After a full day of exploring the towns of Harper’s Ferry and Charles Town, my road trip took me further west through the mountainous eastern panhandle region of West Virginia to the towns of Martinsburg and Berkeley Springs.
Martinsburg
En route to my next stayover in Berkeley Springs, I stopped for a few hours and wandered around the town of Martinsburg, the county seat of Berkeley County with a cute little historic downtown district. Being the architecture and history dork that I am, I started out in Martinsburg by checking out the Martinsburg Roundhouse, a historic train hub along the B&O railroad rebuilt after Confederate General “Stonewall” Jackson’s destruction of area B&O railroad assets during the Civil War. The Roundhouse is only open for tours on certain days seasonally, but happened to be hosting a holiday craft fair so I was able to walk through.
My next stop was the Belle Boyd House, a home once occupied by Isabella Maria Boyd, who went on to become one of the most famous woman spies for the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Her former home in Martinsburg today houses the Berkeley County Museum with detailed exhibits on Martinsburg and the Civil War.
I grabbed a self-guided walking tour map from the museum and ventured out through the streets of Martinsburg, admiring all of the architecture and the “Main Street, USA” feel of Queen Street that runs through the heart of town. It was a quiet Sunday morning in November, so not a lot of the shops along Queen Street were open, but I imagine in peak summer season it’s a busier place.
At the southeastern part of Martinsburg sits the General Adam Stephen House, the home of a military officer who served under George Washington in both the French & Indian War and the American Revolutionary War, and helped found Martinsburg.
Berkeley Springs
After a few hours of wandering Martinsburg, I continued on another 40 minutes to the town of Berkeley Springs, also known as Bath, America’s first spa town. George Washington and his family and friends came here for the curative powers of the area’s warm mineral springs, and established the town of Bath around them. The town came to be formally known as Berkeley Springs for postal purposes, to avoid confusion with another town named Bath in Virginia.
The biggest draw today in Berkeley Springs is still the utilization of its mineral waters. You can still get a Roman bath in the historic bath house at Berkeley Springs State Park. Unfortunately it was closed for renovation while I was there – guess I’ll have to go back! I still was able to enjoy drinking the mineral waters. There is a free pump in the park where you can fill your water bottle or even take jugs of it home. Better yet – a short drive away is Berkeley Springs Brewing Company where you can drink beer that’s brewed with the town’s famous mineral water!
Spa days aside, the town itself is fun to walk around. You can pick up a self-guided walking tour from a little visitor center on Fairfax Street and see all of the historic homes and buildings, including the eerie Berkeley Springs Castle that sits up on the side of the mountain overlooking the state park. Washington Street is the main street that runs through Berkeley Springs and has a stretch of shops and restaurants to browse.
For lunch, I visited the beautiful Country Inn, a historic hotel that sits on Washington Street. I didn’t stay here, but wished I had, it was such a beautiful hotel. My accommodations were the Sure Stay Plus by Best Western about two miles down the road from the heart of Berkeley Springs.
One of the most spontaneous things I did in Berkeley Springs ended up being one of my favorite things. On the evening I arrived, I didn’t have anything planned, and was saving the historic downtown area for the next day. I think I typed “scenic” or something like that into Google Maps and found Prospect Overlook as one of the results nearby, so I jumped in the car to go check it out. I took a winding drive up the side of Cacapon Mountain (pronounced ke-KAY-pen, of Native American origin and meaning “medicine waters”) to a little cutout on the side of the road at Prospect Overlook. From here, you are looking out over the Potomac River and three states at once – West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Even during an overcast dusk, the views were breathtakingly beautiful. Actual purple mountains majesty.
Berkeley Springs was the perfect ending to a spectacular autumn road trip. Read more about my other stops along the way here:
- Frederick, MD
- Antietam National Battlefield, Sharpsburg, MD (Coming Soon!)
- Harper’s Ferry, WV
- Charles Town, WV
C to Shining C 