It’s a home that played a major role in the American civil rights movement. But if you were to ask most Gloucester residents about the historic significance of Holly Knoll, odds are you’d probably be greeted with blank stares.

Gloucester historian Dr. Wesley Wilson hopes to enlighten visitors to the Cappahosic estate this weekend, as he portrays Dr. Frederick Douglass Patterson, former president of what is now Tuskegee University and founder of the United Negro College Fund.

Holly Knoll is one of three Gloucester properties featured on Saturday’s Garden Week tour; the other two are White Hall in Zanoni and Shadow Hill in Hayes. See Section C for more on this year’s tour.

Holly Knoll was the retirement home of civil rights leader Dr. Robert Russa Moton. He would frequently invite the great African American leaders of the day there with the simple phrase, “Come to Cappahosic.” Holly Knoll continued to flourish as a center for the civil rights moveme...