The picturesque harbor town of Onancock (pop. 1,525, o-NAN-cock), on the Chesapeake Bay two miles west of US-13 via Hwy-179, is one of the nicest towns on the Eastern Shore. A short walking tour of over a dozen historical homes and churches begins at perhaps the finest mansion on the Eastern Shore, the Kerr Place (Tues.–Sat. 10 am–4 pm; $3) at 69 Market Street, built in 1799 and now home to the offices and museum of the Eastern Shore Historical Society (757/787-8012). Another historic curiosity is the 150-year-old Hopkins and Bros. General Store, on the wharf at 2 Market Street, which in the past has sold everything from sweet potatoes to postcards—and now serves as a sort of mini welcome center. A great taste of Onancock life awaits inside the Corner Bakery (757/787-4520), at 36 Market Street, where great doughnuts and fresh coffee are served up to a mostly local crowd, while a great place for dinner is Armando’s (757/787-8044) at 10 North Street, serving a mix of Italian and South American food that’s good enough to plan a weekend around. After dinner, catch a flick at Onancock’s nifty 1950s movie theater, the Roseland (757/787-2209) on Market Street; and to savor it all, stay the night at the lovingly restored Victorian-era Montrose House ($90 and up; 757/787-8887), set in gorgeous Italianate gardens, off Market Street near Hwy-13.
Onancock was born and grew up around its natural deep-water harbor, and the town wharf is still the place to catch the seasonal ferry across Chesapeake Bay to Tangier Island, an evocative old place where things seem to have hardly changed since colonial times. The few hundred people who live here year-round have a unique and almost indecipherably archaic accent—which some trace back to 17th-century Cornwall, England—and earn their livelihoods catching crabs and the occasional oyster from Chesapeake Bay. Tangier Island is best known for its soft-shell crabs, which are sold all over the eastern United States.
Visiting Tangier Island is easy, but takes some advance planning. Boats leave once a day from Onancock Wharf ($24; 757/891-2240); travel time is one hour and 15 minutes each way, leaving around 10 am and returning around 3 pm. This means visitors returning on the ferry have only about two hours on the island, though Shirley’s Bay View Inn (757/891-2396) and Hilda Crockett’s Chesapeake House (757/891-2331) make an overnight stay possible (each charges around $100 a night), which is about the only way to have any kind of close encounter with the tourist-shy locals. Hilda’s also serves meals, and good seafood is available at the Fisherman’s Corner Restaurant (757/891-2900). Bike rentals are available on the island, no part of which of which is more than 5 feet above sea level.
