The walking tour started at the Court Green, one of the oldest in Virginia, where you can imagine how it looked at various times during its 300+ year history.
NHPS Guided Walking Tour of Historic Eastville - June 2017
On June 25th, in the 2nd year of the well-received NHPS Guided Walking Tour of Historic Eastville, town historian and NHPS board member David Scott continued to add new material to his informative presentation. In addition, new research pertaining to the "forgotten" history of the Eastville Court Green jails during the 1800’s and 1900’s, was featured in a presentation by Joyce Kappeler.
Looking at the Court Green, one of the oldest in Virginia, you can imagine how it looked at various times during its 300+ year history. Eastville features commercial and residential architecture within the historic district which showcases a significant collection of high-style and vernacular buildings. Picture Eastville as the bustling city it was while in the midst of an economic, agricultural, and transportation boon and Courthouse Road was a major thoroughfare in the county. In fact, did you know that by 1921, Northampton and Accomack were considered the richest agricultural counties in the United States?
Since
the discovery of the original James Fort walls by Dr. William Kelso in
1995 Historic Jamestowne has attracted world attention by continuing to unearth
the lost remains of America's first permanent English settlement. Last
year, Archaeology magazine once again named them for one of the Top Ten
discoveries of 2015 for their landmark excavation efforts and identification of
four early burials. In 2016, they began focusing on the excavation of the
historic church of 1617 where the first elected assembly met in a landmark step
toward the founding of the United States. On Tuesday, October 11, 2016 the
Northampton Historic Preservation Society visited the recently excavated site
of the oldest successful settlement in the New World.
The morning included a guided tour by Joe Burkart with the Tidewater Virginia Historical Society and remarks from Dr. Kelso, now the Director of Jamestowne Rediscovery, about his remarkable path to unearthing the south palisade of the original fort. An exclusive guided tour of the 7500 square foot Archaearium, which houses over 4,000 artifacts, was also included. The building itself was carefully placed over the original site of the Jamestown Statehouse and the 17th-century structural features are visible through glass sections in the floor.
Following lunch, the group headed to Colonial Williamsburg to visit two connected museums, the first being the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum. A guide was on hand to help navigate and answer questions regarding the special exhibit: "We Are One: Mapping America's Road from Revolution to Independence. On loan from the Boston Public Library this 90 map exhibit traces America?s story from the French and Indian War all the way to the creation of our great nation. At the second, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, a guide interpreted the "American Ship Paintings" exhibit. In the mid-19th century, ship captains and owners commissioned artists to depict their sea-going vessels in all their glory.
Northampton Historic Preservation Society
P.O. Box 501
Eastville, VA 23347
email: nhps100@gmail.com