Urbanna, VA

Urbanna is a Middlesex County port town on a narrow piece of land between Urbanna Creek and Perkins Creek, with the Rappahannock River opening the way to the Chesapeake Bay. Its name means "City of Anne," and its older map is still visible in the James Mills Scottish Factor Store, the original courthouse, and the colonial plantations around town. Water has always driven the place: tobacco moved through the port first, then schooners, steamboats, crab boats, and oyster boats. The Urbanna Oyster Festival, held each November since 1958, keeps that connection on the calendar. Urbanna is a tidewater town where a colonial harbor, working creeks, and an annual oyster weekend still point in the same direction.