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. Unfortunately, this year, like everything else, the event …
These snapshots of Smith’s Fort were taken in June 1938 and were saved in a scrapbook now in the Preservation Virginia archives. The caption for the first photo references the restoration of the landscape around the house, then known as “Rolfe Place,” by the Garden Club of Virginia. We celebrate with the Garden Club as …
Article by Billy Simmons, Cape Henry Lighthouse interpreter Many initials and names have been carved into the exterior of the Old Cape Henry Lighthouse throughout its 227 years. One of those, pictured above, is the only “official” name associated with the structure. T. Newton, or Colonel Thomas Newton, Jr., could be considered the “Father” of …
Our curator of collections, Lea Lane, continues to highlight incredible pieces in Preservation Virginia’s collection. Mary “Polly” Ambler Marshall, wife of Chief Justice John Marshall, was apparently quite the needlework artist. Check out the video below to see a sampler Mary created in the mid-1770s. Preservation Virginia owns and operates the John Marshall House in …
Lea Lane, curator of collections, and her husband Mitch show you how to make an 18th century favorite, Duke of Norfolk punch! Check out their video and the recipe below: Featured object: Punch bowl, 1760s, China, porcelain, collection of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, on loan to Scotchtown (Preservation Virginia). Want to learn …
While everyone is working at home, we wanted to reach out with our staff recommendations on what we’re reading and watching ourselves! Many are history related, some are directly related to our sites, and some are just ones we liked. BOOKS : The Book of Night Women by Marlon James Bound to the Fire …
Preservation Virginia has been around since 1889, so the files we’ve squirreled away over the decades have gradually become historic themselves! One of my favorite items from the archive is this itinerary for Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip’s visit to Jamestown in October 1957. It’s a fascinating glimpse into the State Department’s do’s and …
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. Taking a cue from Preservation Virginia’s tobacco barns program, John Adamson and the Shenandoah County Historical Society are …
Eric Litchford – Preservation Project Manager 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. From documentary and archeological …
On a Soap Box Lea C. Lane, Curator of Collections The Preservation Virginia mission statement singles out “historic places of memory.” A historic place of memory might be architectural, but it can also be something that fits in the palm of our hand. Sometimes the most vital connections to our past are packaged in things …
