Visit

 

Bacon's Castle is an architectural gem featuring distinctive triple-stacked chimneys and curved Flemish gables. One of only three surviving high-style Jacobean structures in Western Hemisphere, it is the oldest datable brick house in Virginia. Built in 1665, Bacon's Castle affords visitors a rare opportunity to step back in time into the 17th century.

Bacon's Castle was orginally home to a prosperous planter, Arthur Allen, and his family. Following Allen's death the house was inherited by his son, known as Major Allen. A supporter of the colonial governor and member of the House of Burgesses, Major Allen was driven from his house in 1676 by followers of Nathaniel Bacon, whose uprising later came to be known as Bacon's Rebellion. The episode which later gave Bacon's Castle its name. The house remained in the Allen family until 1844 and the plantation was actively farmed into the 20th century.

A highlight of any visit to Bacon's Castle is a stop at the 17th-century garden to see what is in bloom. This reconstructed garden replicates what was on site during the lifetime of Arthur Allen and his son and is based on archaeological evidence as well as a careful study of surviving documents. The project was generously sponsored by the Garden Club of Virginia.

Preservation Virginia acquired Bacon's Castle from the estate of the last private owners of the house in the 1970s. After an extensive research and restoration effort the house was opened to the public in 1983. The house was closed again in 2011 for a year of research and interpretive planning.

Visitors to the house can enjoy a guided tour of the interior of the house as well as a self-guided tour of the grounds, outbuildings, restored 17th-century gardens, also a museum store and picnic tables. A cell phone tour is available dawn to dusk on days when the site is not open to the public.