This holiday season take a weekend to enjoy the simple pleasures and walk the streets of our past. The historic village of Waterford, named a National Historic Landmark, is one of few surviving villages that has remained as it was when the village was first founded. The annual Waterford Winterfest, Dec. 12-13, is a great time to visit with a weekend filled with a home tour, strolling carolers, Santa, art and shopping. The event, which benefits the Waterford Foundation, runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.
While you’re there make sure to:
Shop at the Waterford Corner Store to browse local artists’ creations such as furniture, knit accessories, handmade jewelry, pewter tableware, pottery, porcelain and linens along with local jams, jellies, honey and syrups. / 40138 Main St.
Visit the Union and Quaker cemeteries to pay your respect to both the Union and Confederate soldiers who lie in the graves overseen by a union of churches in the area with Quaker ancestors buried nearby in a separate Quaker lot where Waterford’s first meetinghouse once stood in 1741. / Fairfax Street (Union Cemetery); 15510 Loyalty Road (Quaker Cemetery)
Take a walking tour of the 23 buildings that paint a picture of what Waterford and many other small farming towns were like during the early 1800s. Take in the small stone jail that held drunks and petty thieves until 1936, structures that functioned as schoolhouses and taverns and the Old Mill built by one of Waterford’s early families, the Janneys.
Stop in Waterford Market to peruse handmade woolen products made from the wool of locally raised lambs and buy locally sourced meats as well. / 15487 Second St.
Eat outside of town in nearby Leesburg as Waterford does not have any restaurants.
