Twin Oaks Tavern Winery

Open: Year Round

History:

Twin Oaks Tavern, in the Bear's Den Historic District, is one of many stone houses that were built on the mountain between 1890 and 1920. At that time, there were several inns around Bluemont, including a large hotel at Bear's Den on Blue Ridge Mountain Road.

The attraction to the area for city dwellers was the 5-10 degrees lower temperature on the mountain during the summer. Residents from Washington would take the train to Bluemont and be driven by horse and buggy to the inn or hotel of their choice. Later, they would drive out from the city (see the directions suggested in the 1931 Washington Post ad on this page). Twin Oaks operated as an inn until the 1950's.

Before the Evers bought Twin Oaks in 1998, it had been devastated from a fire and the grounds were littered with dilapidated outbuildings, chain link fencing and poison ivy. They spent a year renovating the house and clearing and landscaping the grounds.