“That was the

“That was the

only way we

had to do it in

the old days.

We did it all

by hand.”

rode their horses across the fields instead of using the roads.”

Lillard remembers when Route 522 was extended from Massies’ Corner to Front Royal in the mid ’30’s. “It was going to bypass Flint Hill,” he said. “Well, a group of Flint Hill people got together and fought for the road to come through Flint Hill instead of by Wilton Branch near where Settle’s is now.

"But then they found out that the road would be wider and they would lose all the big maples. Flint Hill used to have these huge maples along Main Street and they all had to come down.

“In fact,” Lillard continued, “Part of the Bradford’s house had to be offset for the curb and gutter. If you look close you can see, the top story is the same as it was, but the first story is offset.”

A lot of changes were made when Route 522 was improved in the thirties, mostly in the interest of straightening out curves. The road used to curve where the loop for the Huntly dump is now, Lillard said, and curved again across from the old school house. Rappahannock’s portion of the road at the top of the mountain was to go on straight to the Warren County line. When Warren County completed their portion, they followed the old alignment looping up through Chester Gap.

Repairs to the pavement were done with a tar kettle heated with wood. ‘There was a spout on the back where the hot asphalt came out,” Lillard recalled. “That old hot asphalt was heated to 300 degrees and there were a lot of bums. No one was ever burned badly on one of my crews, but I’Ve seen some that were very badly burned. From time to time the kettle would catch on fire and we’d put it out by throwing dirt on it.”

Lillard remembers cutting right-of-way: “The men would work all day in the hot sun. But then people were used to working like that all day. They’d put in culverts and drainage ditches by hand, too. But in the old days that was the only way you had to do it. It was all done by hand.”