Richmond Times Dispatch
Bill Geroux
August 5, 2007

The beach road has boutique stores and a Ben & Jerry's ice cream shop but also a hard-used pub with Harleys often parked in front.

The best-known people in Yorktown since the days of George Washington and Lord Cornwallis were the late restaurateurs Nick and Mary Mathews, whose generosity has left its mark throughout the town.

Yorktown (population: nearly 200) is not much like neighboring Williamsburg or Jamestown, which form the more-heralded points of Tidewater's "historic triangle." For many of Yorktown's visitors, that's a large part of its appeal.

By any standard, Yorktown is historic American soil.

It was here, in October 1781, that a British army under Gen. Charles Cornwallis was trapped under the heavy artillery of Continental and French forces. His surrender effectively ended the Revolutionary War and guaranteed America's independence.

The Yorktown national battlefields extend south and west from the town, along a 7˝-mile tour route. The tour, which costs $10 per vehicle, shows how the Continental Army and its French allies maneuvered artillery close enough to lob shells into Yorktown, where the British had taken shelter. The British could not escape by sea because a French fleet blocked the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.

Last stop on the tour is Surrender Field, a grassy meadow where Cornwallis' men formally -- and literally -- laid down their arms. An exhibit near the field describes the anger and contempt shown by some of the defeated British toward American fighters they considered inferior. The British tried repeatedly to surrender to the French instead.

The battlefields tend to interest adults more than young children.

"I liked looking at the cannons, but some of the story was kind of difficult to understand," said 10-year-old Natalie Rohn of Seattle, who traveled there recently with her grandmother.

Just northwest of the National Park Service visitor center, the 98-foot Yorktown Victory Monument rises on a high bluff overlooking the point where the lower York empties into the bay. Atop the monument is a figure of Liberty with arms outspread. The figure replaced a prior Liberty that was decapitated by a bolt of lightning in July 1942.

The waters off Yorktown are often full of vessels, from fishing boats to container ships to Navy destroyers taking on ordnance at the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station just upriver.

A defense analyst said the weapons station handled nuclear weapons during the Cold War and stored hundreds of them afterward, but it no longer has any. The Navy will not comment on the subject.

From the monument the land slopes down to Yorktown proper, a small cluster of homes and businesses atop the bluff and below it along the beach.

Yorktown is not an incorporated town but a village in York County owned mostly by the county, state and federal governments. It is the seat of government for York County.

Atop the bluff, the town consists of about 14 oversized blocks, dotted with preserved or restored Colonial-era buildings, including Grace Church and Carrot Tree at Cole Diggs House. Some of the buildings are occupied by art and gift shops and bed-and-breakfasts. Parts of the town resemble side streets in Williamsburg, with picket fences and hidden gardens.

Below the bluff, Water Street runs along the riverfront, lined with businesses and public facilities. A $25 million redevelopment of parts of the riverfront in 2004 added public docks and walkways, restaurants and upscale shops, and a village green for concerts and other activities. Information is available at www.yorkcounty.gov/tourism and http://www.riverwalklanding.com/.

York County officials hope the project will finally help Yorktown regain its economic momentum after 226 mostly slow years. A prosperous tobacco port before the Revolution, the town has struggled since.

For much of the past 50 years, its chief attraction was Nick's Seafood Pavilion, a sprawling restaurant that stood in the shadow of the Coleman Bridge, which links Yorktown to Gloucester Point.

The Seafood Pavilion drew diners from across the country. It offered not only food but exotic statuary and the charisma of Nick and Mary Mathews, fiercely patriotic Greek immigrants who shared their success in the form of donations to virtually every institution in Yorktown.

After Nick's and Mary's deaths, Hurricane Isabel heavily damaged the restaurant in 2003, along with most of the Yorktown waterfront. The Seafood Pavilion was demolished and replaced with -- ouch -- a parking garage.

But the restaurant's former chef still prepares some of the old dinner menu at the Duke of York Motel, the town's only motel. And a new restaurant, Nick's Riverwalk, features some of the Seafood Pavilion's unique décor, along with photos of Nick and Mary. In one photo, they are chatting with John Wayne.

Also along Water Street are the Watermen's Museum, the Ben & Jerry's, the Waterstreet Landing restaurant and the no-frills Yorktown Pub, long a favorite of locals. The new public walkway leads all the way through town to the state-run Yorktown Victory Center, which offers historical exhibits.

Yorktown's white-sand public beach is fortified against storms with a parallel line of rock barriers, or groins, designed to trap and hold the sand. The barriers have created a string of crescent-shaped swimming areas, roped off at the ends. Caution: Jellyfish sometimes seize control of the lower York in late July and August.

On a recent afternoon, the beach was full of sunbathers and families.

"It's nice here," said Ron Williams, a road construction supervisor from Gloucester, watching his kids splash one another. "The water's cleaner than on the Gloucester side. And I like the pub."

A longstanding joke is that Yorktown shuts down after dark.

But lately, people in an upscale condo complex on the bluffs have complained the waterfront is getting too loud at night.

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