Showcase On The Shore

For a toll and a ticket, you can get into big homes with even bigger price tags.

As seen in the Virginian Pilot –09-18-2005

by Ann Wright

CAPE CHARLES — For $2.6 million, you can own a waterfront mansion in Bay Creek on the Eastern Shore.

But if 4,500 square feet isn’t big enough, perhaps one with 7,900 square feet and a view of the Chesapeake Bay will do. It can be yours for $4.5 million.

Even if you need to win the lottery to become a bona fide prospect, Bay Creek invites you to its first-ever Vision Home Tour. For the price of a ticket ($10, if purchased in advance) and the toll to get to the Eastern Shore, you can explore four lavish homes, Bay Creek’s amenities and the town of Cape Charles. The event opens to the public Saturday and continues until Oct. 2.

A tour highlight is the new residence of the man behind Bay Creek, a 2,000-acre resort community in a beautiful waterfront setting. Richard “Dickie” Foster, president of Baymark Construction and developer of Bay Creek, is making this show house his home. After the tour, Foster and his wife, Judy, will move into the big, eye-catching named Verandah Bay.

As construction progressed under the supervision of Virginia Beach builder Jim Monaco of Monaco Homes, the Fosters found the views irresistible. Two-story rear porches and all major rooms offer views of the Chesapeake Bay, the Arnold Palmer golf course and a glistening replica of the Old Plantation Flats Light Station.

The house is an architectural allusion to the early 20th century, when Cape Charles was a prosperous little railroad town and an important connector between Hampton Roads and northern cities. Barges transported freight, and ferries brought passengers across the Bay to transfer to trains headed for Philadelphia and New York. Travelers passed the time in bustling shops and restaurants until the 1950s and ‘60s – when the ferries stopped coming, the passenger railroad ceased running and Cape Charles withered.

The Fosters' $4.5 million Greek Revival mansion was designed to be an attention-grabbing show house. Appropriately for a history buff like Foster, it incorporates the look of age on the exterior with columns, porticos and a widow’s walk. Inside, elaborate architectural detailing, classically themed marble mosaics and salvaged heart pine floors give it the air of a century-old manse.

Some of its pluses were design challenges. The elaborate floor-to-ceiling woodwork surrounding the living room fireplace is so imposing that Susan Pilato and Megan McKee of the Norfolk firm Pilato & Counts Interior Design thought that visual balance was needed in the adjoining foyer and kitchen.

“Such a large space allowed us to have multiple focal points," McKee explained. Both the hall and the kitchen are visible from the living room, so a huge chandelier in the stairwell would balance the fireplace in one direction and a massive kitchen island, backed by a bricked-in range hood, balances it in another direction.”

Even empty, the house exerted a powerful presence and decorating its 7,000 square feet promised to be a daunting project. The large proportions and generous scale of the two-story entry hall are repeated in the windows, doors and woodwork throughout.

Such a robust environment overpowers the understated and dainty. Furniture and artworks had to be over-sized to hold their own. Strong, clean-lined furnishings would provide contrast to the ornate architectural detailing.

Once the Fosters decided to live there, Judy became involved in planning the interiors. “What I did not want was a home that looked like a show house or a merchandising event,” she said. “With a floor plan so open, I wanted furnishings that felt just as welcoming. The interior had to be livable and comfortable to work for us.”

When three women went furniture shopping in High Point and Atlanta , Judy found the pace dizzying. “I'm not used to making so many decisions so quickly but it didn't appear to faze Susan and Megan.”

All knew they had to get the orders in to be ready for the Vision Home Tour, scheduled to coincide with the opening of the Bay Creek's new Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course. Later shopping expeditions were not as hectic and included forays into local antique shops and galleries.

The open floor plan of the main living area required continuity of colors. “All the colors need to interact so that separate spaces can speak to each other,” Pilato said. Paint colors on the first floor are Benjamin Moore's Ballet White on the walls and Super White for the trim. There is enough contrast in the two colors to make the woodwork stand out while their lightness emphasizes the dark patina of the hardwood floors.

To make the dining room more intimate, the design team selected smoky charcoal wallpaper by Arte but continued the same crisp white on the trim.

The world beyond the windows suggested the warm, earthy terra cotta reds, golds, taupes, browns and greens used throughout the house on upholstered pieces and window treatments. Using similar color families helps unify a large interior, but there's another benefit. “There's something to be said for being able to switch furniture from room to room without reupholstering,” McKee said.

Tile mosaics from New Ravenna, an Eastern Shore company with an international reputation, bring the flavor of antiquity to the house. The backsplash over the range was inspired by Roman mosaics unearthed in Tunisia. The bathrooms in the first-and second-floor master suites also have custom mosaic designs on the floors, shower walls and tub faces. The mosaics offer a handsome demonstration of how an ancient art form can be incorporated into contemporary spaces.

Besides showing off beautiful houses, the Vision Home Tour celebrates the acclaim Bay Creek has already garnered from national publications and lays out projects still in the works such as the clubhouse, spa and hotel.

Also on display is Dickie Foster’s passion for history. Using the original plans, he had an exact replica of the 1886 Old Plantation Flats Lighthouse constructed in a spot overlooking the site where the original once stood offshore. Inside the structure is a museum of lighthouse artifacts. When the clubhouse is completed, it will house an important collection of golf memorabilia.

The tour was planned in conjunction with the opening of the new Jack Nicklaus golf course. The Arnold Palmer course has received considerable praise in the golf world and was named one of the nation’s top new courses. The two courses are so exceptional that Foster confidently voices hopes that Bay Creek will someday host a PGA tournament.

Foster was a successful Virginia Beach developer before falling in love with the Eastern Shore and Cape Charles. In 1996, local residents approached the Norfolk native because Brown & Root, a Texas energy company now part of Halliburton, decided to sell the 2,000 waterfront acres they had assembled in northern and southern sections of Cape Charles. Their hopes of a developer they could live with proved well placed because Foster has poured heart and soul into Bay Creek and his development is helping the town come back to life.

Vision Home Tour ticket holders are entitled to free parking and shuttle service throughout the entire resort and the town of Cape CHarles. Stops include Marina Village, the new pro shop and Coach House Tavern as well as all four houses on the tour. There is an optional secondary tour of model homes and condominiums priced from around $300,000 to $1 million. Enjoy “Member for a Day” discounts in Bay Creek shops, restaurants, and even on the new Nicklaus golf course.

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