Onancock, Virginia

“This place reminds of how Long Island used to be 50 years ago,” says Lynn Kretzer of Morphosis Creative on Market Street in Onancock, Virginia. Lynn, a Long Island transplant, looked like an artist. She had that vibe. She wore a blouse that was bordline eccentric with a dangly, silver necklace. Her hair rested gently on her shoulders, a nice mix of blond with subtle hints of grey. She greeted my like an old friend.

Hand-crafted bass guitars at Morphosis Creative on Market Street in Onancock

While Lynn specializes in ceramics and photos of the Eastern Shore, her husband Bill makes stunning, hand-crafted, one-of-a-kind guitars and basses. Crafted from local wood and infused with the creative spirit of the Eastern Shore. The names he gives to his guitar art is almost as creative as the pieces themselves. There’s Fiddler, Great Blue, Storm Cloud, Thrasher and Swallowtail, many of which are inspired by the sights and sounds of the Eastern Shore. Prices for some of his work fetch $4,000 to $5,000.

Surprisingly, this is just one of the many artistic finds in Onancock. The town of just close to 1,500 residents is located on the bay side of Virginia’s Eastern Shore some 90 minutes from Virginia Beach. While the town does not actually sit on the bay, Onancock Creek sits at the end of Market Street which connects to the Chesapeake Bay. The town dates to 1680 and was one of King James’ original twelve royal ports because of its deep water access to the bay and provided a safe haven from stormy weather. The town’s name comes from the word “auwannaku,” for foggy place. The town was originally called Port Scarborough and is one of the nation’s oldest communities settled by Europeans.  No fog during my visit, just cloudy skies and from what I can tell, today settlers appear to be dominated by the over 50 crowd who enjoy the peaceful yet creative vibe.

Iris Crocket of Crockett’s Studio Gallery on Market Street moved here in 1949. A doctor recommended to her overworked father that he should seek a more peaceful and tranquil place to raise a family.  Iris reminded me of Mother Claus, smartly dressed in red from white head to toe sporting and sporting faux fur topped boots. She invited me to take a seat in her gallery. She was proud, confident, and well-spoken, attributes that we all hope to possess at age 82.

Her eyes twinkled when she talked about Onancock, her five children and her late husband Willie, whose oil and watercolor paintings take up half of the gallery. Some of the larger paintings are priced at $5,000 or more. Most were of the waterways and wildlife along the eastern shore. Iris explained that her husband “did really did a good job of capturing the essence of this place: relaxing, peaceful and beautiful. Cape Charles down the road gets so crowded in the summertime, so many tourists want to take a break from it and come up here for the day or longer.” 

The late Willie Crockett captured the beauty of the area in oil and watercolors.

Onancock does get its fair share of visitors, due in part to the fact that it’s the only place on Virginia’s Eastern Shore where people can catch a ferry to the slowly sinking but ever popular Tangier Island. If you’re so inclined, catch the passenger ferry at the wharf at the end of Market Street. The ferry runs from the first weekend in May to the end of September, and then the first weekend in October. The ride takes about one hour each way and reservations are recommended.

 All in all, there’s close to ten galleries, ten restaurants, four places to stay, a fair share of Victorian homes, and an art deco movie theater all nicely tucked into an area no bigger than two football fields. The Roseland Movie Theater has been in business since 1950. It has a tiled entrance, ticket booth adorned with glass block and a mid-century marquee topped with a neon sign. There’s a sign over each door. The one on the left says, “If when you pass, you cannot stop. Smile as you go by,” while the one on the right states emphatically that the “Best customers on Earth, walk through these doors our customer.” It’s a bit cumbersome, perhaps it should have said, “The best customers on Earth walk through these doors,” but I get the gist of what they were trying to say.

The theater regularly shows new releases and some international films. While I was peering through the window with hands cupped around my eyes to get a better view, a kindly woman approached with a poopy pooch in tow. “Good morning, neat place, isn’t it? It’s beautiful inside with the balcony and all. Too bad it’s not open right now."
 Yep, too bad.

 One of the interesting things about Onancock and for many small towns in general is that people greet you on the street. Maybe they’re suspicious of out of towners but more likely they are just being friendly. If a stranger said hello to me in a larger town while I was strolling about, I would immediately think to myself “who the hell was that?” That’s not the case here and I consider it a gift.

Before I left and at the urging of Iris from Crocket Studios, I dropped by the Historic Onancock School which opened its doors in 1921 and now serves as a “community, cultural, and recreation center.”  It smells odd when you walk through the doors, but in a good way.  It was a pleasant mix of old wood, books and with a hint of cleaning spray. Down one hallway there were class photos of past students dreaming of bright futures.  The classrooms have been repurposed to house entrepreneurs, artists, clubs and non-profits. These are working galleries for artists but no more than two were there blissfully painting behind closed doors. Evidently, it gets busy during tourist season but was rather quiet on a Tuesday morning in February.

It was time to head back home. A mile away, I arrived at a busy intersection. Signs for gas stations, fast food restaurants, banks and drug stores fought for my attention. I was tempted to hop from my car and hold up a sign at the intersection that read “take the next left and be inspired.” But I knew too well that commuters had places to go, fast food biscuits to eat and gas to pump.

I sighed, turned up the radio and hung a right on Route 13 south to Virginia Beach. Along the way, I saw signs for sing-song places like Wachapreague, Nassawadox  and Machipongo which likely deserve more exploration sooner rather than later. When I got home, I Googled Onancock, found my way to the town’s “Visit” section of their website where there was a beautiful, sunset aerial photo of the town and a headline that read “A little slice of nowhere else.”

So true.