Old things are new again

Restaurant, clubhouse and pro shop will add a new dimension to old looks

by Ceri Larson Danes

As seen in the Eastern Shore News–07-13-2005

CAPE CHARLES -- Dickie Foster drives his Lincoln Navigator around the construction sites and sand hills of his resort like a kid on a four-wheeler. Only half joking, he laments the fact that as Bay Creek moves closer to completion, there is less and less opportunity to perfect his own extreme sport. After circling a broad, sandy elevation and inspecting views from every angle, Foster looks down toward the new pro shop and explains that the building -- half-finished and replacing a former temporary structure -- is intended to replicate the look of authentic 19th century stables.

And the site upon which his aptly named vehicle is perched, he explains, will one day be the 50,000-square-foot clubhouse built in the style of a manor house of the same period. "I want people to drive around here and say, 'Oh, isn't that nice, they kept the old manor house,' when they see it," he said. When complete, the clubhouse will be a centerpiece of this new and expanding resort development. Bay Creek, a 2,000-acre community, borders the historic town of Cape Charles on three sides and features new waterfront and water-access homes -- from $300,000 condos to multi-million dollar plantation-style homes.

Two signature golf courses, shops, restaurants, marina and a beach club with pools, more eateries, a fitness center, boardwalk and an old-fashioned carousel are either complete or in the works. Plans also include a spa and lodge. Homeowners have access to the amenities, and non-residents can join the golf club for a one-time fee of $50,000 plus annual dues. Construction hasn't begun on the ambitious clubhouse, but the stables, where the pro shop and new restaurant will open soon, are half complete.

The barn-style structure will be 15,000 square feet when finished. The pro shop, Foster said, will open at the end of this week, and by the beginning of August, he expects the new 50-seat Coach House Tavern to be open for business. Staff is already being hired and trained. The tavern and shop -- as well as some offices, golf cart storage and other facilities --definitely all have the look of old stables, with low arches, cobblestone floors and brick walls. There are exposed beams throughout, with ceilings stretching up to the loft-height rafters.

Lighting the pro shop are two focal-piece iron chandeliers, at least five feet in diameter and circled several times by electrified candles too numerous to count. Foster points out that the exterior will feature period gas lighting, and here and there he has had bricks mortared in place to give the look of old windows that were closed up at some point in the structure's fictional history.

On the front facade, some of the arches feature double barn doors, but it is pure staging, Hollywood style. The barn doors lead nowhere. The tavern features a rounded wall of windows overlooking the golf course. A clubby green trim adds warmth throughout, extra-wide clapboard lines some of the walls, and heart pine from the floors of the historic Scott house surround the bar, which is topped in soapstone.

Foster explained that railroad magnate William Lawrence Scott bought the site -- known then as Hollywood farm for the still ubiquitous holly -- in 1883 from the heirs of Gov. Tazewell, and that Scott was an avid horse racing fan. Scott bred horses on the property, then the world's largest truck farm, and even had a racetrack. Foster has historic photographs of the track site and will display them as part of a larger exhibit in the central hall of the new structure.

The roof of the building has the look of cedar shakes, but Foster said they are specially manufactured of salt-treated pine, which will "look older sooner" than the more traditional cedar. "See, it is starting to cup already," he said, pointing upward to indicate the edges of many of the newly installed shingles.

A series of arches, enclosed, open and false, will add to the stable setting. A millstone from the Scott house is a symbol of good luck and has been placed at the entrance to the shop -- something every golfer should appreciate. "It was old then," Foster said, referring to its placement at the foot of the Scott house stairs. Foster is even having an authentic wench installed, the kind that was used in old barns to pull hay bales up to the second story loft. And once complete, a central 24-foot cupola will be flanked by two smaller versions at each end of the building's roofline.

Come together, right now

The site of the clubhouse and the adjacent pro shop and tavern are all strategically located where the four nine-hole courses -- two each designed by golfing legends Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus -- will come together. Water is visible from the site in every direction that there is water -- from Old Plantation Creek and around to the open bay.

The actual indoor space of the "manor house" will be about 36,000 square feet, but add on all the verandas and porches and the number is closer to 50,000. Looking across the greens and water features from the front of the clubhouse, duffers will take in a planned feature not seen anywhere else in the world. Sited between two mass plantings of Foster's ever-present "Knockout" roses will be the Bay Creek logo united by the Nicklaus hallmark "golden bear" and Palmer's familiar umbrella emblem.

"This is the only place these two come together," Foster said of the legendary club-wielding rivals. From the second floor of the to-be-built manor-style structure, patrons will be able to look out over the old plantation turned golfing gem out as far Arlington Plantation to the south.

Work on the lavish club, which will house restaurants, a collection of golf memorabilia -- including a set of President John F. Kennedy's clubs and putters belonging to Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra -- as well as other amenities is nearly ready to begin. Foster expects final elevations and floor plans in the next six months, but he is not committing to a start date for construction. "I've got three priorities: the beach club, the clubhouse, and the spa," Foster said, based on determining members most in-demand features. What he won't say, however, is what order those will be built or in what specific time frame.

It is no surprise at this point in Bay Creek's young history that every snapshot of the place is filled with noteworthy detail. A bridge built across a lake on the newly completed front nine of the Nicklaus course is no ordinary bridge, but rather a scale model (golf-cart accessible) of the replica of the Old Plantation Flats Lighthouse, of which Foster has long been enamored and maintains should be the symbol for the town of Cape Charles.

"Every major golf course has some sort of bridge," he said of the small-scale span that attracts golfers for photo opportunities. Foster points out a brass bell hung from the bridge that belonged to Charles Carlson, who was the late proprietor, with his wife, Margaret, of an antique shop and museum in town. "You know how much Charlie meant to me," he said.

When the wind blows, the bell rings, and Foster thinks of Carlson and how much he wanted to see Cape Charles reclaim its former glory. Foster has added 400,000 cubic yards of earth to create the Bayside Village topography. Most elevations top out at a 22- to 23-foot grade above the existing ground level, like all crests built around the old Scott farm.

The beach club, to be nestled on prime bay front property near the lighthouse and in the Bayside Village, will feature swimming pools (both adult and kid-friendly ones), restaurants, a gym and a boardwalk along the Chesapeake Bay that will turn and meander to follow the shore of a lake into the village, making the whole community pedestrian-friendly, too.

The village homes -- at 2,100 to 3,000 square feet -- will be predominantly smaller than some of the larger scale homes in other areas of the resort community. Foster said he's learned that not everyone wants to live in a big house. "It's all about site lines," he said. "The next thing you know, it looks like a community."

And Foster has often emphasized including -- not excluding -- Cape Charles in his definition of community. He said he recently toured Bayshore Concrete with parent company chief David Eastwood and discussed a 40-foot boat storage facility, or boatel, that would screen most of the concrete works from the harbor view. "You can get them with any kind of facade you like," Foster said, adding that if the area's boat tax is reduced, "I'll do the boatel."

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