You may remember First Landing State Park and Chippokes Plantation State Park from my free tours that go along with Chapter 1 in the Guide. (Here's the link if you haven't seen it: My Favorite Places in Historic Tidewater Virginia.)
Here are a few events that will be happening in the coming month at these locations:
2008 Fall Festival at First Landing, Oct 18, 2008, 3:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. Celebrate fall with programs covering harvesting, Native American ways of life, pirate history, games, hikes and hayrides. Take a night hike in search of the elusive screech owls that live in First Landing. Location - Picnic Area & Trail Center Phone - (757) 412-2300
Jones-Stewart Mansion Tours at Chippokes Plantation , Oct 10, 2008 - Sep 04, 2009 , 12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Experience the comforts of an antebellum mansion and get to know the folks that called Chippokes home! Tours are family friendly and there is no fee to tour the Mansion. Open Saturdays and Sundays. While you are here, please visit the Chippokes Farm and Forestry Museum. Location - Jones-Stewart Mansion Phone - (757) 294-3625
Fossil Walk at Chippokes Plantation, Oct 11, 2008, 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. and Oct 18, 2008, 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Participants will hike through a journey millions of years in the making! The walk will be about 1.5 miles. Geology and natural history of the park will be discussed as well as fossil identification and methods to finding fossils. Location - Meet at River House parking lot Phone - (757) 294-3625
If you want to be kept informed of what's going on in your state parks, go to the Park Events page, and sign up for the electronic newsletter.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Corn Mazes in Virginia
Mazes used to be very popular among the 18th and 19th century folks, and they seem to be making a comeback. Typically, a farmer will create a maze in a cornfield to make some extra cash from the crop.
One nearby corn maze is at Hess Greenhouse in Harrisonburg, VA, about an hour west of Charlottesville. Field trips to the maze can be scheduled anytime from August 10th through November 4th, 2007, and on most fall weekends, Hess is having a variety of harvest festivals. Check out the Calendar of Events to see what's happening.
Other Virginia mazes include the Corn Maze in the Plains, in Northern Virginia; the Corn Maze at Bridgemont Farm, in the northern Shenandoah Valley; and the Virginia is for Lovers Corn Maze in Midlands, VA.
One nearby corn maze is at Hess Greenhouse in Harrisonburg, VA, about an hour west of Charlottesville. Field trips to the maze can be scheduled anytime from August 10th through November 4th, 2007, and on most fall weekends, Hess is having a variety of harvest festivals. Check out the Calendar of Events to see what's happening.
Other Virginia mazes include the Corn Maze in the Plains, in Northern Virginia; the Corn Maze at Bridgemont Farm, in the northern Shenandoah Valley; and the Virginia is for Lovers Corn Maze in Midlands, VA.
Monday, July 28, 2008
James Madison's Montpelier
Montpelier is a very interesting place. It was the home of James and Dolley Madison, who lived there with Madison's parents. Madison is related to Albemarle County, not only because he was a friend and protege of Thomas Jefferson, but because he was the first President of the Albemarle Agricultural Society. The house is also interesting because it was owned by the DuPont family from the late nineteenth century to 1983, when Marion duPont Scott died and left it to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
After much study, the National Trust decided to restore the house to it's eighteenth-century look, removing all of the DuPont additions. Now, the restoration is complete and on September 17, 2008 -- Constitution Day -- Montpelier will hold a Restoration Celebration, open to the public.
On November 1st, Montpelier will host the Montpelier Hunt Races, a tradition started by Mrs. Scott in 1924.
After much study, the National Trust decided to restore the house to it's eighteenth-century look, removing all of the DuPont additions. Now, the restoration is complete and on September 17, 2008 -- Constitution Day -- Montpelier will hold a Restoration Celebration, open to the public.
On November 1st, Montpelier will host the Montpelier Hunt Races, a tradition started by Mrs. Scott in 1924.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Independence Day at Monticello
In my opinion, there is no better day to visit Monticello than July 4th. Thomas Jefferson preferred to celebrate Independence Day rather than his own birthday (April 13th). As he said in his last political statement:
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation also invites the public to Monticello every July 4th, to attend a Naturalization Ceremony for what is usually over 100 people who wish to become citizens of the United States. Here's a video clip on YouTube of Sam Waterston, as the speaker for the Naturalization Ceremonies in 2007, and a transcript of his speech.
NOTE: The speaker this year was actually the sitting President, George Bush.
