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Okay, now I have a better idea of your interests. I think you already realize there is a great deal of history here. If you're into the genealogy thing (I am), the Handley Library has a very good genealogy library/archive. Since this entire region was settled in the early 1700s, there are some wonderful old deeds available for researchers. You can use libraries and courthouse data in this entire region if you need data from one of the counties before or after the old counties split. Frederick and Berkeley Counties (both in VA prior to the Civil War) offer good resources to the genealogist.
Yes, that drive-in is a step back in time, isn't it? I had to take my kids there when they were young, just for posterity's sake.
The only negative I know of in the area where you're seriously looking involves the limestone quarry that is just outside of the Middletown town limits. They want to expand their operations which means more quarry dust, many more trucks, etc. Many citizens in the area have objected and I haven't followed the proceedings to know what goes with the issue. You might want to look into that.
Here's a quirky tidbit for you: Since that area is on 'the other side of I-81', you're in more of a limestone area than shale area. The dividing line of I-81 makes all the difference if you're farming because the soil is very different. Weird but true. You'll find more fruit orchards 'over there' than on the Stephens City side of Frederick County for that reason. Then whenl you get east of Rt 522, where there are orchards. But there is a shale vein that doesn't have the proper nutrients for orchards so apple and peach trees can't be grown.
If you decide to buy in that area you mention, there is a 'cut through' road that is a better choice than Rt 55 we discussed earlier. This road is situated right at the edge of Middletown and near that small community college. The road is RELIANCE ROAD. It connects Rt 11 to Rt 522. You also find that road has an entry/exit onto I-81.
Don't know how young/old your children are but in that area, they'd go to Middletown Elem (where my kids went), then to Aylor Middle School, then Sherando High. And those schools were the schools my kids attended. The GT program begins in 3rd grade in Frederick County. By the time kids get to middle school in 6th grade, it's no longer a pull-out program but a class of those identified for Grade 6 and 7, then 8th they're blended/mainstreamed due to the way the coursework is taught. By 8th grade, kids are either college-bound, general studies, or a trade and a number of the classes are electives.
If you like fishing, don't eat them around this region. But, if you do like fishing, you'll have to look into the Highland and Augusta Counties, esp if you like flyfishing. Quite a few of the creeks and streams are stocked w/ rainbow and brookies (Calfpasture and Bullpasture are good streams and the water is clean).
A day-trip over into WV is an excursion worth the effort. There's a place called Dolly Sods that's like no other place in the Mid Atlantic region -- the area is alpine-like and sits atop the mountains w/in a National Forest there. Nereby is Seneca Caverns and rapellers like Seneca Rocks (I don't do heights!) but the scenery all around that area is just gorgeous. You can fish in the area and visit some of the fish hatcheries if that's your thing. The Golden Trout will catch your eye and if you fish in the waters there (where they stock), you might catch one. They're really yellow....a mutant that was bred to maintain the coloration. I've not caught one (yet).
I am moving out to the Front Royal area this summer and these posts have totally freaked me out. My husband and I are a young couple - I have taken a job at one of the Warren County elementary schools (which you all say are absolutely horrible) and now I'm wondering if I have made a huge mistake. My husband is also a teacher, but has not found a job yet. Maybe I should rethink this decision before I sign the contract this week....
You wrote: Actually all those places have ways that don't take very long that don't involve interstates as well.... Strasburg has 55 (I believe), Stephen's City I can take 11 (Valley Pike) through Strasburg to 55, and Winchester has a road 342??? or something that goes directly between the two..... Hopefully trucks are not as big of an issue on those roads, but either way, not a long commute.....
Route 55 can be used but it is very back-roads oriented but cars travel fast. With little to no shoulder and oncoming traffic, a head-on would be very dangerous going 50-60mph. Then there is the deer population on these back roads....Basically, Rt. 55 is not the safest road in the area, plus it's not a cut-through fast route like you believe it may be. You'll have to try it to see for yourself. I almost never use that route.
Route 11 is the old Valley Pike (from wagon trails days -- it's a historic road). Route 11 has lots of stop-n-go traffic, lights in all towns, and every town has a reduced speed limit of 25 mph. Between Stephens City and Middletown, you can go upwards of 55mph and it's relatively safe. Same is between Middletown and Strasburg.
Route 522 runs through a portion of Winchester and runs north & south. It's safer since this is a divided highway but there is zero shoulder and there is heavy truck traffic.
