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FRONT ROYAL — At Bel Air on Happy Creek Road, history comes alive through 250 years of families who lived there, guests they hosted and renovations they’ve made.

The 1795 Classical Revival brick and stucco house at 269 Happy Creek Road, with its sweeping porches that overlook the downtown, is the ancestral home of Lucy Buck, a famous Civil War diarist who recorded her accounts with her sister and parents as the house changed hands about 15 times during the war, every time troops from either side needed a place to stay.

The house will be featured along with several other historic downtown houses on the Historic Garden Week tour hosted by the Garden Club of Warren County on April 15. The tour is one of dozens of tours being held in communities throughout Virginia in mid-April.

Situated on a hill above Happy Creek, Bel Air provided a respite and exceptional lookout, said current homeowner Jeff LeHew, 62, who descends from Peter LeHew, founding father of Front Royal, previously named LeHewtown after he purchased a 200-acre property there in 1754.

Peter LeHew sold the property to the Buck Family, and Capt. Thomas Buck built the house, which his family owned for about 110 years until they sold it to the Downing family in 1906. Jeff LeHew’s father, Larry, then purchased the rundown house in the early 1970s.

“He was able to save this house,” LeHew said of his father. “He and Mom took a lot of great pride in restoring it.”

Since inheriting the house from his father in 2020, LeHew has been restoring the outside of the house, before he addresses any concerns inside.

“I promised him that I would keep this house in the family,” he said.

The local tour will highlight the history of the town and historic Chester Street, said third-time chairwoman Beth DeBergh.

“This one is more about history,” she said. “I think it’s a very rich history. It’s different, and I like it.”

LeHew was 12 when he and his family moved into Bel Air. His family added a breakfast room off of a dining room that had been added in 1906/07.

Above the breakfast room, the LeHews added upstairs rooms that offered another access point to the attic where previous owners had added plexiglass to preserve signatures of residents and guests from over the decades, including those of the Buck family.

The Buck Family, which LeHew said enslaved several people who left during the Civil War, survived the conflict. Lucy Buck later moved with her sister to a small house at 64 Chester St., which they built in 1904 after the family’s financial downturn. The Buck House, nicknamed Cozy Corner, is another downtown building featured during Virginia’s 90th Historic Garden Week, along with J.S. Petty-Sumption House and the three houses in the Warren Heritage Society Village on Chester Street.

Bel Air sits on a 24-acre lot northeast of Main Street and includes a stable and paddock for horses, which LeHew keeps for fox hunting.

Visitors to the house on April 15 will get to tour the original dining room, hall and parlor, which feature several reproductions of local Civil War scenes by famed artists Mort Kunstler and John Paul Strain. Two prints in the hall are copies of originals that hung in the house while LeHew’s father lived there and which LeHew has since removed to a home he owns in Rockland.

Receiving prime placement above a fireplace in the parlor is a Kunstler painting of sisters Lucy and Laura Buck, which imagines their meeting with Robert E. Lee when he and his troops stayed at the house.

The tour will also feature the following properties:

• Ivy Lodge, at 101 Chester St., which dates to 1819 and will serve as the tour headquarters for the tour. The house is one of the few historic architectural structures surviving on Chester Street. It was built by George Tyler in the 1850s, and Dr. Bernard Samuels donated it to the town for a public library a century later. Many others have lived there too, and it’s featured in more political, social, religious, patriotic and cultural events than any other place still standing in Front Royal. It now houses the Warren County Heritage Society and a museum.

• Belle Boyd Cottage, at 101 Chester St., behind Ivy Lodge, which was the home of infamous Confederate spy Belle Boyd. The information that Boyd gathered on Union troop dispositions helped Gen. Stonewall Jackson win the Battle of Front Royal (May 23, 1862). Her efforts also landed her in Washington’s Old Capital Prison. After the war, the cottage was an apartment building until it was donated to the Warren Heritage Society in 1982 and was moved 2.5 blocks from its original location. The house contains period pieces and items connected with Belle Boyd.

The cottage features a garden that won the Garden Club of Warren County the prestigious Garden Club of Virginia Commonwealth Award and is now maintained by the local master gardeners.

