JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2004

Hangin’ Around Smithfield

The gracious Southern town serves up more than ham.

By Donna Bozza Packer
Photography By Edwin Remsberg

When a Southern town has the moniker “Ham Capital of the World,” one doesn’t expect to discover much beyond some mighty fine pork barbecue spots. Indeed, Smithfield, Va.’s salty delicacy put it on the map centuries ago. But the real surprise is how much more the gracious small town has to offer as an active retreat for tourist and townie alike.

A little more than thirty minutes southwest of Hampton, Va., Smithfield has all the usual ingredients of a thriving small town: .a popular five and dime store, two barbershops, a hometown pharmacy and newspaper, and the usual catch-up-with-the-local-gossip spots. “What I love about Smithfield is it isn’t frozen in time like, say, Colonial Williamsburg,” says Carlene Young, a new Smithfield resident. “It’s alive with people living and working here.”

A town of roughly 6,500 residents, Smithfield is named after Arthur Smith, who in 1637 patented 1,450 acres in Isle .of Wight County. Its enviable position on the Pagan River made it an ideal shipping port, which at that time was alive with majestic clipper ships. They were delivering goods from around the world and shipping out the area’s already famous ham and peanuts to such faraway locales as the West Indies. In 1750, Smith’s descendant, Arthur Smith IV, planned a town on the family farm with four streets and seventy-two lots. The new town attracted ship captains and British merchants; within two years, fifty-nine of its lots had been sold. Prior to the Revolutionary War, the remaining lots were snatched up for the sum of roughly $7.

Smithfield’s hog ties reach back to the mid-1700s, when ship captain Mallory Todd opened a ham curing and shipping business in town. He preserved the hams by coating them with salt and hanging them to cure in the smoke of hardwood chips. In decades to come, others like Gwaltney and Smithfield Packing entered the ham business, with word of the town’s fame as a pork port spreading to such luminaries as Queen Victoria, who reportedly craved the salty treat. It is now the home of ham giant Smithfield Foods, Inc., a major town employer.

The best place to get a taste of the town’s history is the Isle of Wight Museum, a small, six room, exhibit-packed museum housed in a circa-1913 bank building. The Main Gallery, which hosts changing exhibits, is currently presenting a historic salute to postmasters and rural mail carriers. Curator Dinah Everett is particularly proud of the museum’s replica of a turn-of-the-twentieth-century country store. Amidst memorabilia like a pot- belly stove, groceries of the time in their original tins, and vintage advertising signs as well as an actual country store post office, visitors can listen to life-like re-creations of the shop’s proprietor and postmaster “conversing” about Smithfield. Also on display is the “pet ham” belonging to P. D. Gwaltney Jr. Cured in 1902—and never refrigerated—it is said to be the oldest Smithfield ham. Bring a fork; they claim it’s still edible. Don’t miss the video of the 2,200 pound, eight-foot wide ham biscuit being made by the staff of the Smithfield Inn in celebration of the town’s 250th anniversary on September 28, 2002. The King Kong- size biscuit made the 2003 Guinness Book of World Records and was featured in Ripley’s Believe It or Not.

Minutes after stepping foot on Smithfield’s movie set-perfect Main Street, locals present their own style of Southern hospitality: upfront without a hint of shyness. And there’s a lot to be happy about. Thanks to the $2 million Main Street project, completed in February 1999, power lines have been moved underground and period-style lampposts have been placed on the now bricked sidewalks. These improvements make downtown a walker’s paradise, with its pretty promenade leading to an array of antique shops, eateries, galleries, and boutiques.

Smithfield Shopping is a joy on the town’s uncrowded streets. The Purple Peacock is a Victorian gift and furnishings shop located in a lavender and gingerbread-laced 1898 home owned by Dr. Ramona and Ed Austin. The store is packed with nineteenth-century antiques, such as elaborate Victorian beds and settees. Be sure to meet Victor, Ed’s beloved late pet peacock, which is preserved and on display in the parlor.

Another must-see is the former Delk’s Department Store, resurrected by owner Trey Gwaltney as the Antiques Emporium of Smithfield. Here you can find goods from more than fifty antique dealers who sell everything from baseball cards (four for a dollar) to $5,000 grandfather clocks. Visitors love to plunk 25 cents into the 1915 player piano near the entrance that plays spirited ragtime tunes. Another curiosity is the century-old Lamson Air-Line Cash System with a pulley apparatus. Only nine of these are still in operation worldwide. Generations of patrons would pay for their purchases by placing money in a small container at the counter downstairs, and the money would “fly” overhead on a rope to the second-floor cashier, who would send back a receipt and change.

Stop in Wild Women on Main for a funky, fun variety of artisan works such as mirrors, stained glass, and painted furniture. For more traditional art, try Imagine Art Studios, which features many original oil and acrylic paintings and pastels depicting historic scenes of the South and Smithfield.

