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Photo by Mark Soto courtesy Wytheville Convention & Visitors Bureau
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Skeeter's World Famous Hot Dogs (Photo courtesy Wytheville Convention & Visitors Bureau)
Of the approximately 250 Virginia listings among Roadside America attractions, “Skeeter-Dogs – The First Lady of Hot Dogs,” is one of six in Wytheville, the mountain town in the southwest corner of the state at the intersection of I-77 and I-81.
It’s an unusual combination: The only public birthplace of a first lady in Virginia lies on the floor above the street-level Skeeter’s World Famous Hot Dogs, which has sold more than 9 million steamed hot dogs on white napkins in Wytheville since 1925 (though only at this location on East Main Street since 1940).
“It’s a big deal to be more famous than a Skeeter-dog, but our Edith Bolling Wilson is trying to be just that,” says Farron Smith, curator of the Edith Bolling Wilson Birthplace Museum.
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Photo courtesy Edith Bolling Wilson Birthplace Museum
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The Edith Bolling Wilson Birthplace Museum tells the story of President Woodrow Wilson's second wife, Edith Bolling Wilson. (Photo courtesy Edith Bolling Wilson Birthplace Museum)
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Edith Bolling Wilson (Photo courtesy Edith Bolling Wilson Birthplace Museum)
The museum, along with the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum in Staunton, and the President Woodrow Wilson House in Washington, D. C., plays a significant role in shedding light on the 28th president of the United States.
Andrew Phillips, curator of the Woodrow Wilson Birthplace in Staunton, says, “Sometimes we joke that Virginia really had eight and a half presidents, counting Edith.” She redefined the role of first lady, as she took on many routine duties and details of the executive branch of government during the last 17 months of her husband’s presidency following his massive stroke — when she didn’t want Congress or the public to know how ill her husband was. The president and Edith married in December 1915, a little more than a year after the death of his first wife, Ellen.
Edith’s birthplace in Wytheville — 150 miles southwest of Wilson’s birthplace in Staunton — tells how her early life prepared her for the challenges of becoming first lady at a time of national crisis. The seventh of 11 children (and a descendant of Virginia’s famous Native American maiden, Pocahontas), she knew what loss was, her family having lost its extensive farm in Bedford County during the Civil War.
Her grandfather, a doctor, purchased commercial space on Wytheville’s Main Street; Edith was born in the Bolling home above it on October 15, 1872, where she shared crowded rooms with siblings, her parents, a grandmother, and an aunt. “People expect a cute, little house with a white picket fence around it,” says Smith, who, with her husband, Bill, owns and operates the house museum. “Among the many things they learn is that Edith’s father, Judge Bolling, was supporting a large household.”
Today, everything downstairs in the exhibition space, from china cabinets to game tables to the Bolling cradle, was owned by the Bolling family and has been donated to the museum. The upstairs — the flat where Edith was born — is in substantially the same condition it was in when the Bollings left in 1899 and the space became a boarding house.
There’s no admission charge to the Edith Bolling Wilson birthplace museum, but donations are accepted.
As for the other five Wytheville attractions on Roadside America’s list? The town’s water tower next to I-81, painted to resemble a hot-air balloon; a tiny church that seats six people but has a bell tower; the huge pencil hanging over Wytheville Office Supply, 146 W. Main St.; Big Walker Lookout, a 100-foot tower affording a 360-degree view for miles atop Big Walker Mountain, about 25 miles north off U.S. Highway 52; and the Great Lakes to Florida Highway Museum, with renovated gas pumps and a collection of turn-of-the-previous-century garage-mechanic’s tools and equipment inside. It’s at 975 Tazewell St.
Wytheville
GETTING THERE
254 miles from Richmond; take I-64 W to I-81 S
SLEEPING THERE
Bolling Wilson Hotel across from Skeeter’s and the birthplace museum. In 2010 the Smiths bought the former George Wythe Hotel and renovated it.
EATING THERE
There’s Skeeter’s, of course, as well as Graze on Main restaurant, patio and bar, part of Bolling Wilson Hotel.
WHEN TO GO THERE
Summer is the ideal time to visit the well-manicured mountain town; check for an outdoor concert schedule and information on other attractions.