Route 340 (don't know if this is the road you are thinking about) runs eastward into Clarke County and Berryville, onward into the Harpers Ferry WV area. That is not a divided highway until you pass the Berryville VA area and there are lots of towns on the road. Nice road, though. Not sure if that is the road you are referring to.
Incidently, existing homes in this entire region are a better deal than the new homes. All developers are building McMansions on postage stamp lots and the prices have been very inflated. Prices on many of the new homes have been getting reduced for the past 4 months.
Hope this helps you.[/quote]
While the housing info is correct, how you get around is really just a preference. I hate 81 because it does tend to get crowded. I live in Strasburg & can easily get to Winchester via RT 11 or 55 in less time than you can on the interstate. The roads are never as crowded as 81 & much prettier.
I have lived in quite a few places in the last 10 years and Front Royal, Strasburg, and Stephens City are much more preferrable to me than Southern VA where there really is NOTHING to do as opposed to Front Royal where there are absolutely are things to do. The best mexican food you will ever find can be found in FR as well as several lovely parks to camp and picnic with your family. Strasburg is a bit of a ghost town after 10pm & you will have to go elsewhere if you wish to do any shopping after 11pm but at that time of night, its 15 minutes to 3 different wal-marts! You adjust for what you need for the having the luxury of things you don't want. For instance, when my children start school next year, they will be in a classroom with a low student teacher ratio, I feel just fine and dandy about walking absolutely anywhere in my town after dark, and here in Shenandoah county my taxes are much lower than most in the state. It's all perspective. I like the area quite a bit.
While the housing info is correct, how you get around is really just a preference. I hate 81 because it does tend to get crowded. I live in Strasburg & can easily get to Winchester via RT 11 or 55 in less time than you can on the interstate. The roads are never as crowded as 81 & much prettier.
I have lived in quite a few places in the last 10 years and Front Royal, Strasburg, and Stephens City are much more preferrable to me than Southern VA where there really is NOTHING to do as opposed to Front Royal where there are absolutely are things to do. The best mexican food you will ever find can be found in FR as well as several lovely parks to camp and picnic with your family. Strasburg is a bit of a ghost town after 10pm & you will have to go elsewhere if you wish to do any shopping after 11pm but at that time of night, its 15 minutes to 3 different wal-marts! You adjust for what you need for the having the luxury of things you don't want. For instance, when my children start school next year, they will be in a classroom with a low student teacher ratio, I feel just fine and dandy about walking absolutely anywhere in my town after dark, and here in Shenandoah county my taxes are much lower than most in the state. It's all perspective. I like the area quite a bit.
Thanks for added info..... Have lived here for a couple of months now with zero regrets so far. I take 522 to work from Stephens City to Front Royal and I remind myself every day how beautiful the commute is compared with strip mall after strip mall in the area of Florida I lived in...
For the person panicking over Front Royal's Elementary Schools. Having a little insight now I can tell you that they aren't "bad" per se, but there are a couple that are certainly preferrable to the others from what I can tell...
VAFury: The post you answered was by my daughter. I told her about this forum after I got on and found out how much you new guys disliked us (Which really hurt as I am a native, and do not know my little town anymore since all you guys came over the mountain). I tried to anwer you all the day I found the forum, but it was never posted even tho I registered.
I think it would be good to get a little perspective from someone who grew up here as to what FR has dealt with over the years.
American Viscose (Avtex Superfund site) was built as the largest rayon plant in the world, and for years (until it was sold to some big guys who wanted it as a tax write-off and let it fall apart) was the largest employer (1300 people at its largest) in a 5 county area. Many families had both husband and wife working there, and their children followed after them. It was one place you could count on a longtime, steady job with pretty good benefits. When they closed it down, it was a real shock to lots of people in the community how bad it was. Also, even tho there were just 600 people left, most of them had worked there all their lives. Try having both parents out of work, a month before Christmas, or being in your late 40s and having to re-train (& quick so you didn't lose everything). Even tho Avtex was a polluter, you also see in the papers that many industries downstream (remember the Shen. flows North) have done the same. Industry was the thing before ecology got big...not what you put in the river. When they said they cleaned it before it went back we believed it (just like you think your county puts clean water back after it goes thru our sewers!)
