Home to Rogers Ford Farm Winery, Cheesecake Farms B&B, and the Sumerduck Dragway, Sumerduck, often referred to as “the Duck,” is a late 19th century crossroads located equidistance between Fredericksburg, Culpeper and Warrenton. Sumerduck derived its name from Sumerduck Run where in the summer one can find hundreds of ducks resting along the banks of the creek.
The village is located in southwest Fauquier County, about 2 miles east of the Rappahannock River. The oldest buildings in town are located at the north end of the town, while the more recent ones are on the south end.
The historic area of Sumerduck contains approximately eleven buildings: seven dwellings, two churches, a school, and a store. The churches remain in use, while the store is vacant and the school has been converted to an antique shop. Some of the more notable buildings include the Union Primitive Baptist Church, a circa 1898 one-story one bay, gable-end, stuccoed frame building with 6/6 windows, constructed on land donated by Margaret Allen Jones.
South of the church across Route 632 is a circa 1914 two-story, L-shaped frame dwelling featuring interesting star cutouts in the decorative verge board that was built for J. Hackley Mills. From the intersection one can see all the decorative trim on the “Mill Place,” a large Victorian-era house with three-part windows, gable-end returns, wraparound porch, and trimmed in decorative verge board throughout.
On the east side of Route 631 stands a 1 -½ story Gothic Revival dwelling constructed in 1885 for Henry Broadus Jones. Just south of this house is the Old Jones Store, currently vacant. Three late-19th and early-20th century homes on Route 631 are also defining historic attributes. The Sumerduck Baptist Church is one-story frame building with a square tower and enclosed belfry that was constructed in 1915. The Sumerduck School, which has already been determined to be eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994, was built in 1917 and utilized as a school until 1945.
The town retains a high-degree of historical integrity and is possibly eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1970, Olive V. Jones wrote a short history of the village, “The Little Village of Sumerduck,” with descriptions of community life in the 19th century, as well as her experiences in the 1920s. Ms. Jones recounted that it took all day to make the trip by buggies and wagons to Fredericksburg. The families in the village were the Jones, Mills, McConsies, and Smiths and in outlying areas there were the Embreys, Curtis, Brooks, Holmes, and Jacobs. In the 1920s, Sumerduck was a lively center of social and commercial activity, with a shoe shop, barber shop, a millinery, and a couple of stores.
The 4,539-acre F. Phelps Wildlife Management Area lies to the west of the community, providing community residents with nearby recreational opportunities and miles of un-inhabited woodlands.
