A Quick Trip to Charlottesville

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Writers Bruce and Elaine Ingram share their travel experience during a quick jaunt to Charlottesville, including a historical stay and visiting a popular chocolate shop. But how'd they do at the Scrabble Club game night?

The Hollymead House

Starting breakfast with William’s large, perfectly fluffy, buttery, and moist biscuits while sitting in a room built by Hessian soldiers (circa 1780) is reason enough to visit Charlottesville and the Hollymead House. William and Pam Calary moved to Charlottesville in 2018.

“We had talked a lot about moving back from Tampa,” said Pam who is a UVA alum. “We would visit and when things finally came together we moved here. We rented for a year while we got to know the area better.”

After some searching, the couple found Hollymead House, a perfect choice, especially given William’s almost encyclopedic knowledge of history.

“Charlottesville was a huge station for receiving Hessian soldiers during the Revolutionary War,” said William. “The battle of Saratoga had ended and these soldiers were marched from New York to here. Legend has it that some of those soldiers built the first parts of this house in the 1770s or 1780s.

“In 1812 or so, John Jefferies added a two-story Federal House adjoining the original structure. The old homestead was in poor condition when B.F.D. Ronk, dean of students at UVA, took it over, but the unmistakable lines of the old Tidewater Virginia homes suggested that the work of putting the house into condition should be rather a restoration than a remodeling. He hired architect and preservationist Milton Grigg to plan its restoration.”

Grigg had already worked on restorations at UVA, broader Charlottesville, and historic Williamsburg.”

Since the 1960s, Hollymead House has had several owners and was even used for a number of years as a country restaurant. This fact left William and Pam with lots of plans they wished to implement.

“I’m kind of handy,” William said. “You learn as you go – we’ve done most of this work ourselves with some local help. We spent a lot of time undoing changes that had been made over the last fifty years.”

Their goal is to restore the historic structure, once part of a 300-acre farm, to its appearance as it was in 1937 after the restoration, while emphasizing its earlier Federal history in the décor. Upon our arrival our first view was of an open porch that had been one of the Calary’s early projects. The porch had been enclosed at one time when the house served as a restaurant, and the couple restored it to its original appearance.

“This porch as well as this driveway actually were at the back of the house if you look at its history,” William said. “People did their driving to the rear of a home at one time.”

William has restored doors, located antique locks and hardware, and found a restoration expert to make sure all locks are in working order, even creating replacement keys when necessary. A door key in this case is approximately six inches long – no room key cards or big box store replacement keys in this inn.

The couple also removed carpet and wallpaper, plastered, painted, and relocated windows and doors, always with the goal of making the structure look as it did in its earlier history and Federal roots. This required research of paint colors as well as items of décor. One fortuitous happening for the Calarys was that much of their shopping for furnishings began in the early days of the pandemic, when prices for antiques fell.

”When we bought this building, it was an empty shell,” said Pam. “We spent three years finding period appropriate antiques for the home, things that made its Federal history distinct from a colonial one.”

Currently there are four bedrooms available in an adjoining guest cottage. Each is named for a previous owner of Hollymead House - the Jefferies, McLeod, Rogers, and Runk rooms. The Calarys plan to add three more lodging spaces, two of which will be in the main house. We stayed in the McLeod room, one of two first-floor rooms in the Guest Cottage. The common foyer has a sideboard prepared with coffee and water. Beside the door to our room was an umbrella, a thoughtful detail had the weather been a problem the next morning when we went to the main house for breakfast.

Our room boasted a queen-sized handmade tiger maple bed with carved posters and a canopy. Heart pine flooring gave the room a vintage feel. Two chairs had been placed beside a table, creating an inviting reading area. An antique writing desk and bedside tables added to the Federal feel to the room.

We both appreciated the inviting touches to the room – the vase of fresh roses, a handwritten welcome note, and a sample box of Gearhart Chocolates, nationally known for its quality chocolates. Bottled water had been left on the fireplace mantle. We also found books on Charlottesville’s attractions, helpful in planning a day’s activities. The bath with a shower was stocked with fluffy towels, terry robes and Swiss toiletries.

