Mileage and Directions to Onancock Virginia A variety of maps giving directions to the Chesapeake Bay, Eastern Shore of Virginia and Onancock Virginia Click Here New York City Philadelphia, Pa Washington DC Salisbury, Md Norfolk, Va. Williamsburg, Va Charleston, SC Richmond, Va. 289 205 185   62   65 100 459 165 From Washington, DC to US Route 50 East to Salisbury, Maryland. From Salisbury, Maryland; drive south one hour on US Route 13 to Onley, Virginia. Turn right at Burger King on Route 179, travel two miles to Onancock Wharf and Marina Return to Top Tangier Island Transportation, the Captain Eulcice, a Tangier Island Passenger Ferry awaits you at the Onancock Marina to take you to Tangier Island Virginia Traveling from the south on Interstate 95; exit Emporia, Virginia US Route 58 east to Interstate 64 to US Route 13 From Virginia Beach, Virginia; drive north one hour on US Route 13 across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel to Onley, Virginia. Turn left at Burger King on Route 179, travel two miles to Onancock Wharf and Marina........

In the language of the Indians, Onancock means "Foggy Place," and there was an Indian town near here when the white men first ventured into the area. In 1680 the Virginia Assembly authorized the creation of a port town in each county, and in Acomack County the site chosen was the small peninsula at the head of Onancock Creek where four of five Indian families lived. Daniel Jenifer was paid 540 pounds of tobacco for taking out the towne," and Port Scarburgh was born, named for Charles Scarbourgh from whom the land was purchased. In time the new Port Scarburgh became known as Onancock, a flourishing town now for more than 300 years.

Onancock Towne developed quickly into an important community. From 1680 until 1693 the county court was located here, and there was an Anglican church. In the early years Quakers lived in Onancock, and the town was home to the Presbyterian pioneer Francis Makemie. But no permanent church was established until Francis Asbury, the Methodist bishop, preached here in 1788 and a Methodist congregation was founded.

In November 1782, a full year after the surrender of the British at Yorktown, a Marylander named Zedekiah Whaley put into Onancock seeding aid against the tory ships that were still marauding up and down the Chesapeake, and which had just been sighted at the entrance of Onancock Creek. Colonel John Cropper and 25 of this men from the Accomack militia volunteered to lend a hand, and they set sail from Onancock on board Whaley's fleet of barges. On November 30, 1782, the very day that the articles of peace were signed in Europe, the "Battle of the Barges" took place in Dedge's Straits above Smith Island in Maryland. At the first sigh of battle all the American barges fled except Whaley's "Protector," which there upon bore the brunt of the battle. When an ammunition chest aboard the "Protector" exploded, members of the crew who were not killed outright were thrown overboard. or jumped into the water with clothes ablaze. The British easily had the better of the engagement, and among those who died was Commodore Whaley, Cropper, though defeated, arranged an exchange of prisoners, and the Americans put back into to Anechoic with 25 drowned or killed, 29 wounded, and only 11 unscathed. Whaley was buried in Onancock, and in Maryland an official government investigation of the cowardice of the other American commanders was launched.

By the beginning of the 19th century Onancock was out growing its original boundaries and pushing eastward. In 1826 a post office was established, and in 1832 a ferry to Norfolk. Many homes in town today date from the first half of the 1800's When the Union army occupied the peninsula during the Civil War, they singled out Onancock as the place that had "concocted more mischief....in the way of blockade running and disloyalty" than any other community on the Shore.

After the Civil War, Onancock became one of the major stops for the colorful steamboats that ferried both passengers and freight up and down the Chesapeake. This direct link with the larger cities of Virginia and Maryland boosted the town's prosperity and growth, and much of the town dates from this period. The town was incorporated in 1882. Two years later the railroad lines missed Onancock by about two miles, but the town, which lies four miles inland from the bay, benefited from its presence and became even more important as a commercial center and port.
With a population of 1,434, Onancock is today the second largest community on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Though almost all commerce is by land on the Shore today, the Onancock Wharf is still in use, more than three centuries after its founding
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Kerr Place, Pronounced "Carr," was named for John S. Kerr, who began its construction in 1799. It is one of the finest old homes on the Shore, a formal, dignified mansion in brick, and it is open to visitors because the Eastern Shore of Virginia Historical Society maintains it and houses a museum in it. Included in the exhibits are rooms furnished to selected historical periods, representative costumes, portraits, and many items of Eastern Shore interest. The best part of the museum is, however, handsome Kerr Place itself. (Open daily 9:00_4:00 except Mondays and holidays; admission $4.00)

North Street marks the eastern boundary of the original town plan of 1680; thus as you walk past the downtown section you will be entering the oldest part of Onancock, on streets laid out more than 300 years ago. along block past North Street is the Town Square ,center of the original town and up through the early 1800's Onancock's "downtown." The larger of the monuments in the square is to Confederate General Oddment Bagwell of Onancock (1840-1876).

