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the town and bought, packed and shipped apples from local growers.
Apple-drying plants and cider mills appeared in Sperryville and apples were dried, squeezed, sauced, fried, baked, chopped, boiled, canned and candied to appear regularly in some form at every meal served at a Sperryville table.
In 1925 Rappahannock ranked seventh in apple production in Virginia; by 1956 the county was third in the state, a rank it maintained until 1963.
Meanwhile, another business was adding to the coffers of Sperryville businessmen. The completion of Skyline Drive added to the tourists who had come regularly to the mountains to escape “summer fever” and the general heat and unwholesomeness of the cities.
Sperryville resident Charles “Pete" Estes remembers the 1940’s as being the heyday of both the Sperryville apple economy and tourist industry, both interrupted, of course, by World War II.
Fruit and souvenir stands sprang up along the entrance to the Park, joined by antique shops and other shops catering to the visitors passing through.
On Main Street, the Lee Highway Hotel, now owned by Bill Loomis, provided overnight lodging for guests and homecooked food for visitors and Sperryville neighbors. The hotel building had served as an ordinary since earliest Sperryville times.
A side trip to Sperryville is in order for all those in the county for the 4th. This year’s apples are not ready yet but there will be early peaches, cider and apple butter, and a variety of interesting shops in buildings that have remained little changed since the town's beginnings.
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