• Balthis House, at 55 Chester St., which dates to 1787 and is named for the William Balthis Family, who lived there from 1838 to 1908. It’s the oldest surviving house in Front Royal. In 2000, the Warren Heritage Society purchased the house, with its spacious gardens and several dependencies in the rear.

• The Buck House, at 64 Chester St., owned by Doug and Cathy Gleason. It’s a typical example of Folk Victorian architecture, with decorative trim on the porches and a beautifully carved newel post on the main staircase, a tour brochure explains. The house’s historical significance derives largely from Lucy Buck’s posthumous reputation as a Civil War diarist. Many of the family’s letters and other artifacts were found in the attic.

• J.S. Petty-Sumption House, at 123 Chester St., which dates to 1788 and is owned by Bill Cammack. One of Front Royal’s most significant historic log homes, it was built by George Cheek, one of the landowners named in the 1788 Charter incorporating Front Royal. Records show that James Petty lived in the house in 1831. In 1923, the property was sold to the Warren County School Board. At that time, the house was bought by Charles Franklin Sumption and moved across the street to its present site. The home has antique pine floors, massive fireplaces and a fenced courtyard.

Chester Street is also part of the walking tour in Front Royal’s Historic District.

As part of the earliest thoroughfare from Winchester crossing the Blue Ridge, it will allow visitors to stroll through two centuries of the county’s history.

The tour will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April. 15. Tickets are $30 in advance and help pay for restoration efforts for gardens on historic properties around Virginia, as well as a couple of garden club scholarships. For tickets or more information, go to vagardenweek.org/tours/warren-county-front-royal.

Seven occupants escaped a house fire in Front Royal on Friday evening.

The Warren County Emergency Communications Center received multiple reports of a dwelling fire in the 1300 block of Warren Avenue shortly before 7:30 p.m. Friday, according to information posted Saturday on Facebook by the Warren County Department of Fire and Rescue.

Firefighters arrived at the scene and reported a “working fire” when they discovered fire coming from the house.

Seven of the home’s occupants received assistance from the local American Red Cross. Five of the occupants were evaluated for smoke inhalation by EMS but declined to be transported to the hospital. There were no other reported injuries.

The Warren County Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause of the fire. The Facebook post notes that the fire “rendered the home uninhabitable.”

In a Facebook post, Fire Chief James Bonzano stated: “This unfortunate incident serves as a reminder that fire can strike anytime and anywhere.”

“As we approach the start of National Fire Prevention Week, we must discuss fire safety in our homes and ensure we have working smoke alarms,” he added.

Units from Front Royal, Rivermont, South Warren, Linden, Shenandoah Shores, Shenandoah Farms, Chester Gap, North Warren, and Strasburg stations responded to the fire.

