Our First Visit to Orange, VA
Travel back in time to 1996: Sam, the budding History, and English double-major were accepted in the July 1996 Montpelier Summer Archaeology Program at Montpelier. He stayed on Montpelier’s grounds with about a dozen other university students and wielded his trowel at the Mount Pleasant site on the property.
Sam and Sharon, fellow students at James Madison University, had been dating for well over a year. Sharon drove down from Northern VA on Saturdays to visit Sam. They would grab sandwiches at Sparks Deli (now Elmwood at Sparks) and have a picnic in Taylor Park (the park across the street from the inn.)
Courtesy of Montpelier: 1997 photo of the continuing dig at the Mt. Pleasant site.
Fast forward to September 15, 2006: Sam and Sharon just purchased the Holladay House Bed and Breakfast on Main Street. After a morning of directing the movers, they walked past Taylor Park to Elmwood at Sparks to grab lunch and take a moment to celebrate. They met Randy Cooper, who opened Elmwood at Sparks just 6 months prior and joked about being the two new kids on the block.
As Sam and Sharon exited Elmwood at Sparks, they ran into Sam’s summer archaeology director from Montpelier! She was still directing the archaeology program at Montpelier; and Sam pointed to the Holladay House Bed and Breakfast and said, “We just bought that today!”
Over the last 10 years, Sam and Sharon have shared many meals with his archaeology director and still take lunch breaks at Elmwood at Sparks.
