Moving to Winchester (Fairfax, Front Royal, Purcellville: neighborhoods, construction, school)

[firefighter740]

Me and my wife will be moving to Winchester area about mid Sept. can anyone tell us are there any Catholic churches or V.F.W. or vol. fire depts in the area. Both retired and need things to do. THANKS

[clintsullivan]

I think there are several VFW posts around Winchester; one on the southside around Stephen City, one in town and there is one in Berryville. There is a catholic church in town as well. Lots of volunteer fire depts. Hope all goes well with your move. Welcome to the area.

[cityboi757]

Ahh, the good ol' winchester. MY grandparentsare from there. I won't comment on the area lol

[Rhett_Butler]

Catholic Churches are hard to come by, but there's one in Winchester and one in Front Royal.... Those are the only ones I'm aware of within a 25 mile radius....

[sweet-t-virginia]

There is a large Catholic Church with a school (volunteer opportunity?) on Amherst Avenue in Winchester. There are also volunteer fire departments and many other volunteer opportunities here.

Additionally, Shenandoah University is here with a lot of cultural offerings (plays, music) and Winchester Medical Center is a really good hospital.

Good luck in your retirement!

[ScranBarre]

I am not very familiar with Winchester, but I just wanted to add that after my run through Purcellville and Hamilton earlier today I decided to finally put my curiosity to rest and continued on Route 7 West into Winchester. I was truly blown away by how quaint and beautiful much (not all) of the town proper was. There were a few places I was tempted to stop for lunch (the Cork Street Pub looked especially like my type of place to grab a burger), and there was even some sort of pedestrian mall with tourists milling about. There was a gorgeous residential neighborhood adjacent to downtown that had amazingly well-kept historic mansions; it reminded me fondly of the Green Ridge neighborhood in my native Scranton, PA. My only complaint was that half the downtown was under construction, and it was HEAVY construction at that (think Beirut-like roads!) I just wish I had my camera with me today so I could have brought you all a tour! Winchester would be the type of place I'd want to move to someday if I absolutely HAD to stay in Northern Virginia. It would be roughly an hour-long commute for me to get to work (if not longer), but it may just be worth it in the end.

[Rhett_Butler]

Yeah, the walking mall is nice, but it needs a few more tennants before it'll be really good... I know they're doing a lot of construction downtown, but I think it's a lot of necessary utility work and such.... Not sure....

It IS nice over here. My only issue is having to leave it to go to work every day..... I commute to Ashburn. Not too bad really. Some out here go all the way into DC, so I guess I should thank my lucky stars..

[cityboi757]

Here's my two cents about WINCHETER. I have spent weeks at a time in that dump, walked downtown and seen the outdoor mall, ate at a place called Snow White Cafe or somethin like that, been to the dollar general over there, and I think the place truly sucks. Stay around long enough and you will notice the town is 50% mexican that don't speak english, half the kids don't go to school, 90% of the city is impoverished. Maybe I was just in the bad neighborhoods the entire time, but I would not reccomend that dump to anyone. I used to be on E. Fairfax lane right around the corner from downtown..

Sorry if you read it when I had richmond in there instead ofwinchester, I had just previously read a richmond thread.

[South Jersey Styx]

Originally Posted by cityboi757

Here's my two cents about WINCHETER . . .

How long ago were you there? I think ScranBarre and Rhett_Butler have it down pretty much: a historic town that is currently undergoing a facelift. There is the whole "Historic Renaissance" thing they're going through. This means not work on the architecture but reinforcing/building the infrastructure of the city. The roads being torn up are new water lines being laid down. And I think they took advantage of that Main Street Program--a federal historic preservation program. Winchester still has enclaves of rehab folks (i.e., alcoholics, meth addicts, etc.) but I believe that will go away soon too.

[Zoyd]

Originally Posted by cityboi757

Here's my two cents about WINCHETER. I have spent weeks at a time in that dump, walked downtown and seen the outdoor mall, ate at a place called Snow White Cafe or somethin like that, been to the dollar general over there, and I think the place truly sucks. Stay around long enough and you will notice the town is 50% mexican that don't speak english, half the kids don't go to school, 90% of the city is impoverished. Maybe I was just in the bad neighborhoods the entire time, but I would not reccomend that dump to anyone. I used to be on E. Fairfax lane right around the corner from downtown..

Sorry if you read it when I had richmond in there instead ofwinchester, I had just previously read a richmond thread.

With all due respect, cityboi, if you are going to criticize others for not speaking English you may want to improve on your own first. just saying...