Ker Place in Onancock, Accomack County, Eastern Shore Virginia

Onancock designates the tribe ruled by King Ekeeks, as:

• Bay acquaintance of Captain John Smith (1580?-1631);
• grain trader to Jamestown’s first settlers.

It enjoys uniqueness with Norfolk as the Commonwealth’s extant original 50-acre (20.23-hectare) entry ports and market towns mandated by the 1680 Virginia Act of Cohabitation for each of 19 colonial settlements. It finds its place in seventeenth-century grain- and tobacco-trading and storehouse- and wharf-building as Port Scarborough, in honor of Edmund Scarborough (1617–1671), as:

• brother of Sir Charles Scarborough (1615–1693), physician to Kings Charles II (1630-1685), James II (1633-1701), and William III (1650-1702);
• developer of Eastern Shore patented land tracts and Chesapeake Bay trading ventures. 

Owner-occupancy by descendants and relatives gives historic landforms and landmarks fighting chances at intact authenticity. Ker Place has documented survivalism as:

• place developed by George Corbin (1744-1793);
• plantation inherited by Agnes Drummond Corbin’s (1775-1814) husband John Shepherd Ker (1768-1806);
• property purchased --  with 7 acres (2.83 hectares) -- from Ker/Snead family heirs by George W. Powell (1823-1885) in 1875.

Its sustainability nowadays is guaranteed by:

• owner-operatorship by the Eastern Shore Historical Society since 1960;
• registry with Virginia Landmarks Register since December 2, 1969, and National Register of Historic Places since February 26, 1970;
• restoration by The Garden Club of Virginia landscape architect Rudy J. Favretti (born 1932) in 1981. 

Architectural historians judge as of notable integrity:

• bracket-corniced gable-roof base and pediments, English and Flemish bond brickwork respectively below and above molded water-tables, rubbed brick-splayed window arches and frames;
• elaborate, formal trimmed dining room, entrance hall, and reception room and Wellford-decorated and molded drawing-room cornice and mantel.

Landscape architects know of no archaeological or historical records regarding gardening the original 346-acre (147.31-hectare) tract. But locals and visitors always leave impressed with Favretti-directed landscaping of:

• bayberry, beauty-bush, beech, boxwood;
• camellia, chaste-tree, crape myrtle;
• day-lily, Deodar cedar, dogwood;
• fig, flame-azalea, fringe-tree;
• hardy orange, holly, honeysuckle, horse-chestnut;
• lilac;
• mallow, maple;
• pagoda-tree, pear, pecan, periwinkle, pomegranate;
• rhododendron;
• southern magnolia, summer-sweet, sweetgum, sweet-shrub, sycamore;
• tulip poplar;
• Virginia red-cedar;
• white oak, willow oak. 

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Onancock Creek stretches inland for about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) and cups downtown Onancock with a curved E shape formed by the creek's West Branch and Central Branch with Titlow Creek.
photo by American environmental economist Linwood Pendleton; Sunday, Aug. 1, 2010, 19:12:49: eutrophication&hypoxia, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/48722974@N07/6311800395/

photograph of Ker Place by Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), established by National Park Service (NPS) in 1933 to document representative sampling of U.S. architectural heritage
Ker Place, Crockett Avenue & Market Street, Onancock, Accomack County, Virginia's Eastern Shore, southwest Delmarva Peninsula: No known restrictions, via Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) @ http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/va0031.photos.159709p/

impressive, welcoming entrance to Ker Place
69 Market Street, Onancock Historic District; Tuesday, April 23, 2013, 07:24: Joel Bradshaw, Public Domain (CC0 1.0), via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Onancock-Ker-Place.JPG

photograph of Ker Place by Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS)
inscribed Feb. 26, 1970, in NRHP (National Register of Historic Places), Dec. 02, 1969, in VLR (Virginia Landmarks Registry): No known restrictions, via Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) @ http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/va0031.photos.159710p/

