DOWN MEMORY LANE
Feb. 7, 1963
After over 22 years service Guy Burke resigned Jan. 31, 1963 as custodian of Rappahannock County Jail. Mr. Burke became jailer May 1, 1940.
For these many years he and Mrs. Burke have lived at the jail, cared for and fed the numerous inmates who come and go.
Mr. and Mrs. Burke moved Thursday, to their home “The Pillbox” on Gay Street.
Ernest Lillard of Washington has accepted the position of custodian, and with his family moved into the building Saturday.
Also missing from the scene on Courthouse Square are the Burke’s two famous white geese (which chased all the ladies). He moved them Tuesday to their new coop on Gay Street.
Mr. Burke said he went to the post office one morning since he has moved and as he left, from force of habit, he headed for the jail.
Mr. Burke still reads the water meters for the Town of Washington and continues as courthouse custodian.
The Post Office at Amissville has had a complete facelifting on the inside and just about everything in it is new. The walls have new paneling on them. The lobby boasts a whole new streamlined division section with some combination mailboxes and glassed-in bulletin boards. In the office proper a new desk, safe, mail table, rural mail bins and general delivery case has been added. Also new (though she has worked there over 18 years) is Mrs. Clifton Nethers, who has been postmaster only a short time, and Mrs. Franklin Williams, appointed clerk in August. The only old fixtures left are Charlie Compton and J. E. Ellmore. Mr. Compton has been rural carrier for 31 years and has one of the longest routes in the state. Mr. Ellmore has been star route from Warrenton to Washington, Va., since 1948.
Feb. 1, 1990
Most of the country stores around Rappahannock County haven’t seen much change through the years.
Many stores haven’t had an exterior facelift, much less changed owners. They remain the community gathering place where local folks can drop in for a gallon of milk, a quick snack or soda, a friendly chat with neighbors and a fill-up from the gas pumps for the trip home.
But things are changing in the old general stores. “We’ve already dug up our tanks,” Castleton Store owner Doris Dennis said sadly, adding that since the store has been owned by her husband Robert’s family, gasoline pumps have been part of the general store's service.’
A law passed by Congress back in 1984 is changing all that.
According to the law, which was amended in 1986, the Environmental Protection Agency was required to establish guidelines and regulations to protect human health and the environment from the potential hazards of leaking underground fuel storage tanks — the same tanks which store gasoline, kerosene, diesel fuel and heating oil at large, urban service stations, truck stops and the thousands of rural country stores across the United States.
Will Rappahannock have a golf course and country club in the southern part of the county?
It will, if Dr. and Mrs. Berkley Rish gain approval for their proposal from the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors.
They have applied for a special exception permit for a country club on a 138-acre parcel they bought on the east side of U.S. 522 between Woodville and Scrabble. The property , to be known as Fox Creek Country Club would have an 18-hole golf course, with nine holes to be put in as part of the first phase of construction and nine holes to be added later.
The proposal also includes a clubhouse and lodge which would have 20 guest rooms for overnight accommodations and a dining room seating 50. The lodge, to be built of natural materials including log, cedar siding, and rock would also have an indoor pool and gymnasium. In addition the application asks for five house sites.