• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 914 0

passes old daffodil farms and obscure spots where daffodils have naturalized around old homesteads. The later make for striking – almost eerie – scenery off the shoulder of country roads. There you see an old, abandoned farmhouse, the roof caving in. And around it, in sharp contrast, are bright green stalks and cheerful faces of dozens of yellow daffodils, planted by the lady of the house so long ago. The house may be falling down, but her handiwork is still there, reproducing and spreading every year.

While Gloucester isn’t well known as a weekend getaway (the county’s first chain motel opened only a couple of years ago), it has plenty of history. The courthouse commons dates to the 1700s. Dr. Walter Reed, conqueror of Yellow Fever, was born here, and it was here that Pocahontas purportedly saved the life of Captain John Smith. Several restored plantation homes have been converted into elegant bed & breakfast inns. There are a handful of good restaurants, and a Main Street shopping district that so far has survived the Wal-mart Super­center nearby.

Gloucester’s Courthouse Circle survives as a classic early Virginia county seat, surprisingly intact, despite several fires through the centuries that destroyed county records. John Clayton, the world-renowned botanist, was Clerk of the Court in the 1700s. The Clayton House is being renovated into a visitor center. Strolling through the small circle is like stepping into a miniature version of Colonial Williamsburg – except the buildings, dating to the 1700s and 1800s, are all original. Whatever the season, a summer evening, or a crisp, winter morning, the circle is a delight, an oasis in the middle of a busy Main Street, which literally goes around it. Just outside the circle is Lawyers Row, a charming group of cottages built in the early 20th century as offices for the lawyers having business in the courthouse. Today, some still house law offices, while others are used as antiques shops and real estate offices.

TRIVIA: In Colonial Virginia, the village hosting the county seat was known as “Courthouse.” It’s still that way in Gloucester County.

The Botetourt Hotel served as an ordinary or tavern for two centuries and now houses the Gloucester Museum of History and Visitor Information. Changing exhibits tell the county’s history. Open Monday-Friday, 11 am-3 pm, Saturday noon-4 pm. (tel. 804-693-1234, www.gloucesterva.info/museum/historyhome.htm). At the top of Main Street is a statue of Pocahontas. While her father, Chief Powhatan’s, tribe moved around a lot, it’s believed Pocahontas grew up in Gloucester County at a spot known as Werowocomoco, on the York River.

TABOO: Gloucester is pronounced GLAW-ster, rhyming with CLAW.

Attractions

Gloucester is a large, rural county, with lots of historic gems tucked down back roads. A good way to discover them is to pick up one of the driving tour brochures at the visitor center. The African-American Heritage Trails Tour details sites in the county of import to local black history. Several of these sites are also included in Virginia’s Guide to African American Heritage Sites (www.virginia.org). The home of local black attorney Thomas Calhoun (T.C.) Walker is on lower Main Street, marked with a state historical sign. Walker founded the Agricultural and Industrial School for black students in 1888 and the Gloucester Training School in 1921, among the first secondary schools for blacks in the region. Orator Frederick Douglass, lyricist James Weldon Johnson, and singer Marian Anderson each visited the Agricultural and Industrial School for cultural enrichment programs.

Other stops on the tour are Bethel Baptist Church, a black church founded during the Reconstruction period; The Servants’ Plot, where black indentured servants plotted a very early insurrection against their masters in 1663; and Old Hayes Store, where Irene Morgan boarded a Greyhound bus in 1944, then refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. She was arrested and the case was appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled in her favor in 1946. It would be