Bacon’s Castle

Swords, armor, music, giant turkey legs: what’s not to love? Renaissance faires are having a moment (again), but how did a celebration of Renaissance Europe become so popular on American soil?

At Bacon’s Castle, we are lucky to have a wealth of primary sources available for our interpreters to explore. The Hankins family owned Bacon’s Castle in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and were great curators of family history. There are about 200 Hankins Family letters cataloged in archives today, and most are held by the VMHC (Virginia Museum of History & Culture).

May is Preservation Month, and what better time is there to highlight what is currently happening at Bacon’s Caste? See each image below to get a better understanding of the work that is going on at this historic property!

Our PV Restoration Crew is in the beginning stages of prepping the 1820’s smokehouse siding at Bacon’s Castle for painting this spring. A large percentage of the early siding has […]

This summer, I have had the pleasure to be the curatorial intern at Preservation Virginia, working under Lea Lane, Curator of Collections, to learn more about the public history field. […]

In the first installment of our new Preservation in Action Video Series, Eric Litchford, Preservation Projects Manager, takes you through the recent rehabilitation work completed on the 19th-century smokehouse at Bacon’s Castle.

This week should be the Garden Club of Virginia’s annual Historic Garden Week. This one promised to be spectacular, as the Garden Club of Virginia commemorates its centennial in 2020. Since 1927, proceeds from Historic Garden Week have gone to fund garden restoration projects throughout the Commonwealth.

With the help of our friends and supporters, we may have solved the mystery of the 1701 barn at Bacon’s Castle! In 2018 Preservation Virginia listed Shenandoah Valley Barns to our Virginia’s Most Endangered Historic Places list.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the landscape around Bacon’s castle was filled with outbuildings that supported the domestic and agricultural functions of a working plantation.  These buildings were generally small, single use structures that were primarily occupied and worked in by the enslaved population.

Since May of this year, I have had the pleasure of working with Preservation Virginia to study the African and African American history at Bacon’s Castle. It did not take […]

As a historic homeowner, spring cleaning takes special care and knowledge of the unique materials that make up your home. You don’t need to be an expert preservationist to spring clean your historic home, but try to keep these tips in mind as you tidy up.

The original slave quarter and smokehouse at Bacon’s Castle stand as rare examples of Virginia’s vernacular architecture. Built in 1829 and 1844, respectively, their preservation tells the story of plantation life in Southside Virginia.

Every historic building in Virginia has a story contained within its walls. From small residential homes to great churches and castles, hidden narratives can always be found — if you know where to look. Here are the intriguing stories behind some of the oldest buildings in the Commonwealth.

Every historic place has a unique preservation story. There’s something about it that makes it special to the people who live near it, something that makes it part of the fabric of that community. Every person passionate about historic places and their history has a unique preservation story.

The romantic poetry shared between Sidney Lanier and Virginia Hankins stands as one of the most passionate periods in Bacon’s Castle’s history. Born in Georgia, Sidney Lanier served in the Confederate Army and became well-known for his highly musical poems.