If you are looking for a place to bed down, Mansion on Main is one of several of the town’s fine B&Bs. The building, constructed in 1889, has an opulent turret and lavish gingerbread trim. Its Victorian air doesn’t stop at the front door; the inn is decorated in true-to-the- period elegance with four rooms available, three with private baths.

Other lodgings of note are the historic 1752 Smithfield Inn (where George Washington really did sleep) and Porches on the James B&B, just five miles north of town, with a private beach and boat dock for guests.

At the Smithfield Cultural Arts Center, six artists-in-residence, from painters to potters, keep their second-floor studio doors open for visitors to see their creations come alive. The first floor is made up of four galleries and a giftshop filled with local and regional artwork, such as local artist Percy Cagg’s emerging series on African Americans in Smithfield.

Hunger can be cured on Main Street. And if you want waterfront dining, the place to go is Smithfield Station, a restaurant, sixty-slip marina, and a twenty-two-room lodging complex on the Pagan River. It’s no accident that eight different Smithfield ham dishes are served here starting with crabmeat Smithfield (Chesapeake .Bay lump crab sautéed with the hometown ham and topped with mellow Monterey Jack cheese). This casually romantic, cedar-paneled restaurant is housed in a building inspired by old- time Coast Guard stations, providing an atmosphere where, says co-owner Brian Pack, diners can “come off the boat in T-shirts and shorts or dressed up to propose to their girlfriend.”

A popular gathering place is the Twin’s Ole Towne Inn where you can get down-home cooking such as chicken and dumplings. Every morning, a group of local gentlemen faithfully come for coffee and to dish out the latest town news. They deny it’s gossiping, preferring to call it a “discussion of current events,” says Kathy Walls Mountjoy. A native of Smithfield, Mountjoy lived in Richmond for many years but came home to be with her family. “I think half of my high school class of 1963 is back,” she says. “Smithfield still has the same values we had growing up. I guess we all saw what we had.”

Smithfield’s well-preserved historic district, on the National Register of Historic Places as well as a Virginia Historic Landmark, provides a glimpse into the town’s past with its beautiful blend of Colonial, Federal, and Victorian architecture. Visitors can take a self-guided walking tour of the town’s more than fifty historic gems including the fanciful Queen Anne built in 1901 by P.D. Gwaltney, Jr., and the King-Atkinson house, a Federal period home built circa 1795. (Both buildings will be on the “Spring in Smithfield” house tour held on April 3 and 4.)

The Old Courthouse of 1750 is a good reminder of Smithfield’s Colonial period. It was used as the town’s seat of justice until 1800 when a new county courthouse was established seven miles west of town. It was purchased in 1812 and converted into a Victorian residence. When the building was nearly torn down in 1938 to make way for a town post office, “the ladies in town did what all good Southern women do,” says Anne Barrett Martin, a docent at the courthouse. “They banded together and started having bake sales to raise money.” That same year these enterprising women persuaded the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities to buy it, and, after decades of fundraising and donations, it was restored and pared down to its original three rooms.

Martin, who comes from a long line of Smithfielders, says that same pitch-in spirit lives on in the locals and new residents alike. “Wonderful people are moving in and diving in to help with community activities. Used to be the few of us had to volunteer for sixteen committees each to keep things going,” she laughs. “What’s great is that the newcomers aren’t out to change everything; they are proud of what is.”

Donna Bozza Packer is a freelance writer in Cape Charles, Va.

Locals’ Guide to Smithfield

Going once, going twice…
Catch auction fever on the first Wednesday of each month at the Smithfield Antiques Center, 6:30 p.m. 131 W. Main St., 757-365-0223

Sweet tooth satisfiers
Need a sugar fix? Try Grampy’s Lucky Penny’s homemade ginger cookies or a milkshake at Smithfield Ice Cream Parlor. Still not sated? Splurge on the custard bread pudding with bourbon rum sauce at Smithfield Gourmet Bakery and Café. Grampy’s Lucky Penny, 328 Main St., 757-356-9535 or http://www.grampys.us; Smithfield Gourmet Bakery and Café, 218 Main St., 757-357-0045

Park It at the Pagan
This winding river is a scene-stealer; take it in at Clontz Park on North Church St.

London Calling
If Clark Kent were in town, he’d duck into the old-fashioned telephone booth on Main Street for a quick change. This wood and red-metal beauty was given to the town of Smithfield in 1986 from its sister community, Isle of Wight, England.

Backyard Broadway
Three times a year catch a theatrical production at The Smithfield Little Theatre—in its forty-second season and still going strong. From February 26 to March 13, local and regional actors perform the comedy The Butler Did It. 210 South Church St., 757-357-2501

Sit a spell…
with Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Frost, and a pair of senior sweethearts, all bronze statues seated on benches throughout town. The statues were created by George Lundeen and commissioned by Joseph Luter III, chairman of the board of Smithfield Foods.