On Wednesday, April 25, Principal Debbie Garrett led students through a program to celebrate Earth Day and Arbor Day. The program highlighted ways students could encourage their own families to help the planet, and, highlighted the school’s HOPE (Help Our Planet Earth) Club which is led by sponsors Heather Williams and Barbara Tames.

Guest speaker Catherine Carter spoke about ways students can recycle at home, including how to reduce waste, recycle materials such as plastic, paper and aluminum, and creative ways to reuse everyday materials for new uses. Garrett read two books to the students: one about the life cycle of a mighty oak tree from an acorn and a second accompanied by Louis Armstrong’s 1968 version of “What a Wonderful World.”

The morning’s activities culminated with students, teachers and staff proceeding outdoors to the track area where they planted a Yoshino Cherry Tree with Downtown Revitalization Program Manager Harry Gleason. The cherry tree was purchased with funds donated by the nonprofit organization Valley Beautiful. Valley Beautiful gave the town a grant of $1,600, which was used to purchase and plant trees on the Town Park and at the elementary school.

The name seems appropriate—The James River House. It’s the new name attached to the 140-year-old, three-story frame building that now serves as an “inn” in Downtown Buchanan.

Twin brothers Dan and John Mays are the proprietors, they of the Twin Rivers Outfitters that sits behind the new inn and across Lowe Street on the banks of the James River.

The inn is an endeavor that grew out of Twin Rivers Outfitters, and one that is already complementing their river float business.

The James River House in Buchanan has five guest rooms.

The Mays brothers moved Twin Rivers Outfitters from Glasgow in neighboring Rockbridge County to the banks of the James in Buchanan a couple of years ago. They bought the canoe livery business a couple of years before that, and realized being riverside would be a real plus.

As one of the leading outdoor recreation businesses in the county, they decided it would be nice to have a place in Buchanan’s downtown for more out-of-town customers to stay.

So, when the former antique shop moved across the street and out of what is locally known as the Rogers House, the brothers decided to buy the building, renovate it and turn it into an inn.

It fits nicely into Botetourt County’s tourism plan, too.

The county has just started promoting the James River as a “blue way trail.” It’s called The Upper James River Water Trail and has a website of the same name—www.upperjamesriverwatertrail.com. It tells potential visitors all about floating the James River and promotes restaurants, motels, inns and other businesses that complement the tourist trade.

The James River Inn is the largest of the other two places to stay in the town proper. The Rhein River Inn Restaurant, Bed & Breakfast is south on Main Street and has two rooms available and The Buchanan Rail Car Inn is a block off Main Street in a converted vintage 1934 Hiawatha dining car. Wattstull Court, a motel, is just northeast of town off I-81.

The Mays brothers bought the James River House 18 months ago and spent more than a year doing the renovations themselves. They previewed inn last winter during the town’s annual Christmas Homes Tour. That allowed more than 300 visitors to get a peek at the restoration.

Buchanan Downtown Revitalization Manager Harry Gleason said the home is where many of Buchanan’s residents went for piano lessons when the Rogers family owned it.

More recently, it served as home to James River Antiques.

Dan Mays, during a short tour of the inn, said by early April, they had already booked more than 30 rooms for the summer.

He thinks the inn will be a great place to stay for visitors who want to spend two or three days in the area where they can get on the river, browse the downtown’s collection of antique shops, go to nearby Natural Bridge or Peaks of Otter, take in one of the wineries or enjoy the thousands of acres of nearby national forest. In fact, among the inn’s first customers were some hunters who stayed there last fall.

The house is on the National Register as a Historic Landmark and features details of a prominent family home from the mid to late 1800s, Gleason said.

From Main Street, the prominent two-story porch and original ornate front door greets visitors. That second story porch is one of the features of the inn’s single suite—The James River Suite.

Four of the five guest rooms are named after area rivers, the Jackson, the Maury, the Cowpasture and the James River. The fifth is The Stone Room and is in the basement.

Historic features of the home include its large front hall with ornate staircase, formal parlor and dining room with pocket doors and original mantles, ornate tiles and hardwood floors.

When the Mayses started renovating, they took the interior down to the studs, saved the woodwork and put it back in place. They also moved a double pocket door from upstairs back to where it originally had been between the front parlor and formal dining room.

The brothers did most of the renovations themselves—just as they’d done when they built the headquarters for their canoe livery.

Each guest room has its own bath and each is unique. One includes an antique claw foot bathtub they cleaned up and Mays described as “very comfortable.”

The inn is decorated with a blend of contemporary and antique furnishings. The walls are decorated with an eclectic collection of art by the Mayses’ mother and Dan’s wife and other area artists who are featured in Gallery By The James, a cooperative art gallery that’s next door.

Dan Mays said right now they are getting mostly vacation rentals, some through their listing on Vacation Rental By Owner website, www.vrbo.com/276548.

By having their own guest rooms, Twin River Outfitters also is able to offer packages that combine rooms and river outings.

Visitors can rent rooms individually or the whole house is available. The whole house can accommodate up to 15 people. The rooms also have a mix of beds for a variety of visitors.