After a comfortable night’s sleep, Bruce began the day with a walk. Directly across the street from Hollymead House is a paved walking trail that traverses nearby neighborhoods. Bruce traveled the gently sloping trail to Hollymead Lake and back, a round-trip distance of two miles. William explained that more trails were nearby as well, including a nature hike around the aforementioned lake as well as lots of trails in adjacent Forest Lakes.

I opted for an early-morning cup of coffee outdoors. Several outdoor seating areas - benches, padded rockers and a wrought-iron table and chairs adorned the front yard. I sat in the shade of a Siberian Elm tree that I decided must be about as old as the house based on the trunk’s size. Working on the grounds has been another of Pam and William’s projects. They have cleared overgrown shrubbery, opening the large yard and highlighting the mature trees there. They sowed grass and planted flower, herb, and shade gardens with ferns, hosta, and coral bells. The duo is striving to create an open setting as well as build a privacy screen of plantings.

Hollymead lies only six miles from Monticello. The couple enjoy recreating connections that would have been common between the two homes in the past. For example, they planted heritage apple trees from Monticello’s gardens. Names like Roxbury Russet, William’s Best, and Father Abraham were common vintage varieties from a time when every homestead hosted an orchard.

After Bruce’s walk and my early coffee, we were ready to eat. Breakfast is served in the main house. Large groups might eat in the Garden Room where several tables are available. We breakfasted in the aforementioned Hessian Room, named for mercenaries who are reported to have built part of the structure and the original fireplace. Period antiques, some purchased for this home and others that came from Florida with the couple, complete the room.

William explained that two of the framed pieces on the wall are actually created from silk threading, a popular form of needlework in the early 1800s. Of course with a name like the Hessian Room it wasn’t surprising to see andirons of the German soldiers overseeing the premises.

After those exquisite biscuits, we relished the serving of blueberries, strawberries, yogurt and grainless granola, rich coffee was the finishing touch.

Other Attractions

When my husband Bruce and I contacted the Charlottesville Scrabble Club to see if we could come play with them and they answered yes, we decided to make a night and day of our brief visit. After checking in at the Hollymead House, our next stop was dinner at Fuzzy’s Taco Shop where the club often meets.

“We try to bring a different type of flair/vibe to the Tex-Mex scene,” said owner Pete Shah. “We’re fast, fresh and fun with our food and service – all in a laid back, shorts and flip flops-type atmosphere.”

Shah says Fuzzy’s customers often like to start with Chips & Queso with favorite entrées including the Grilled Shrimp Taco and Fried Avocado Taco. We opted for grilled shrimp tacos for me and a grilled chicken salad for Bruce, topped with shredded tortilla chips, as well as an egg-cheese flour tortilla. The service was speedy and attentive.

Our Scrabble tournament did not go well in terms of victories as we lost all six games by close to 700 points. Those Charlottesville Scrabble players are really good, but we learned a great deal and hope to return… and do better.

Gearheart's Fine Chocolates

After a night and breakfast at the Hollymead, our last stop was Gearheart’s Fine Chocolates. I have enjoyed the company’s products for years, mostly as birthday, anniversary and Christmas presents from Bruce. Owner and chocolatier Tim Gearheart explains the company’s popularity.

“I think what has set us apart since we opened in 2001 is our great ingredients, classic preparation with a modern flair, and artisan, small batch quality,” he said. “We hand dipped 500 pieces a day when we started, and now we do it better and do it more with up to 12,000 pieces some days. I love this business, and it’s very important to me to keep being creative.”

Gearheart says that the company’s Signature Line remains the heart of the business. Especially popular, he says, are my favorite, the Criolla (extra bittersweet dark chocolate ganache with natural cacao nibs, dipped in dark chocolate), Maya (chocolate ganache flavored with cinnamon, Ancho chili and orange, dusted with cocoa), and Raspberry Zin (semi-sweet chocolate ganache with raspberry-zinfandel conserves, dipped in dark chocolate).

We headed for home with a box containing one sample of every chocolate in the Signature Line. Bruce is allergic to chocolate – a lucky thing for me!