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The award-winning Driving Tours of Gloucester County’s Country Stores & Rural Post Offices has beautiful sketches by local artist Harriet Cowen. Before automobiles, the nearest four corners was your hub of activity, each with at least one store and a post office. They were scattered throughout the farming community, and many remain today, some still operating. The Bena store and post office are worth a trip down Guinea Road. The store is called Mo’ Stuff now and sells country arts and crafts.

Abingdon Episcopal Church on Route 17 dates to 1755, but the parish, one of the oldest in the nation, predates it by a century. Take a look at the ancient-looking graves of some of the county’s earliest and most prominent residents.

In its day, Rosewell was purported to be the finest example of Georgian architecture in the English colonies. It takes some imagination to envision this today. Towering brick ruins are all that’s left of the home. Preservation is fueled largely by private donations, and a new visitor center displays both history and restoration work. This is a great place for a picnic lunch, but don’t stay past dark – many say the ruins are haunted. Open Monday-Saturday 10 am-4 pm, Sunday 1-4 pm; admission is $2 for adults and $1 for students. (tel. 804-693-2585, www.rosewell.org)

Dr. Walter Reed’s Birthplace, a tiny slip of a one-room farmhouse, stands at the Belroi crossroads. The interior is open only during Historic Garden Week in April. Reed helped rid the world of yellow fever by proving mosquitoes caused the disease.

Outdoors

Rent a canoe at Beaverdam Park, hike the trails or fish in the lake. Take a dip at Gloucester Point Beach or fish off the long pier. Rent a kayak in nearby Mathews County from Bay Trails Outfitters. Explore on your own, or they’ll guide you on some of the area’s hundreds of miles of Chesapeake Bay coastline, rivers, and innumerable tidal creeks. You’re on a peninsula, framed by the York and Rappahannock rivers, so water is everywhere.

Shopping

People come from all over Hampton Roads to visit the Stagecoach Market & Antique Village, known locally as just “the flea market.” More than 45 permanent shops sell antiques, jewelry and collectibles, with dozens more set up in the outdoor flea market on weekends, 7 am-5 pm (tel. 804-693-3951). Gloucester County has half a dozen other antiques shops including Holly Hill on Route 14, Plantation Antique Mall and Marketplace Antiques on Route 17, and Lord Botetourt Antiques in the Courthouse.

Sarah Creek Potters is a cooperative on Tidemill Road where you might get to see local potters at work. Open Tuesday-Saturday, 10 am-5 pm. Simple Gifts and Beehive Café is a great place to shop for unique presents, then have lunch in the café, on Route 17 in Hayes.

Pick up some local produce at one of the farm stands along Route 17. Ware Neck Produce is right on Main Street in Courthouse.

Main Street is lined with quaint shops housed in historic buildings. The brochure “A Walk Through Historic Gloucester,” gives a peak at the original uses. Twice Told Tales, the town’s bookstore, was once a Colonial grocery store, and then a uniform factory. Lord Botetourt Antiques was built as a Ford Motor showroom in 1919, and the Gift Garden was originally a barbershop. The owner of the shop, Joanne Lawson-Whitten, is a relative of the barber, Phillip Lawson. Inside you can still see the wall mural of Courthouse Circle painted by Wilson Hibble in 1963. Lawson-Whitten sells prints of it to take home.

Other quality shops in town are Heaven Sent Toys, Kelsick Gardens wine shop, gourmet market, and dining room (once a Dollar General store!), Feather Your Nest’s unique decorative items and art objects, Emily’s boutique of unique clothing and accessories, and Angelwing Stationers.

Gloucester is the headquarters for Peace Frogs, the cute little frog that’s become a national T-shirt and bumper sticker phenomenon. The design studio and outlet store (seconds and discontinued