Ker Place's hometown, Onancock, originally was founded as Port Scarborough on Onancock Creek.
display in shop window in Onancock, a port town of history and humor; Monday, April 7, 2008: Jim Brickett (jimbrickett), CC BY-ND 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimbrickett/2394662629/

Onancock's Wharf and Marina is located about 0.5 miles (0.8 kilometers) west of Ker Place.
photo by American environmental economist Linwood Pendleton; Sunday, Aug. 1, 2010, 18:35:41: eutrophication&hypoxia, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/48722974@N07/6311799331/

“Agnes Drummond Corbin Ker [1775 – 1814].” Find A Grave > Memorial #106299529 Created by Linda Dukes. Retrieved September 2015.

• Available @ http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GScid=2506345&GRid=106299529& Ancestry.com. 2012. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s – Current [database on-line]. Provo, UT, U.S.A.: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.

Bemiss, Margaret Page. 2009. Historic Virginia Gardens: Preservation Work of The Garden Club of Virginia, 1975 – 2007. Charlottesville, VA, U.S.A.; and London, England, U.K.: University of Virginia Press.

“Col George Corbin [1744 – 1793].” Find A Grave > Memorial #114656107 Created by David Hargis. Retrieved September 2015.

• Available @ http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=114656107&ref=acom

“Eastern Shore of Virginia Historical Society.” Facebook > ESHS. Retrieved September 2015.

• Available @ https://www.facebook.com/ESVHS

“George W. Powell [1825? – Jul 1885 married Margaret A. Powell] in the Virginia, Deaths and Burials Index, 1853 – 1917.” Virginia, Deaths and Burials Index, 1853 – 1917 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, U.S.A.: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Retrieved September 2015.

• Available @ http://search.ancestrylibrary.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?gss=angs-c&new=1&rank=1&msT=1&gsfn=george+w&gsln=powell+&mswpn__ftp=Northampton+County%2c+Virginia%2c+USA&mswpn=2192&mswpn_PInfo=7-%7c0%7c1652393%7c0%7c2%7c3245%7c49%7c0%7c2192%7c0%7c0%7c&MSAV=1&msbdy=1825&catbucket=rstp&uidh=lx5&pcat=34&h=516644&recoff=5+6+7+36+48+61&db=FSVirginiaDeath&indiv=1&ml_rpos=1

“John Shepherd Ker [1768 – 1806].” Find A Grave > Memorial #106299331 Created by Linda Dukes. Retrieved September 2015. Available @ http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=106299331&ref=acom

“Ker Place.” Historical Society Eastern Shore of Virginia. Retrieved September 2015.

• Available @ http://www.shorehistory.org/ker-place/

“Ker Place, Eastern Shore of Virginia Historical Society.” Virginia Is For Lovers > Historic Sites. Retrieved September 2015.

• Available @ http://www.virginia.org/Listings/HistoricSites/KerPlaceEasternShoreofVirginiaHistoricalSociety/

“Ker Place Herb and Kitchen Garden.” Eastern Shore Virginia Master Gardeners > Projects. Retrieved September 2014.

• Available @ http://www.easternshoremastergardeners.com/ker-place-herb-and-kitchen-garden.html

“Kerr Place.” National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form. United States Department of the Interior National Park Service form 10-300 (July 1969). Retrieved September 2015.

• Available @ http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Accomack/273-0003_Kerr_Place_1970_Final_Nomination.pdf

Loth, Calder. 1999. The Virginia Landmarks Register. 4^th Edition. Charlottesville, VA, U.S.A.: University Press of Virginina for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. 

Rothery, Agnes. 1954. Houses Virginians Have Loved. New York, NY, U.S.A.: Bonanza Books.

“Severn Eyre [1731 – 1773]. Find A Grave > Memorial #125797008 Created by Linda Dukes. Retrieved September 2015.

• Available @ http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=125797008

Whitelaw, Ralph T. 1968. Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Vol. II. Gloucester, MA, U.S.A.: Peter Smith.