A day in Downtown Fredericksburg

On Friday September 26th at 10 AMish I started on my journey into downtown Fredericksburg. I started by driving down from the top of Princess Anne street. I noticed that the top of the street contained mostly automotive shops and either fast food joints or little mom and pop diners but that was not what I found so intriguing; that part of town looked very similar to something I would imagine a late 50’s early 60’s town would look like. I found an interesting biker type shop called Big Daddy Leather, the store was populated mostly by large men who were more interested in socializing than shopping.

I headed down Princess Anne to the main downtown area. I parked my car across the street from the Court House and proceeded to walk to the corner of Princess Anne and William Street and found a cute coffee shop called Hyperion Espresso. I made a point to ask the barista if this coffee shop was independently owned and she replied in the positive which made me very happy because I believe that Starbucks rules the world…even though I work there. Surprisingly the coffee shop was well patroned for 10ish in the morning and the customers ran that gambit; business men on a coffee break, students, and many ladies that seemed to be over 40. Most of them were sipping their coffee from large mugs provided by the coffee shop, in other words, most of the patrons were eating and sipping in store rather than taking their caffeine to go. This was certainly a leisure activity.

After grabbing my small soy chai latte I headed down Williams street to Caroline street. This was such a lovely street full of little shops that seemed to be generally targeted to women. I stumbled upon that beautiful little tea shop that was buried inside of what seemed like a business owners co-op. It was called Tea Tyme I have to remember to take my mom there when she visits from NY but that is besides the point. Anyway, the shop was adorable but the only soul I saw in this “co-op” were the people behind the counter at their shops. The shop had a menu of tasty teas as well as some merchandise like little knick-knacks and mugs, it was very novelty but definitely a good find. This little shop made me feel warm and brought back memories of my youth when my mom would take me in the Manhattan for tea and cakes at Serendipity.

I strolled further down Caroline Street an noticed an abundance of antique shops with all sorts of things ranging from old signs to beautiful (and expensive) furniture. The strange thing is that these shops had zero customers, not a single person! I found it odd but then realized what time it was and figured that people would probably shop a bit later. I have to say that the coolest shop I found was a real life 50’s style pharmacy. It was called Goolrick’s and there was a soda jerk and a pharmacist. I have never actually seen one of these places…other than in movies. I also noticed a trolley system which was really cute and added to the novelty of the town.

I also must mention this one little shop I went into that turned out to be a museum called the Hugh Mercer Apothecary this was a really interesting find. The docents were dressed in 18th century garb and had a great knowledge of the different types of herbs that cure all ailments. There was a family of 3 on a tour and they were so excited to be there.

In the end, I think that the next time I go on the shopping field trip I will probably do it a bit earlier. I think that the shopping habit of the average person do not take place at 10ish through 11ish on a Friday morning…well except for the coffee shop patrons.

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