Scott Hall stands behind a more recent home, at water's edge on a short extension of East Street. Onancock's oldest home, now painted green, dates from 1779 and was designed to serve as a fortress; inside it is equipped with exceptionally thick walls, alcoves as hiding places, and trap doors for escape. The house is rumored to have a "ghostly presence" that makes three doors of a certain room open at once on their own accord. Commodore Whaley of the Battle of the Barges lies buried behind the house.

Cokesbury United Methodist Church of Onancock Virginia dates from 1788 (despite the sign of claiming 1784) and is Onancock's (but no the Eastern Shore's) oldest church of this denomination. This building was built in 1854. In the burial ground behind it lie three ministers, one of whom, William Lee (1776?-1841), often sailed from Onancock to preach to the outlying islands and "necks" of the Chesapeake, and who is said to have left behind at his death a barrel full of certificates from marriages he had performed. Just a few yards behind Cokesbury stood Bascom's Chapel . a rival congregation that split from it in 1850; the two churches were so near that they could hear one another at worship. From the site of the chapel it is a short walk down King Street, where within one block no fewer than four homes (7-10) date from before the Civil War; the oldest of them is probably the back part of which may date from the 1790's and from which can be seen the North Branch of Onancock Creek.

The large gray house opposite Cokesbury Church is the Stephen Hopkins House home of the founder of a firm that did much of the shipping and importing from the Onancock wharf. By the second quarter of the 19th century, Hopkins owned a shipyard, located on the creek behind his house, where vessels were built that regularly sailed to Norfolk, Baltimore, and even the West Indies.

Two doors beyond the church, on the edge of the lawn of a large ante-bellum house that sits well back from the road is a Bronze Marker to Francis Makemie One of the earliest Presbyterian preachers in America, Makemie came to Virginia from Ireland in 1083, settled in Onancock in 1687, and married Naomi Anderson, whose family lived just across the street from this marker. Trained for the ministry, Makemie also distinguished himself as a successful businessman for some years until, in 1699, he registered as required by law as a dissenting minister (the second person in Virginia to do so) and once again took up the practice of preaching. In 1706 he organized the first American Presbytery in Philadelphia, and in 1707 he was acquitted of the charge or preaching without a license in a New York trial that is still cited as a landmark in the evolution of religious freedom in America. Makemie's father-in-law William Anderson was the first person to purchase a lot in Onancock Towne, in 1682.

Market Street ends at the Wharf and here you can see why Onancock's location was a choice. At this point Onancock Creek splits into two branches (actually three; the third is hidden just beyond the land to the south), and the water is still navigable four miles from Chesapeake Bay. Through you may find some activity at the wharf--here is a boat ramp, and it is here that the passenger ferry for Tangier docks--the wharf is today not nearly the busy place it was in former years. In the 1890's the Eastern Shore Steamboat Company had trips in and out of here several times a week by the 1920's there was daily steamer service from Onancock to Baltimore, then home via Crisfield the newt day, and it was not unusual for barrels of fresh white potatoes to accumulate in great numbers on the wharf before their return , even though some steamers could carry as many as 3500 barrels each trip. The last steamers docked in Onancock in 1935, but the wharf has never been totally idle, for fuel oil and gasoline have been imported here by barge and tanker since 1933.

Hopkins & Brothers Store, established in 1842 by Stephen Hopkins, is now a Virginia Historic Landmark. It was moved to this site at the wharf from the spot marked on the map in 1966. Next to it stands the small Ticket Office and waiting room once used by steamboat passengers. Overlooking it all from across the street is the Alicia Hopkins House ,, a variation on the standard Eastern Shore "big house, little house, colonnade, kitchen" design, dating from the early 19th century. From the wharf Mount Prospect Bridge. crosses Joynes Branch, or Middle Branch, to that part of town called Mount Prospect, settled in the late 1800s and annexed to Onancock in the 1950s. From the bridge notice Ingleside, on the corner of Mt. Prospect Avenue and Market Street, which only from the back reveals its age (early 1800's). The original Mount Prospect is the late 19th-century home on the right across the bridge, set back in its extensive lawns. At the end of Mt. Prospect Avenue turn right on Meadville Drive, where at the end of the street is the Bristow House. though parts of this house are new, designed to give it views of the water, the basic structure was ordered from Sears and Roebuck and assembled from pre-marked parts in 1926. Just below the house the road drips to water where once Bristow's Bridge crossed Titlow (or South) Branch and linked the town to the old estate Meadville. The bridge fell into ruin and was dismantled in this century. From this landing you can look across to Meadville and Nancock Gardens. two communities which are geographically and historically related to the Town of Onancock but which are, without Bristow's Bridge, several miles distant by car.

