Two Gloucester County estates and two in Mathews will be featured on this year’s Historic Garden Week tour, which will be held on Saturday, April 18.
The Gloucester-Mathews tour is part of the larger Garden Club of Virginia’s Historic Garden Week tours which run from April 18 through 25.
Featured Gloucester properties on this year’s tour are Warner Hall and (after a short shuttle ride from Warner Hall), Colraine. A shuttle from Cornerstone Fellowship Church in Cobbs Creek will take Garden Week visitors to the two Mathews County sites: The Covenant and Oyster Point.
The Garden Club of Gloucester and Mathews hosts the local tour with advance tickets available beginning next week for $50 per person; $60 the day of the event. A full-priced ticket is required for all tour attendees; children under the age of 5 are free when accompanied by a paying adult. For more information about the local tour, email gloucester@vagardenweek.org.
Historic Garden Week offers a unique opportunity during the nation’s 250th anniversary to visit many properties linked to early Virginians who helped shape American history, a release stated.
The owners of nearly 130 of the state’s most beautiful private homes and gardens will open their properties for tours this April to help raise funds to restore and preserve historic public gardens and landscapes. Historic Garden Week includes 29 tours, as well as bonus gardens at Little Oak Spring and Morven.
This statewide house and garden tour is a cherished tradition for the GCV members, who organize it, and the more than 24,000 annual attendees.
Last year, visitors from 42 states and 16 countries traveled to Virginia to take part in what is also the nation’s oldest house and garden tour. In addition to funding garden restorations, proceeds support a historic landscape research fellowship program that is building an extensive library of Virginia’s notable gardens. This program celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.
Historic Garden Week has funded projects at 42 current restoration sites throughout Virginia, including several connected to the nation’s 250th anniversary. While other organizations were called upon to preserve the homes of Virginia’s Founding Fathers, the Garden Club of Virginia played a vital role in restoring and interpreting the landscapes and key garden features at these sites, as well as at others tied to Virginia’s early history. Examples include George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Thomas Jefferson’s beloved Monticello and his retreat, Poplar Forest, James Madison’s Montpelier, and the Mews at St. John’s Church in Richmond’s Church Hill, the site of Patrick Henry’s famous call to arms.
Many of GCV’s restoration properties are connected to the nation’s beginnings and subsequent expansion, shaping the development of Virginia and the country. Some lesser-known examples include Burwell Morgan Mill, co-owned by Daniel Morgan, a leading general in the American Revolution, and Fincastle Church, one of the gateways to the west.
Visit GCVirginia/historic-garden-week.org for a complete schedule and descriptions of each of the upcoming tours. Tickets and the guidebook will be available beginning Feb. 16.