“South of the James”

We explored south of the James River today. I picked up a pamphlet of the same and it lists 56 places to see. We have lots more to see on another trip but today was a good start.

We took the ferry from Jamestown to Scotland (both ways, the ferry arrived soon after we got in line so we never had a long wait).

First we went to ‘Smith’s Fort Plantation’ . The land was given to John Rolfe and Pocahontas as a dowry gift by Chief Powhatan. From ‘Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail’(www.johnsmithtrail.org) we learned John Smith wanted to build a defensive position on the southern shore of the James River- it was never completed. Two foot high earthworks remain and are considered to be the oldest structure of English origin in Virginia.- What we saw- The brick house built in 1765- was closed. There was a sign to the fort that we started to follow- we ended up next to a cow pasture- and the cows didn’t seem happy to have us there and there were a lot of large farm machines ahead of us. As we turned around one calf, who had been by the fence moved around so it was behind it’s mama- maybe we’ll go back some summer when everything is open.

Next we saw (from a distance because it was also closed) ‘Bacon’s Castle’ – the oldest documented brick house in English North America.

After that we headed for Smithfield, VA- there we found some places that were open.

We went to ‘Historic St. Luke’s Church’ (www.historicstlukes.org) It is the oldest (1632) surviving original Gothic Church in the US. We looked around the outside and at some of the gravestones. A lady came from the gift shop/meeting rooms building and said she had a key and would be glad to show us inside the church. She pointed out the structural items outside that made it a gothic building- and she pointed out the original board with wooden pegs in the entryway. Inside the church, the sounding board (a large round piece of wood hanging horizontally above the pulpit), the ‘in memory of Pocahontas /her Indian name/Rebeca’ stained glass window, and one spindle were all original. There is a pipe organ, a gift from Germany, about 1630,- the panels were painted to look like the inside of a church and the pipes looked like structural pillars (giving a 3-d effect)- really something to see. Also a gift from Germany- were the windows in the front of the church- a combination of stained glass and painted- beautiful and bright colors. In addition to lots of little facts about the church we talked about teaching and how she could get more subbing calls. Then she showed us the oldest stone in the graveyard and pointed out several more things about the grounds. We then went to the gift shop where more time was spent finding the boxes then in choosing the items (and we did look at everything in the shop before choosing the gifts). (We were there for a bit longer than we planned ;)) We then went to the historic area of Smithfield. We saw the ‘Old Isle of Wight County Courthouse’ and the Isle of Wight County museum. Both were interesting and again we were the only ones there.
It was a good day and we got to see some Christmas lights on the way back.