Cape Charles celebrates 125 years

Back when the railroad was king, and everything from produce to seafood to families moved by train, the town of Cape Charles sprang up on the edge of the Chesapeake Bay.

Established by a railroad man near the southern tip of the Eastern Shore, the town saw hundreds of thousands of train cars roll through each year. To move the passengers and freight on south from the Peninsula, ferries were established, making 30 trips each day to Hampton Roads.

"We went up with the railroad, we went up with the ferries, and as planes and trucks and bridges came in, the town went down," said Tom Bonadeo, town planner.

But Cape Charles has persevered and is on the rise again, he said, celebrating its 125th anniversary this month and through early September with a raft of family activities designed to draw people into town again, as the railroad once did.

The festivities kick off this weekend with a gathering of oyster buyboats, historic vessels that used to travel the Bay buying oysters from watermen and hauling produce and timber. The boats, now restored and used mostly as pleasure craft or for education, are part of the Chesapeake Bay Buyboat Association's eighth annual reunion.

The boats will sail into Cape Charles on Thursday evening after gathering at Tangier Island and will be open to the public for tours 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and noon to 4 p.m. Saturday.

Faster and more furious will be the boat docking contest, which is exactly what it sounds like, only much faster than you imagine.

"It's a waterman's sport," explained Smitty Dize, harbormaster at Cape Charles. "It originated in Maryland, and my uncle was one of the first ones to be part of it, 40-some years ago."

Boat dockers will compete at high speed for a purse of about $12,000, he said, with races starting at 1:30 p.m. Sunday.

Smith Island crabbing skiffs - shallow-draft boats designed and built to net crabs from the marshes - will race at 1 p.m. Saturday.

A more sedate activity taking place later this month will be tours of the town's Sears houses. Cape Charles has at least 11 homes that were ordered as kits from the Sears catalog in the early 20th century, delivered by train and constructed by the owner.

"When small towns were growing, such as Cape Charles on the Eastern Shore, Sears came up with this idea," said Trina Veber, a real estate agent and local expert on the kit houses. "This was the way for every man to have a home."

Four of the Sears houses will be open to the public Aug. 13. The town also has examples of houses that were ordered from catalogs put out by Avalon and Montgomery Ward, among others, Veber said.

"For a long time, people didn't think there were any kit houses on the Eastern Shore," she said. "But there are some in Exmore and Cheriton. Onancock has a couple, too. Basically, you can follow the railroad."

Cape Charles was laid out as a planned development, with a grid of streets running north-south and east-west, and a park in the center, Bonadeo said.

"Within that six blocks by eight blocks, people realized that we had a concentrated example of early 20th century and late 19th century architecture," he said. "We have Queen Anne, we have stick, we have shingle, Cape Cods, Victorians of every size and shape."

When the town declined, some of the houses fell into disrepair, but after they received national historic district status, efforts began to rebuild many of them, and some have been featured on national television, he said.

"Cape Charles has had its rise and fall, and we're rising again," Bonadeo said. "Our harbor is really coming around, our restaurants are doing pretty well. We could sure use some more people.

"So our celebration is not only to celebrate, but we hope to attract some people here. It's kind of a secret place."

Diane Tennant, (757) 446-2478, diane.tennant@pilotonline.com