BOYS

100-meter dash

1. Mayowa Ojutolayo;R-MA;10.56

2. Ahsan Abul-Qasim;Skyline;11.15

3. Brady Hamilton;Sherando;11.22

200-meter dash

1. Mayowa Ojutolayo;R-MA;22.70

2. Stuart Pirtle;Mountain View;22.75

3. Brady Hamilton;Sherando;22.77

400-meter dash

1. Brady Hamilton;Sherando;50.93

2. Ahsan Abul-Qasim;Skyline;51.87

3. Noah Harris;Sherando;52.80

800-meter run

1. Dylan McGraw;Sherando;2:04.51

2. Reese Sperry;Skyline;2:06.90

3. Jed Bell;Sherando;2:06.96

1,600-meter run

1. Dylan McGraw;Sherando;4:46.54

2. Clayton Rankin;Warren County;4:49.53

3. Reese Sperry;Skyline;4:50.72

3,200-meter run

1. Bryson Barnett;Chelsea Academy;10:06.55

2. Dylan McGraw;Sherando;10:17.80

3. Clayton Rankin;Warren County;10:26.77

110-meter hurdles

1. Stuart Pirtle;Mountain View;15.17

2. Marcellis Diamond;Skyline;16.81

3. Anthony Binibini;Sherando;17.39

300-meter hurdles

1. Stuart Pirtle;Mountain View;41.60

2. Blaise Skube;Warren County;44.13

3. Kaipha Brown;Skyline;44.23

400-meter relay

1. Sherando;44.21

2. R-MA (Tofa Akinde, Bade Fadamitan, Mayowa Ojutolayo, Patrick Brewer);44.14

3. Skyline;46.29

1,600-meter relay

1. Sherando;3:34.51

2. Skyline;3:42.33

3. Warren County;3:43.63

3,200-meter relay

1. Sherando;8:35.04

2. Skyline;8:55.94

3. Strasburg (Cody Ryan, Brittin Albert, Patrick Knight, Zach Bracken);9:27.24

High jump

1. Noah Harris;Sherando;6-05

2. Ahsan Abul-Qasim;Skyline;06-03

3. Stuart Pirtle;Mountain View;6-02

Long jump

1. Stuart Pirtle;Mountain View;22-01.50

2. A.J. Santiago;Sherando;21-04

3. Ahsan Abul-Qasim;Skyline;21-03.50

Triple jump

1. Stuart Pirtle;Mountain View;44-05

2. A.J. Santiago;Sherando;42-05.50

3. Micah Carlson;Sherando;41-00.50

Shot put

1. Malachi Vinson-Proctor;Warren County;45-08

2. Ethan Gonzalez;Sherando;45-04

3. Tyler Forbes;Central;44-03.50

Discus

1. Micah Carlson;Sherando;150-08

2. D.J. Rizzo;Warren County;138-10

3. Omari Holliday;Strasburg;133-05

Front Royal’s elected leaders say they don’t and can’t control the wave of vape shops — now at 11 — opening in town.

Mayor Lori A. Cockrell brought up the subject during Town Council’s Monday work session, saying she felt compelled to do so in response to online comments about the increasing numbers of vape-related businesses in town.

“We are just getting so much grief, through social media and just everyone, about vape shops in our town,” Cockrell said.

Vice Mayor R.Wayne Sealock and council members Melissa DeDomenico-Payne, Joshua Ingram, Amber Morris, H. Bruce Rappaport and Duane “Skip” Rogers attended the work session.

The mayor went on to say that posts and conversations on social media appear to claim that the town seeks out vape shops to open in Front Royal. Cockrell asked Planning Director Lauren Kopishke to explain where the town stands on the matter.

“We are not soliciting but we are also not discriminating against them either so vape stores fall under retail uses — they are selling a product,” Kopishke said. “We cannot discriminate against that product that they sell.

“So the recent vape stores that have come in, they have come in, they’ve gotten their zoning permit — I have no control, I have to sign off on the use,” Kopishke said. “If they fit the zoning category, they get approved.”

Morris said seven of the vape shops in town operate on South Street.

Council members addressed the subject last year, Morris recalled. The topic came up in recent conversations, she said.

“People think that council approves businesses,” Morris said. “So for the people watching at home, the people here tonight, council does not see applications for business permits.

“If you’re within the law and you apply for a business permit and you buy your building or you rent your space, we don’t see and regulate that,” Morris said. “But we did hear this last year and the reason it is coming is because they’re looking for THC [retail sales] to be legalized in the state of Virginia in the next two years and they’re in line for their permits to sell marijuana.”

The Virginia General Assembly plans to limit the number of permits in each locality for marijuana sales, Morris said.

Council members addressed the topic at their retreat last year.

“The problem that we ran into was the only thing we could do was tighten our zoning regulations because, as a pretty conservative council who also enjoys free enterprise, at what point do we start regulating businesses and ... at what point do you say ‘we just don’t like your type of business’ and it’s discriminatory,” Morris said.

Council implemented lighting regulations though some vape shops are violating those restrictions, Morris said. She said a person sent her a video of a new shop that opened in a former Pizza Hut with flashing lights, in violation of the town regulations.

Kopishke said her department sent notices to those businesses the next day after being made aware of the violations.

Vape store owners must submit permit applications for signs. Owners can display no more than three signs at the business, including posters in the windows, Kopishke said. The Planning Department through code enforcement sends notices to stores that violate the town limit on signs, she said. The town prohibits string lights and flashing lights and signs, Kopishke said.

Shops in the entrance corridor on North Shenandoah Avenue must use muted colors or seek approval for brighter hues, Kopishke said.

“I understand and we all understand free enterprise and we love it; that’s what builds this country,” Rogers said. “It bothers me that there are so many and they’re popping up in odd places, you know, and they’re popping up (at) an entrance to our community in bright colors.”

