The roads along Route 3

Last week I left you traveling North on the Carrico Mills Road and before we venture far, I have a word to say about the name of the road. There was but one mill owned by Mr. Carrico. Why the county used the plural I do not know. Over time there were other folks — Carter, Milton and Ross- who owned the same mill, but only the one. It would make more sense to call the road Carrico Mill or Carrico’s Mill, either way it is a mouthful. Perhaps, it would have been better had they kept the earlier name, Brandy Road. OK, now that I have gotten that off my mind, let’s go.

About a third of a mile north of Route 3, the road will intersect with what is now called Maddens Tavern Road. You may look about and wonder why I deemed it an intersection and I intend to relieve your curiosity.

To your right is the Maddens Tavern Road and to your left is an old road cut through the woods. What now looks like a glorified wooded trail was the original Kirtley Road or Ely’s Ford Road. Paralleling current-day Route 3, it would connect with the one mentioned last week just off of Clay Hill Road and sporting the notorious Devil’s Jump. By the way, Clay Hill Road, now a dead end, originally came out near Mountain Run at the infamous mill and was known as Carter’s Mill Road.

Adding to the importance of this crossroads was the existence on the intersection’s Northeast corner of Brown’s store and shop and the post office known as LaGrange. Some of the buildings associated with this village are still standing.

Our journey will take us eastward on Maddens Tavern Road and will stop today at the next intersection. Hopefully, you will pack friends and family in the car and do some exploring yourself. A word of caution, Maddens Tavern Road, much to the consternation of the residents along the way, remains a path of dirt and gravel. I personally prefer the old country roads, but hold a minority opinion.

Regardless of my two cents and apparently the majority vote of the inhabitants of the area, there is no asphalt for Maddensville. Take the trip after a good rain and wait to wash your car.

Driving slowly, especially through the wooded section, you can almost hear the sound of thousands of boots marching out of Culpeper in early May 1864 toward haunts and horrors of the Wilderness discovered a year earlier during the Battle of Chancellorsville.

You may hit a few spots where the evidence of gravel has completely dissipated. Stop the car and see if you can spy Daniel Boone off in the distance. He would be rolling, perhaps, struggling with a barrel of tobacco as he was tasked with transporting it from Culpeper to Fredericksburg. He, too, would have probably wished for asphalt!

Arriving at the next intersection, we enter the community of Maddensville, but first a word about the roads. As you know, we are traveling the original road east. The road to the left, now known as Youngs Lane was formerly called the Paoli Mills Road and connected with Stone’s Mill Road, still called that but with no apostrophe. But that’s not the whole story.

To the west of Youngs Lane was a now-abandoned-but-once–heavily-trafficked road known as the Fredericksburg Plank Road. This historic road connected the village of Brandy Station with the commercial hub of Fredericksburg.

You will recognize the intersection immediately by the presence of the lovely and very active Ebenezer Baptist Church. On our next journey eastward, we will spend some time in Maddensville.
Until next week, be well.