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So I've lived inside the beltway on and off for most of my life. My wife and I are thinking about putting down roots -- at least short ones -- and we're wondering what exists in terms of "small town living" around here.
You see, I've been offered an employment situation whereby I would only need to be on-site once a week. The rest would be all telecommuting.
As you can imagine, I'm pretty psyched. I've fought the beltway wars for a long time. I've done the twice daily battle on foot, rail, bus and car.
Our thinking is we've been wanting to slow things down some. Find a small town with its own unique history and character rather than just another exurb or subdivision where the houses are bigger than we need (no kids yet). Just a nice little town square area that hasn't been overdeveloped.
We're just looking for a decent small house, good local schools, some interesting local restaurants/bars/stores/museums/anything. Really, we've lived together in DC, Philly and Brooklyn, so we don't need a great deal of sophistication anymore. If our new town has Sunday pancakes at the fire hall, that's fine by us at this point. We've had our fill of asian-fused ceviche.
Since I'll only need to be in the office once a week (office in Arlington, right off 395 around glebe road) i can handle two brutal drives a week. Just need to be within a two-hour drive or so of Shirlington.
Finally, we are looking for something affordable since my wife would drop out of the workforce for a while, getting our home set up and leading any renovations/improvements before reentering the workforce somewhere local, to the extent that there is a local economy.
I know a lot of people would say Annapolis sounds perfect, but seriously, I need affordable. And by "affordable," I mean "pretty damn cheap." I love annapolis as much as the next guy, I went to a high school just over the river in Edgewater, but I can no more afford a house in downtown Annapolis than I can in Capitol Hill.
We're planning to begin checking places out. I've been to several of them, never set foot in several others but it's been many years even in the ones I've visited. So far our list includes:
You may want to look into Ellicott City, MD. The commute isn't terrible, you can take 29 or 95 to the beltway which isn't too rough of a commute. It's a very diverse place ethnically and has fantastic schools (Howard County). It's quiet and quaint, the downtown is full of really old historic buildings where most are now antique shops. While not much "happens" in Ellicott, it is a nice place for families and may be right up your alley. It's also just a few exits down 29 to Columbia with its mall and all the shopping you could need. It's worth looking into.
One thought about WV: when I worked in health care, which I did for 9 years in the DC area alone, it was well known that people in WV had a hard time finding health care providers. Truthfully, I have never checked this out, but I worked for an ophthalmologist and the number of WV patients we saw was amazing! Not all of these people had moved from the DC area either. A number of them mentioned no doctors any closer were on their plan; not even in Frederick. None of them had oddball insurance, either. Again, I have never researched this myself, but I would look into it seriously. Harper's Ferry is just beautiful, but full of tourists in the summer!
When you mentioned pancakes, I immediately thought of Barnesville, MD. We used to go to the Breakfast with Santa there and it is a nice small community. Don't know much about it, but people were nice, traffice was low, and it was off 270. Ijamsville is smaller too, and straddles the MoCo/Fred Cty borders. My old neighbor moved there and just loves it. I researched Emmitsburg, MD too, and liked it a lot, except taxes were really high.
You should consider posting your inquiry in the northern Virginia forum -- it seems to get more traffic than this one.
I think one of your biggest challenges will be finding "pretty damn cheap" and "good local schools" in the same spot. These are often mutually exclusive categories.
But you might add Front Royal and Culpeper to your list.
Thanks so far. I'm familiar with Columbia and Olney, but never have been to Ellicott City. Nor Front Royal or Culpeper.
Yeah I've been planning on finding the NOVA forum eventually as well, but I figured I'd start here since my search spans from the MD/WV panhandle to the eastern shore.
Fredericksburg is really cute. It's definitely got that "cute small town" thing going, plus the whole history aspect which makes it more interesting. What I liked about it was that it was small, fairly safe, yet it wasn't completely dead. There are some decent non-chain restaurants in the downtown area, and then any sort of chain store or restaurant you'd want out in Central Park. As for museums, there's historical houses that have tours (Apothecary Shop, Mary Washington's house, Rising Sun Tavern, etc), trolley tours, 5 battlefields, James Monroe Museum, and then they're building the Slavery history museum (I don't remember the exact name). There's also Belmont, which sometimes has exhibits or events, and another gallery on Mary Washington's campus. First Fridays were always fun down there, too. There's a lot of hidden galleries in downtown, and they all open up for you to wander around (and provide some food/drinks). If you like wine, there's several wineries (and a brewery) down there, too, which is fun in the spring.
As far as getting back up to DC, if you don't do it every day it's really not that bad. Outside of rush hour you can generally get up here in 45-60 minutes. I'm not really a small-town person, so I left F'burg after college, but if I had to move to a small town it'd be high up on my list.
You may want to look into Ellicott City, MD. The commute isn't terrible, you can take 29 or 95 to the beltway which isn't too rough of a commute. It's a very diverse place ethnically and has fantastic schools (Howard County). It's quiet and quaint, the downtown is full of really old historic buildings where most are now antique shops. While not much "happens" in Ellicott, it is a nice place for families and may be right up your alley. It's also just a few exits down 29 to Columbia with its mall and all the shopping you could need. It's worth looking into.
Ellicott City is NOT a small town, its a Baltimore suburb and filled with McMansions and soulless shopping malls. There is only a small downtown area that is historic but besides that Ellicott City like much of Howard and Montgomery Counties has no charm. If you want a place with character and charm head to the Eastern Shore, Frederick County, Western Maryland, or West Virginia.
I forgot....Brunswick, MD in Frederick County is beautiful and is located on the Potomac River. Brunswick is a picture perfect small town nestled on hills and bluffs overlooking the river and is surronded by forest and farmland. It has MARC train station that takes commuters to Rockville and/or Union Station which have Metro connections. Loevittsville, Virginia is across the river from Brunswick and also quite nice though more and more development is taking place there.
I would suggest Shepardstown, although that once a week commute would be a whopper. But its very charming.
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