CAPE CHARLES
Watson's Hardware sits on Mason Avenue, the center of the business district - and the community.
The store holds an eclectic mix of hardware and tourist fare. Locals and visitors gather inside to shop and gossip.
On a recent afternoon, owner Chip Watson pulled a dusty plastic bag from a shelf and revealed its contents: a 50-year-old copy of The Virginian-Pilot from April 11, 1964. The paper featured more than 100 pages on the new Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel and the brilliant Tidewater future officials thought it would help create.
One story predicted dazzling growth in two decades.
"Beaches on Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean will be the summertime playground for the East," it said.
Business would boom, and Tidewater, according to the writer, would join a stretch of development from New York that he called the "Atlantic Coast Megalopolis."
The megalopolis never came. And as Watson, a 20-year-old college student when the bridge opened, acknowledged, the Eastern Shore "hasn't changed a whole lot."
The promise of development and growth shined on the Eastern Shore 50 years ago. About 12 miles from the new span, Cape Charles seemed poised for better times. But, generations later, residents of the town, and Northampton County, remain ambivalent about growth.
The population of Cape Charles has dropped from 2,041 in 1960 to about 1,000 today. The surrounding Northampton County has fallen from nearly 17,000 residents to about 12,400 in the same time.
A state canvass from 1960 showed that the top employers were related to seafood and produce packing. Northampton County, the report noted, was the top vegetable-farming county in the state.
The industry on the shore has changed little, with jobs in government and health care supplementing traditional employment in farming, aquaculture and commercial fishing. The unemployment rate on the Shore remains higher than in the rest of the state.
All the while, thousands of vehicles speed past shore communities every day on U.S. 13.
Several factors curb residential development on the Shore. Cape Charles and Northampton County zoning laws generally require large lots. And a regular commute costs, at a minimum, $10 per day.
According to a bridge-tunnel survey, only about 120 Shore residents commute regularly to Hampton Roads.
The tunnel provided Shore residents with better access to health care and shopping, said John Wescoat, a nursery owner in Eastville with local family ties that go back to Colonial times. A trip to Norfolk no longer takes a ferry ride and an entire day. But the overall character has changed little, he said.
"People either like the Eastern Shore as it is and elect to make a go of it, or they leave the area," he said.
Private development boosted Cape Charles in the mid-2000s, with scores of waterfront condos and homes built in the Bay Creek community, along with a marina, two golf courses and an upscale restaurant.
The real estate crash hit hard. Banks now offer properties at a fraction of their boom prices. Real estate values have plummeted.
Watson left the Eastern Shore for college and returned several years later to buy the hardware store on Mason Avenue. If someone is interested in property, Watson Realty has a desk at the front.
Watson said the housing boom brought new life, but also a few unscrupulous out-of-town investors. People lost homes and savings. Real estate sales have only recently begun to perk back up, he said.
"I'd like to see it prosper," said Watson, who just turned 70. "It's bound to happen. No question about it happening."
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel Commission has given preliminary approval to build a second tunnel at Thimble Shoal, with construction scheduled to begin in 2016. Commissioner Wayne Coleman said a new underwater passage would strengthen a vital link for emergencies and economic development.
Coleman, a Norfolk businessman, said a new tunnel, estimated to cost around $800 million, would bring needed construction jobs to Eastern Shore residents.
"There's great opportunity," said Coleman, who ran for the state Senate, "but it has to be done with eyes open."
Patrick Hand, an architect and developer, moved from Virginia Beach to a large farm outside Cape Charles almost 20 years ago. He wanted space and a rural setting to raise his children.
When he arrived, the downtown was at a low point. Hand remembers homes selling for $14,000 or less. By 2007, modest homes needing renovations were starting at $100,000, he said. The town seemed a perfect canvas for Hand to design and develop. On a recent tour, he pointed out redeveloped businesses along Mason Street - an art gallery, coffee shop, restaurant and hotels.
He redeveloped an old building into a boutique hotel called Blue and ran its reservations from his cellphone. Now, Hand is looking to convert a vacant grocery store into a pedestrian mall.
Hand sees the future as a mix of locals and transplanted retirees, with an economy driven by traditional Shore jobs and tourism. A small town that welcomes newcomers but doesn't expect big changes.
"People come here by choice," he said.
Cape Charles Mayor Dora Sullivan moved from Virginia Beach almost 20 years ago. She wanted a community where she knew her neighbors.
"You come here to fit in," she said.
Sullivan and her husband bought a fixer-upper, joined the volunteer rescue squad, and threw themselves into the community. She has served on the Town Council since 2002. The town needs to grow, she said.
"Maybe it takes more than 50 years," she said, standing behind the counter of her office supply store. "Maybe you do it right if you wait more than 50 years."
Louis Hansen, 757-446-2341, louis.hansen@pilotonline.com