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Windows were cut through the 2-foot thick concrete walls as construction began to convert the old fish house.
Catherine and Harry Scott have turned the once nasty, old Nomini Creek fish house into their home.
A large granite-topped island is the focal point of the spacious kitchen, which, like most other rooms, provides creek views.
The Scotts enjoy the water views from their deck, |
BY FRANK DELANO
There are many waterfront houses in the Northern Neck, but none is quite like the home of Catherine and Harry Scott on Nomini Creek near Montross.
A cupola, built from the inside up, now caps the metal roof of what was once a bustling fish business. From that perch 35 feet off the ground, one sees eagles and ospreys fly by at eye level across a vista of water and woods until they vanish a vista or two away.
The water is now visible from every new window in the 4,000-square-foot house. It was an abandoned, windowless, concrete-block ice box when the Scotts first saw it in 2002.
They had been camping at Westmoreland State Park and set out looking for property. They saw a sign on Cople Highway for 7.7 waterfront acres and drove to the end of the gravel road.
"The building was nasty and full of snakes and birds. It was just a dirty, old warehouse. The only way upstairs was a rickety outside stairway. Harry and I fell in love with it at first sight," said Catherine Scott.
The old fish house had been built in the 1980s by seafood dealer Robert G. Reamy Jr. Now 76, Reamy said the plant was designed for forklift trucks to load pallets of fish boxes onto his trucks that delivered striped bass, catfish, shad, herring, perch, trout, bluefish, spot and other fish to markets from Boston to Florida.
Local fishermen delivered fish to Reamy's covered dock from their nets in the Potomac River.
Reamy's big ice-maker and the 22-inch-thick insulated walls of his warehouse kept everything fresh. In good years, Reamy said, he sold about $4 million worth of fish from the plant.
"I loved that business, especially the fishermen and the other people I dealt with," said Reamy.
Reamy's business eventually soured. In 1985, a federal court sentenced him to serve four hours a week of community service for five years for illegal dealing in striped bass.
Catches and sales were also declining. Reamy blamed that on declining water quality caused by waterfront-home construction.
"You can't even run an oyster dredge in Nomini Creek anymore for all the docks," he said.
In 1988, he sought approval from Westmoreland County to open a marina on his fish-house property, but intense local opposition by neighbors doomed the application. "Retirees looking for a crusade" was how he characterized marina opponents.
Reamy eventually closed his fish business. He sold the property in 1997.
"Things change. My usefulness was gone," he said.
Harry Scott, 56, said he immediately saw utility in Reamy's old fish house when he bought it for $225,000 in 2002.
A former Fairfax County paramedic, Scott, 56, said he has always wanted to build kayaks and small boats. He saw right away that the building's covered porches and dock would be perfect for building boats and putting them in the water.
But the house came first: walls, staircases, floors, windows, balconies, kitchen, bedrooms, baths, library, cupola and a myriad of other jobs and details.
The Scotts have done much of the work themselves since they moved in in 2004. Now there are just a few interior details left to do, he said.
Said Harry, "It's been a lot harder than I thought it would be. It's kind of sad to live on the water and have to work all the time. But the views make it all worthwhile."
Frank Delano: 804/761-4300
Email: fpdelano@gmail.com
