Sperryville old town
— the porch lights coming on along 211.
Not only on a wall.
Sperryville old town, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“A village of barn-red storefronts and tin-roof porches along US-211, where the road begins its climb to Thornton Gap and the Shenandoah ridge. Antique dealers, Copper Fox whiskey, Pen Druid beer, and the Thornton River running cold behind the buildings. About three hundred and thirty people live here. — from the studio
The place, in three passes.
Sperryville sits in Rappahannock County, Virginia, along US Route 211, about eight miles east of Thornton Gap — the northern automobile entrance to Shenandoah National Park. The village was settled in the late eighteenth century and named for Francis Thornton Sperry, who operated a mill along the Thornton River in the 1820s. The population today is roughly three hundred and thirty. Many of the old apple-packing sheds and warehouses along the river have been adapted into antique stores, a distillery, a brewery, and a small clutch of restaurants.
The village is best walked rather than driven. Park along Main Street or behind the old Sperryville Schoolhouse, now an artisan market, and the rest is on foot. Copper Fox Distillery offers tastings of single-malt and rye made on site. Pen Druid Brewing operates from a converted apple shed at the south end of town. The Schoolhouse 1908 market and the Headmaster's Pub keep the through-traffic fed. Shenandoah's Thornton Gap entrance is a ten-minute drive west; Skyline Drive runs north and south from there.
The village turns most fully in October, when the Blue Ridge foliage above town pulls weekend traffic up the gap and the orchards in the surrounding hollows are picking. Apple country surrounds Sperryville on three sides: Hartland Orchard, Mount Vernon Farm, and the older sheds along the river. Pen Druid releases their farmhouse ales on a quiet seasonal calendar. The village empties in midwinter and fills again in spring, when the redbud and dogwood line the road climbing west to Thornton Gap.
