's trolley is strictly for tourists).
More Culpeper to come!
No comments:
Post a Comment