Lost in Translation: Learning the Shore by Its Street Names

By Linda Cicoira

I marvel at the way folks have adapted to using street names when giving directions on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. No one ever did that when I was a kid. Most of the roads were marked with numbers or identified by landmarks for places in the counties. 

I spent a couple of decades on the other side of Virginia. When I returned home, people kept referring to roads that I had never heard of. I felt like I was in a fog. I was constantly asking, “Where is that?” as if I had just arrived here for the first time. Then, I would be given directions that made me feel like I was on another planet. 

In the olden days, landmarks were all the descriptions we needed. Of course, back then, Lankford Highway was only known as Route 13, or as simply “the highway.” 

Many of the old landmarks are either gone or hanging on by a board or two. There is no longer Fork’s Grill in Onancock, no Horne & Stauffer furniture store in Onley, no Sears catalog or Montgomery Ward catalog stores in Exmore, no Wright’s Seafood Restaurant in Atlantic, no C.P. Savage or Campbell’s grocery stores in Painter, no Steven’s Grocery in Keller, no Fisherman’s Inn or Lecato’s store in Quinby, no Wachapreague Hotel in the Little City By the Sea, no James’ Shoe Stores in Exmore or Nassawadox, no more pie or anything else from Paul’s Restaurant in Cheriton, no old jail in Eastville, no laundromat at Mappsburg, no IGA in Mappsville, and no Ruth Johnson’s Store in Jenkin’s Bridge.

Yes, the Shore had changed. I didn’t need no stinking directions. I knew my way around. Or so I thought. I’ve been back for about 18 years. But those dang 9-1-1 addresses still cause me trouble. Everyone else appears to be ahead of me by leaps and bounds. 

I still call that Accomac crossroad the Whispering Pines Intersection. The old motel is long gone. I worked at the front desk there for four days in the early 1980s. I quit because getting to a job at 4 a.m. didn’t work for me. It must be time to call that area the Tasley Firehouse Intersection. I’ll try.

I have no idea what the road into Accomac there is called. Maybe it is WESR Road, or Elks Lodge Road, or T.C. Walker School Road. At the town line, it turns into Front Street.

The old school is long gone. The lodge is confusing because it is officially called the “Onancock Elks Lodge No. 1766,” and it is definitely not in Onancock. I googled the radio station’s address, and artificial intelligence answered. It stated that “WESR Radio’s transmitter and antenna site is located near U.S. Route 13, one mile northeast of Tasley.”

It doesn’t know the name of the street either. Yippee!!

Now let’s talk about what is frequently referred to locally as Coastal Highway in Onley. First off, the town is not on the coast. Secondly, the official name is Coastal Boulevard. It is on “Old 13.” It was called that because it was a small stretch of Route 13 before the mostly straight path up and down the Shore was constructed. I was not around back then. But it was common knowledge in my youth.

It’s equally confusing when the old hospital is mentioned. Are people talking about the one that was demolished not many years ago? That had been the new hospital for years. Or do they mean the original one that must be the old-old hospital? 

Getting back to the roads, I think some were made because we couldn’t remember all the numbers. They branched off of Route 13 and ended in the town we called them. For example, Wachapreague Road led to Wachapreague, Parksley Road led to Parksley, Belle Haven Road led to Belle Haven, etc. You get my drift. 

I guess someone named Bradford was honored for the path I used to call the Quinby-Wachapreague Road. 

The former railroad crossing near Painter was called Bennett’s Crossing. Now I hear it being referred to as Coal Kiln Crossing. Why do we keep calling places crossings when the train tracks are gone? Maybe we should rename it the Vineyard since it was near where the Shore’s first grapes were grown and where the winery once stood. 

I think Chincoteague Road, even though it is also Route 175, and the bridge that once overlooked the major rail area in Cape Charles called “The Hump,” are among the only constants.

I will never use the name we always called Silver Beach Road. Occohannock Neck Road was invented to make everyone learn to spell the native name is what I believe.  

The road that is the most confusing to me is the one that changes names every few miles. It starts near Onancock as Savageville Road, then it is Bobtown Road, then Boston Road, and finally Shield’s Bridge Road until it gets to the town of Belle Haven and takes on a street name. 

Just beyond Onley is a bridge that has always been called “The Overpass.” That changed a few years ago when it officially became the Phillip M. Daffin Memorial Overpass, in honor of a man’s life and service. That same thinking gave Route 13 the name Charles M. Lankford Jr. Memorial Highway, and changed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, also known as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel, to the official name the Lucius J. Kellam Jr. Bridge-Tunnel.

 That’s a lot to take in.