The room with the most beds, The Stone Room, is in the basement. It has six bunk beds where a family could sequester the kids if they wanted. The walls are stone and there’s a door to the fenced and walled courtyard on the northeast side of the house. There’s a flat screen TV and Xbox 360, too.

At one time, this basement room was where the home’s owners kept horses, Mays said. They had to break out the stone water trough that ran along one wall when they did renovations.

Mays said they’ll continue their renovation work by landscaping the courtyard. It actually is six or eight feet below the Main Street sidewalk that runs along one side.

As he talks about the courtyard, Mays looks skyward, up the walls of the original clapboard siding to the peak of the roofline. The burgundy paint is new. Mays says it was quite a job being on scaffolding up to the peak of the roof. “I hope we don’t have to paint it again for a while,” Mays added.

For more about the inn and Twin Rivers Outfitters, visit http://canoevirginia.net.

Spring is bursting out all over the Town of Buchanan, just in time for Friday’s annual Arbor Day Celebration.
The hundreds of cherry trees in town are in full blossom and will provide the backdrop for the tree plantings that mark the annual Arbor Day.

The cherry tree blossoms have provided a spectacular display in Buchanan this week. This canopy of white is on Lowe Street. The projected peak cherry tree blossom was predicted to take place March 23 through April 3. So far, this projection is right on target. Trees are considered to be at peak bloom when 70 percent of the flowers are open and the bloom periods can last up to 14 days with good weather conditions.

The fifth annual Arbor Day Celebration will be held on the Town Park on Lowe Street Friday, April 1 at 10 a.m.
The town invites students of all area schools, home school students, parents with toddlers, day cares and the general public to attend this year’s special event that also will be part of the town’s ongoing Bicentennial Celebration.

Activities include a brief program with guest speakers including Mayor Tom Middlecamp, Botetourt County Board of Supervisors representative Terry Austin, Paul Revell with the Virginia Department of Forestry Tree City USA, Bob Boeren of the Virginia Department of Forestry and Carol Underwood of Valley Beautiful.

During the program, the group will unveil the Buchanan Arbor Day Donors Plaque and activities will culminate with the planting of Yoshino cherry trees, river birches, sugar maples, flowering pears and hornbeam trees. These trees have been selected for their seasonal interest with the long-term goal of adding to the beauty and quality of life for area residents.

The event will conclude with light refreshments provided by members of the Buchanan Special Events Committee and Buchanan Town Improvement Society.

The Town Park was initially established on land purchased by the members of the Buchanan Town Improvement Society in 1903. The group established ball fields, tennis and basketball courts and a playground for local children.
Following its completion, the park was donated to the Town of Buchanan and has served the community for 108 years. Early landscape plantings on the park consisted of willow trees and 12 linden trees planted by Buchanan Elementary School teacher Emma Martin and her students.

This year, the town received a $1,600 grant from Valley Beautiful to plant trees. This is the third consecutive year that the organization has supported the town’s revitalization efforts.
The Virginia Department of Forestry donated white pine seedlings that have been given to each student at Buchanan Elementary School, and will be available to those attending the activities on Friday.

The town is matching the money donated through the Valley Beautiful grant through public donations and in-kind services. For those who wish to participate, there is still time to make a donation to the Buchanan Arbor Day Fund.  Applications may be found on the Events Page on the town website at www.townofbuchanan.com.
For additional information or to make a donation, contact the Buchanan Downtown Revitalization Program at 254-1212.

American flags fluttered from light poles while several thousand visitors enjoyed Saturday’s Mountain Magic in Fall Festival in Downtown Buchanan. Photo by Ed McCoy

Things really came together this year to mark Buchanan’s 16th Mountain Magic In Fall Festival, according to Town Revitalization Manager Harry Gleason.

The weather was perfect for the 130 vendors who set up on Main Street and the thousands of festival visitors who kept the downtown filled most of the day. Those visitors had the opportunity to browse dozens of antiques, crafts and other booths, eat a variety of foods and enjoy seven hours of bluegrass music.

“So many people pooled their talents and resources to make this year’s event one of the best to date,” Gleason said. He said the members of the Buchanan Special Events Committee—Dale and Gloria Carter, Billy and Barbara Stull, Teri McCoy, Tom and Peggy Ramsey, Larry and Vickie Vines, Jim and Patricia Kidd, Kim Bennett, Mike and Jessie Burton, Charles and Elizabeth Provost—as well as other volunteers and donors from throughout the community were instrumental in making the festival a success.

Donors included Bank of Botetourt, which supported the musical portion of the festival with a grant from the bank’s Art By the James Series. Many Buchanan area businesses supported the promotional efforts. Blue Ridge Farm Center donated the music stage and volunteers from the James River High School Key Club helped clean up.

Gleason thanked Dorothy Barnett and her JRHS art students for the juried art show, Buchanan Town Council and Mayor Tom Middlecamp, Paul Petty, Clarence Stinnett, Pat and Pedro Brooks, Molly O’Dell, Julia Anderson, Josephine Powell, Nathaniel Gardener and the Botetourt County Sheriff’s Department for their help and support.

This year’s festival attracted vendors from Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina and throughout Virginia.