Rogers referred to a vape shop on Shenandoah Avenue that motorists can see as they travel on the U.S. 340-522 bridge west into Front Royal.

“Anyway, it’s kind of embarrassing,” Rogers said. “You gotta wonder why there’s so many of them coming in here.”

Rappaport suggested the town look into regulatory options such as strengthening its tobacco retail licensing; review fees that could help fund the cost to monitor and enforce the businesses; set a cap on the number of new licenses for such businesses based on population and geographic area; increase monitoring of shops to make sure they are not selling to underage customers; and restrict e-cigarettes and tobacco retailers from locating near schools and youth facilities.

BOYS

100-meter dash

1. Mayowa Ojutolayo;R-MA;10.56

2. Ahsan Abul-Qasim;Skyline;11.15

3. Brady Hamilton;Sherando;11.22

200-meter dash

1. Mayowa Ojutolayo;R-MA;22.70

2. Stuart Pirtle;Mountain View;22.75

3. Brady Hamilton;Sherando;22.77

400-meter dash

1. Brady Hamilton;Sherando;50.93

2. Ahsan Abul-Qasim;Skyline;51.87

3. Noah Harris;Sherando;52.80

800-meter run

1. Dylan McGraw;Sherando;2:04.51

2. Reese Sperry;Skyline;2:06.90

3. Jed Bell;Sherando;2:06.96

1,600-meter run

1. Dylan McGraw;Sherando;4:46.54

2. Clayton Rankin;Warren County;4:49.53

3. Reese Sperry;Skyline;4:50.72

3,200-meter run

1. Bryson Barnett;Chelsea Academy;10:06.55

2. Dylan McGraw;Sherando;10:17.80

3. Clayton Rankin;Warren County;10:26.77

110-meter hurdles

1. Stuart Pirtle;Mountain View;15.17

2. Marcellis Diamond;Skyline;16.81

3. Anthony Binibini;Sherando;17.39

300-meter hurdles

1. Stuart Pirtle;Mountain View;41.60

2. Blaise Skube;Warren County;44.13

3. Kaipha Brown;Skyline;44.23

400-meter relay

1. Sherando;44.21

2. R-MA (Tofa Akinde, Bade Fadamitan, Mayowa Ojutolayo, Patrick Brewer);44.14

3. Skyline;46.29

1,600-meter relay

1. Sherando;3:34.51

2. Skyline;3:42.33

3. Warren County;3:43.63

3,200-meter relay

1. Sherando;8:35.04

2. Skyline;8:55.94

3. Strasburg (Cody Ryan, Brittin Albert, Patrick Knight, Zach Bracken);9:27.24

High jump

1. Noah Harris;Sherando;6-05

2. Ahsan Abul-Qasim;Skyline;06-03

3. Stuart Pirtle;Mountain View;6-02

Long jump

1. Stuart Pirtle;Mountain View;22-01.50

2. A.J. Santiago;Sherando;21-04

3. Ahsan Abul-Qasim;Skyline;21-03.50

Triple jump

1. Stuart Pirtle;Mountain View;44-05

2. A.J. Santiago;Sherando;42-05.50

3. Micah Carlson;Sherando;41-00.50

Shot put

1. Malachi Vinson-Proctor;Warren County;45-08

2. Ethan Gonzalez;Sherando;45-04

3. Tyler Forbes;Central;44-03.50

Discus

1. Micah Carlson;Sherando;150-08

2. D.J. Rizzo;Warren County;138-10

3. Omari Holliday;Strasburg;133-05

FRONT ROYAL — Some of Charlee Allman’s earliest memories involve singing and watching “American Idol” on TV. Now, the 22-year-old Front Royal singer is headed to Hollywood to compete in the popular singing competition.

“My parents had been watching ‘American Idol’ since it came on. We would have fake ‘American Idols’ during the breaks where my dad would introduce me and I’d sing and dance around,” she said. “I’ve been watching ‘American Idol’ for as long as I can remember.”

Allman started singing lessons at age 7, a birthday gift from her grandmother.