From Meadville Drive you may wish to wander aside to the end of Ames Street, where there is a lovely view to wander aside to the end of Ames Street, where there is a lovely view of Titlow Branch or take a shorter route, via Division Street and Crescent Drive, to Ames Bridge, which leads back to downtown with good views of Scott Hall on the left and the Onancock School on the right. At the end of the bridge is another old house , the larger part of which appears to date from the 1870's the smaller from the late 1700's. Once back downtown, wander two blocks up North Street to see 25 North Street, a charming split-level house dating from the 1840's; its only near cousin on the Eastern Shore is The Blade in Accomac. By comparison, Wales House, on Market Street opposite the Baptist church, was the "latest word" in architecture when it was erected at the turn of the century. Even its garage has a cupola, visible across the parking lot from Ames Street.

Onancock Baptist Church. was founded and erected in 1855, but the oldest section of the building is now obscured by the front part erected in 1891. Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, a "country Gothic" structure built in 1886, has what may be the most elegant interior of any church on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Market Street United Methodist Church , descended from Cokesbury's rival Bascom's Chapel. was erected in 1882, significantly altered in 1898, and restored in 1977; its sanctuary, in the Victorian style, is on the second floor. Just beyond it is Quinby House, erected 1896, when it represented a new style of house for old Onancock, Naomi Makemie Presbyterian Church . founded 1883, erected 1896, was named for the Onancock native who was the wife of Francis Makemie. The Reverend and Mrs. Makemie are named in the windows that face Market Street. In the newt block, set well back from the road, is Colonial Manor Inn (84 Market Street), last of the old tourist homes of the Eastern Shore, still doing well after more than half a century.               Return to Top

7 Holly Street was erected in 1861 in what was then the outskirts of town. Note its unusual configuration of window panes, a detail which the present owners have copied with great care in restoring and enlarging the house. A block away is the Onancock Carnival Grounds ;the Fireman's Carnival is held here annually near the Fourth of July. Kerr Street parallels Market Street on the north, its western end lined with large and comfortable late-19th century residences.

By water, if not by land, many of the homes and points on Onancock Creek west of town are related to the town. The creek is wide and lovely and has always been used as a setting for comfortable homes. To see the north bank of Onancock Creek, follow North Street out of town past The Hermitage, a retirement home established by the United Methodist Church in 1966, and turn left on #1028. The road will deposit you at the gate of Cokesbury, a handsome rambling old house of several sections, begun about 1806. On the grounds are a tiny one-room schoolhouse, where the family children were taught in the early 1800's and an ancient cork tree, rare in these parts.

To see the sough bank of Onancock Creek, take Hill Street (#718) out of town, or from Mount Prospect follow Liberty Street to its intersection with Hill Street by the town cemetery and turn right. It will take a few miles to reach by car points that are, by water, only a few yards from the heart of town.

Nancock Gardens. (When #718 turns left towards Pungoteague, .5 miles south of Onancock, keep straight on #638, then turn right on #747, a total distance of 1.5 miles from Market Street). this is a modern section of Onancock, lying outside the town limits. The hones here are all recent, with very pretty views of Titlow Branch. Meadville. (Turn right on #778 a third of a mile beyond the road to Nancock Gardens; the public road turns an abrupt right at the first mailboxes, then left at the second mailboxes) was built about 1811 by Colonel John Finney, and from the gate at the end of the public road you can admire this old house's pleasant location on Onancock Creek. At the corner of the main road and the road to Meadville stands the Oliver House, the oldest part dating from 1822, moved to this location from Route 13 in 1974.
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A variety of maps as shown here include: Chesapeake Bay Mid-Atlantic Maps and Eastern Shore of Virginia Maps in reference to Onancock, Virginia, a Chesapeake Bay Historic Waterfront Community; its pace is leisure and the atmosphere is relaxed.