Historic Trail Virginia Southside

05 Dec 24:

We are distracted from boat restoration by our local environment, having fun exploring local sites. Our local park provides a lot of fun areas to walk, with areas of marsh, creek, field and woods to enjoy, with wildlife to observe. The park is a little gem, and we have recently met the gentleman who coordinated all of the trades to take this place from concept to reality. We will be getting some stories from him over the next few weeks and plan to package everything into a fun booklet.

Went out a few days ago to measure different parts of the trail. Skipper took the lead.

We have a historic (old) tavern mid County, built in the late 1700s. Here's the warming kitchen. (Thanks to Michael H. for the edit on dates.)

County Court was held here until the nearby court building was finished. 

The building grew, as most Virginia homes did, as the population increased. The County purchased the property in 1973 and did an extensive restoration in the early 2000s. 

A fresh coat of paint is warranted, but the Boykin's Tavern is looking great for being over 200 years old.

While Fort Huger on Lawne's Neck is most noted for Civil War activity, it was previously used by Europeans to augment the Jamestown Settlement, just a few miles up the river. Early Patentees died out quickly from disease. The indigenous population might not have spent a great amount of time here, it is a bit marshy and buggy.

We came out to survey the replica Civil War era cannon, they were placed here around 2008 and like the Tavern, could use some touchup. They are formed from PVC and fiberglass, we may be able to help repair some of them. We definitely can do the needed woodwork on rotten decking.

And then there was pie!

We are also learning about old brick...

...and trimwork on older homes...

There was a working farm at our local manor home, now it is park of the park system, maintained by the Town as a historic site and some buildings still used to store park maintenance equipment.

The founders of the Town patented these lands in the 18th Century, and later a Manor was built. The Manor was restored over the last 10 years or so, and is open for tours.

Millstone.

Windsor Castle Manor.

The Grove in Town. A beautiful home from the late 1700s.

Another well built home on Grace Street.

Our 1799 Clerk's Office in the Town has some brickwork on the plinth identified for its early American pattern, it is neither an English or Flemish bond pattern, but rather has several courses of stretchers (the long face of the brick) and then a course of bricks with some headers (end of brick) showing. Above the plinth the brick is laid in Flemish Bond, a more common pattern in Colonial Virginia.

More than you wanted to know about brick? One other thing we learned about was the scribed line in the mortar that the Mason added with a tool, it tricks the eye to straighten the vertical and horizontal mortar lines, compensating for the varied rough edges of the brick. 

The backside of out 1750 Colonial Courthouse. A chimney was added when the Courthouse spent time in the 1900s as a residence, then later removed as preservation teams turned the building back into a courthouse. This building was studied by architects and builders in the 1930s when John Rockefeller was recreating Colonial Williamsburg, just across the James River.

The 1799 Clerk's Office, my favorite building in Town for its unassuming nature. 

Speaking of Colonial WIlliamsburg, it was the time of year when they fire their brick kiln. 20,000 or so bricks are made each year, the kiln is built from previously made bricks each year, and then fired for 5 days. We got to see them feeding wood into the tunnels on day 4, and learned about how the bricks were made and the kiln stack itself. The kiln has an outer coating of clay/mud to help hold shape and hold in heat, and all of the kiln will be unstacked around January timeframe.

Back to our park to look at a really old tree.

A fun downtown mural.

There is no shortage of buildings that could use some love, this one belonged to a distant cousin of Skipper centuries ago.

Our friend's Orbit Country Store is in fine shape.

Inside the 1820s Clerk's Office, renovations underway. It was used up until not too long ago as the Records room, until a new Court building opened, and the hope is for our County Historical Society to share some space in here once repairs are complete. 

The 1820s Clerk's Office is nearest, and a 1930s addition behind. The covered walk is a later addition. 

We've offered to help out on a few projects, maybe there will be an opportunity but there is some coordination that needs to happen. Luckily there is plenty of boating and family and historical research to keep us entertained. We hope you are having a great holiday season and don't be afraid to say hi in the Comments.

Cheers,

Kent and Audrey