“That really gave me a platform because they’d have recitals, and I’ve been singing in public since I was 7,” she said, noting that she has sung the National Anthem at professional baseball, hockey, and basketball sporting events throughout the Washington, D.C., area, as well as performing at numerous events in the Shenandoah Valley.

All of that experience went out the window when she stepped in front of “American Idol” judges Luke Bryan, Katy Perry, and Lionel Ritchie, she said.

“I don’t think anything prepared me. I was very nervous. It was very overwhelming performing in front of the judges. Plus, I really struggle with anxiety and my confidence. I have for a long time,” Allman said of her audition, which was held in New Orleans. “When you’re down there and there are a lot of people with just as much talent and more you’re like, ‘wow, this is the real deal.’ I don’t think that hit me until I got in the room.”

Allman says she’s still processing the audition and the judges’ reaction, noting that she felt like she performed on autopilot. Wisely, she chose a song that was near and dear to her heart — “Broken Wing” by Martina McBride.

“That song was the first song I sang at the Warren County Fair when I was 8 or 9 years old so I figured, let’s stick to something you know. It’s a song that was comfortable and I felt it represented my singing career,” she said.

As for the judges’ reactions, Bryan gave her a standing ovation, Allman said, adding that Ritchie introduced her to his team and teased her a bit. “I really projected. Lionel Ritchie had me turn around a couple of times, wondering where all that sound came from,” she laughed.

Since announcing on Facebook that she’s moving on in the competition, Allman has been overwhelmed, and grateful, for the support from area residents as well as those farther afield.

A 2019 Skyline High School graduate and full-time student at Laurel Ridge Community College, Allman will receive her associate’s degree in general studies in May. Having formerly worked at the Warren County Department of Social Services, she said she may pursue a career in human services.

“I want to do something community based. I enjoyed [working at social services], working with children in foster care. It can be emotionally taxing, but it’s a fulfilling job,” said Allman, who lives with her parents, Tammy and Steve Allman, and her brother Gavin, 15.

“I had put ‘American Idol’ on the back burner because of school and work,” she said, adding that she applied for a virtual audition, the first step in the process, on a whim. “I never thought I’d be going to Hollywood.”

But she’s gearing up to do just that.

“My goal [in Hollywood] is to soak up as much as I can. I’ve never been around so much talent, and people who have that same love for music. It’s definitely a long time goal that’s I’ve had. I’m going to have fun with it and just do what I love.”

In the meantime, area residents can catch Allman with her acoustic partner Jon France at the Shenandoah Valley Axe Throwing Company in Front Royal at 6 p.m. April 14. She has upcoming shows locally at On Cue Sports Bar & Grill and the Virginia Beer Museum, both in Front Royal.

“American Idol” airs at 8 p.m. Sundays on ABC.

FRONT ROYAL — At Bel Air on Happy Creek Road, history comes alive through 250 years of families who lived there, guests they hosted and renovations they’ve made.

The 1795 Classical Revival brick and stucco house at 269 Happy Creek Road, with its sweeping porches that overlook the downtown, is the ancestral home of Lucy Buck, a famous Civil War diarist who recorded her accounts with her sister and parents as the house changed hands about 15 times during the war, every time troops from either side needed a place to stay.

The house will be featured along with several other historic downtown houses on the Historic Garden Week tour hosted by the Garden Club of Warren County on April 15. The tour is one of dozens of tours being held in communities throughout Virginia in mid-April.

Situated on a hill above Happy Creek, Bel Air provided a respite and exceptional lookout, said current homeowner Jeff LeHew, 62, who descends from Peter LeHew, founding father of Front Royal, previously named LeHewtown after he purchased a 200-acre property there in 1754.

Peter LeHew sold the property to the Buck Family, and Capt. Thomas Buck built the house, which his family owned for about 110 years until they sold it to the Downing family in 1906. Jeff LeHew’s father, Larry, then purchased the rundown house in the early 1970s.

“He was able to save this house,” LeHew said of his father. “He and Mom took a lot of great pride in restoring it.”

Since inheriting the house from his father in 2020, LeHew has been restoring the outside of the house, before he addresses any concerns inside.

“I promised him that I would keep this house in the family,” he said.

The local tour will highlight the history of the town and historic Chester Street, said third-time chairwoman Beth DeBergh.

