The Tompkins Cottage Museum and the Thomas James Store, both in Mathews Court House, will open for the 2022 season on Saturday.

Both locations are maintained by the Mathews County Historical Society, which provides information about these structures which date from the early 19th century. Docents greet visitors to the Tompkins Cottage.

The cottage, a small c. 1820 building, located on Brickbat Road in downtown Mathews, is named for Christopher Tompkins, a local sea captain, planter, prominent local merchant, and member of the state legislature, who lived at Poplar Grove. Tompkins bought the property in 1837 and is the first known owner, a release said.

The east room, hall and rear shed room represent furnishings and personal items that would have been used by people who worked and lived there in the mid 1800s to early 1900s. The west shed room is dedicated to Tompkins’s daughter Capt. Sally L. Tompkins, who was the first commissioned officer in an American military unit. Hist...