The schools used to be pretty fair, but the downhill spiral all began when a hot-shot superintendant came in, wanting a new school on his resume before he moved up. He sweettalked the school board into going for it. When the tax base (& voters) wouldn't support a 25 cent per 100 tax increase (he asked for it just 2 years after Avtex closed, when half of the people in Warren were making what would be poverty type wages today), he just stopped all but emergency maintenance on the 1940 high school. As the school building went downhill, the teaching went down hill (try teaching in a building with broken windows, holes in walls where pipes had burst, etc.). We have spent years (and yes tax increases have hit us, going even higher than the former request) trying to catch up. We are no worse than most surrounding counties (Clarke County is very different as they are much wealthier than anyone around); if you read the papers all of them are bemoaning the fact teachers go across the mountain because none of us can afford to pay them Loudoun Co. wages.
Front Royal is so changed, I no longer feel at home in my home town. I know no one in the local government anymore; like most places, the younger generation has left the area and the oldsters who did their part are dead & gone. Thus it seems that we will be governed by those who have come here in the last 10 years.
Everyone who moves here wants their new home to be the same as their old one (same amenities-just cheaper), and can't see that in 10 years they will hate all the influx of city-dwellers that come after them because our area will have lost what it used to have and now seems like the 'suburbia' they left.
Warren COunty is a small county, that used to be made of of either plant workers, construction workers who commuted to the city, or farmers. We weren't rich, and mostly had high-school educations (if that). Now the natives are a minority, and don't quite like not being the movers & shakers in their county. Of course, the next influx of 'emigrees' will look at your group of residents and think you are as much 'stick-in-the-muds' as they believe the natives are. Such is life! Sometimes progress sucks!
I am so sorry that all of you all have had such a bad experience in our area. Truly, we didn't mean for it to be as bad as this, but we weren't smart like Clarke County which put in sliding-scale zoning to keep the influx down to a trickle.
The Shenandoah Valley used to be the loveliest place to live, and traffic used to back up for 10 miles on a Sunday with people wanting to look out from the Skyline Drive. Now the pollution from the areas you all left makes it almost impossible to see the Valley floor, and 35 miles an hour 'just to see scenery' doesn't cut it with the 'instant-gratification generation'. Maybe we should set up tourist tours of the first Superfund Site in the United States (Yep we are the reason the EPA was founded!).
Thanks for listening.
Ummm, when did I say I didn't "like you guys"??? I'm thoroughly enjoying myself in the area thus far. My wife starts work at the new High School this upcoming school year and we couldn't be happier...
Sorry if I seemed unwelcoming; its not that, it's just the eternal adjustment everyone has when the old days are gone and the new ones scare you to death. (Yee Gods, I sound like the 'old fogies' I used to laugh at...thats what I get for turing 60!) Its just hard to see how much it has changed just in the last 20 years, knowing its going to change more and faster in the next 10. It also hurt to see the gripes from the new folks who don't know anything about the area. (We CAN'T do anything about the hard water!)
When I came back to FR (and yes, I told myself I would never live here again when I left at 25), even I felt like an outsider. Not because of the people being unwelcoming...it was just that all the folks I knew were either dead or had moved away. I moved back into the house I grew up in, and only 2 of the 30 families on my block were the same ones I had known 10 years before. I think it is the times that are changing (is that a song lyric I hear?), not the basic people.
If you are a teacher, you are VERY much welcome. Our children will have to take over when we get old and grey, if we don't educate them and get them excited about their surroundings they won't connect and govern well.
Enough blather. Hope you continue to enjoy the area.
Just happened onto this blog and couldn't help but continue to the outcome. Congratulations to your wife. I am also a teacher and will be at Warren County High School in the fall. You should have no problem finding a house (if you haven't already). At any rate, wanted to welcome you to the community and wish you the best with your new beginnings.
(Also a non native. Here 9 years and counting.)
Welcome to Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley! I'm glad you've settled in nicely. I was going to suggest the Stephens City area as if is part of Frederick County and the schools there are pretty good. I moved to Winchester two years ago and lived in Front Royal for fourteen years. When we moved to Front Royal from the Fairfax area we had a real culture shock! Winchester, however, has everything we could want including Winchester Medical Center which was rated one of the top 100 hospitals in the country.
I was going to suggest anything in Frederick County for a place to live. If you buy in the town of Front Royal, you will pay the town taxes as well as county taxes. If you buy in the City of Winchester, you will pay really high city taxes but no county taxes.
The schools in Warren County are getting better and they are building more schools to take care of the crowded classrooms.
Hope you continue to love the area. There are certainly a lot of things to do here!
Hey Y'all think about Blue Mountain -- isn't it still wonderful???????? I absolutely love living in Shenandoan Valley, always have and always will. Nothing like sitting at a fork of the river listening to the whippoorwills right? We can still find our peace here. right?
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anxious