“This one is more about history,” she said. “I think it’s a very rich history. It’s different, and I like it.”

LeHew was 12 when he and his family moved into Bel Air. His family added a breakfast room off of a dining room that had been added in 1906/07.

Above the breakfast room, the LeHews added upstairs rooms that offered another access point to the attic where previous owners had added plexiglass to preserve signatures of residents and guests from over the decades, including those of the Buck family.

The Buck Family, which LeHew said enslaved several people who left during the Civil War, survived the conflict. Lucy Buck later moved with her sister to a small house at 64 Chester St., which they built in 1904 after the family’s financial downturn. The Buck House, nicknamed Cozy Corner, is another downtown building featured during Virginia’s 90th Historic Garden Week, along with J.S. Petty-Sumption House and the three houses in the Warren Heritage Society Village on Chester Street.

Bel Air sits on a 24-acre lot northeast of Main Street and includes a stable and paddock for horses, which LeHew keeps for fox hunting.

Visitors to the house on April 15 will get to tour the original dining room, hall and parlor, which feature several reproductions of local Civil War scenes by famed artists Mort Kunstler and John Paul Strain. Two prints in the hall are copies of originals that hung in the house while LeHew’s father lived there and which LeHew has since removed to a home he owns in Rockland.

Receiving prime placement above a fireplace in the parlor is a Kunstler painting of sisters Lucy and Laura Buck, which imagines their meeting with Robert E. Lee when he and his troops stayed at the house.

The tour will also feature the following properties:

• Ivy Lodge, at 101 Chester St., which dates to 1819 and will serve as the tour headquarters for the tour. The house is one of the few historic architectural structures surviving on Chester Street. It was built by George Tyler in the 1850s, and Dr. Bernard Samuels donated it to the town for a public library a century later. Many others have lived there too, and it’s featured in more political, social, religious, patriotic and cultural events than any other place still standing in Front Royal. It now houses the Warren County Heritage Society and a museum.

• Belle Boyd Cottage, at 101 Chester St., behind Ivy Lodge, which was the home of infamous Confederate spy Belle Boyd. The information that Boyd gathered on Union troop dispositions helped Gen. Stonewall Jackson win the Battle of Front Royal (May 23, 1862). Her efforts also landed her in Washington’s Old Capital Prison. After the war, the cottage was an apartment building until it was donated to the Warren Heritage Society in 1982 and was moved 2.5 blocks from its original location. The house contains period pieces and items connected with Belle Boyd.

The cottage features a garden that won the Garden Club of Warren County the prestigious Garden Club of Virginia Commonwealth Award and is now maintained by the local master gardeners.

• Balthis House, at 55 Chester St., which dates to 1787 and is named for the William Balthis Family, who lived there from 1838 to 1908. It’s the oldest surviving house in Front Royal. In 2000, the Warren Heritage Society purchased the house, with its spacious gardens and several dependencies in the rear.

• The Buck House, at 64 Chester St., owned by Doug and Cathy Gleason. It’s a typical example of Folk Victorian architecture, with decorative trim on the porches and a beautifully carved newel post on the main staircase, a tour brochure explains. The house’s historical significance derives largely from Lucy Buck’s posthumous reputation as a Civil War diarist. Many of the family’s letters and other artifacts were found in the attic.

• J.S. Petty-Sumption House, at 123 Chester St., which dates to 1788 and is owned by Bill Cammack. One of Front Royal’s most significant historic log homes, it was built by George Cheek, one of the landowners named in the 1788 Charter incorporating Front Royal. Records show that James Petty lived in the house in 1831. In 1923, the property was sold to the Warren County School Board. At that time, the house was bought by Charles Franklin Sumption and moved across the street to its present site. The home has antique pine floors, massive fireplaces and a fenced courtyard.

Chester Street is also part of the walking tour in Front Royal’s Historic District.

As part of the earliest thoroughfare from Winchester crossing the Blue Ridge, it will allow visitors to stroll through two centuries of the county’s history.

The tour will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April. 15. Tickets are $30 in advance and help pay for restoration efforts for gardens on historic properties around Virginia, as well as a couple of garden club scholarships. For tickets or more information, go to vagardenweek.org/tours/warren-county-front-royal.