I suggest you get there at least an hour early and take a walk around the mountaintop while waiting for the ceremony to start. Although you must buy tickets for the House Tour, the Gardens and Grounds Tour, and the Plantation Community Tour (all are included in one ticket), there is still plenty to see. If you feel like seeing everything, you can buy another ticket to see Montalto, the Jefferson property on the next mountain west that the Foundation acquired in the past couple of years.
What I like to do is take a walk through the vegetable garden, walk down Mulberry Row, and follow the path down the mountain. I always stop at the Monticello Cemetery, where there is a wreath-laying ceremony after the Naturalization Ceremony. It's a beautiful walk (about half a mile long, but not handicap accessible) and gives you time to contemplate the founding of our nation over two hundred years ago.
May [July 4] be to the world, what I believe it will be -- to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all -- the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form [of government] which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation also invites the public to Monticello every July 4th, to attend a Naturalization Ceremony for what is usually over 100 people who wish to become citizens of the United States. Here's a video clip on YouTube of Sam Waterston, as the speaker for the Naturalization Ceremonies in 2007, and a transcript of his speech.
NOTE: The speaker this year was actually the sitting President, George Bush.
I suggest you get there at least an hour early and take a walk around the mountaintop while waiting for the ceremony to start. Although you must buy tickets for the House Tour, the Gardens and Grounds Tour, and the Plantation Community Tour (all are included in one ticket), there is still plenty to see. If you feel like seeing everything, you can buy another ticket to see Montalto, the Jefferson property on the next mountain west that the Foundation acquired in the past couple of years.
What I like to do is take a walk through the vegetable garden, walk down Mulberry Row, and follow the path down the mountain. I always stop at the Monticello Cemetery, where there is a wreath-laying ceremony after the Naturalization Ceremony. It's a beautiful walk (about half a mile long, but not handicap accessible) and gives you time to contemplate the founding of our nation over two hundred years ago.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Charlottesville as the Center of the Universe - A meditation on books
Sometimes, in conversations with people from Charlottesville or the University of Virginia, one gets the impression that we believe Charlottesville is the Center of the Universe. We don't actually believe that. Really.
Sometimes it just seems as if Charlottesville is the center around which all things move.
I was reading the Washington Post this morning, as I do every Sunday morning, and by some strange confluence of ideas, two of the books reviewed in the Post's Book World magazine have connections to Charlottesville, and there's a small blurb on Charlottesville in the Travel section of the paper. I'm always amazed at what varied topics are related to this area, so I thought I'd give those who have a "Charlottesville Reading List" the heads-up on these books.
Most closely related to this area, in my opinion, is The Billionaire's Vinegar; The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine, by Benjamin Wallace. Wallace gives a non-fiction account of intrigue and mystery that centers around several bottles of wine that purportedly belonged to Thomas Jefferson. The researchers at Monticello's Jefferson Library at Kenwood are involved in this mystery.
American Eye; Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, the Birth of the "It" Girl, and the Crime of the Century by Paula Uruburu, is a more distant connection. Nesbit, a showgirl, had had an affair with architect Stanford White of McKim, Mead, and White of New York, when she was only 17 and he was in his 40s. Nesbit eventually married millionaire Harry K. Thaw, who in 1906, murdered White by shooting him point-blank during a show at Madison Square Garden. What is the connection to Charlottesville, you ask? McKim, Mead, and White was the architectural firm that renovated the University of Virginia's Rotunda (in fact, the Rotunda was Stanford White's project), and which designed Carr's Hill (the University President's mansion) and Old Cabell Hall.
Another interesting book (it came out in 2006) is Archie and Amelie; Love and Madness in the Gilded Age, by Donna M. Lucey. Amelie was Amelie Rives, a granddaughter of Senator William Cabell Rives. She was a popular writer of sensational novels who owned Castle Hill on Louisa Road (Rt. 22) in Albemarle County. The story is fascinating, reminding us that even the rich can behave badly.
Sometimes it just seems as if Charlottesville is the center around which all things move.
I was reading the Washington Post this morning, as I do every Sunday morning, and by some strange confluence of ideas, two of the books reviewed in the Post's Book World magazine have connections to Charlottesville, and there's a small blurb on Charlottesville in the Travel section of the paper. I'm always amazed at what varied topics are related to this area, so I thought I'd give those who have a "Charlottesville Reading List" the heads-up on these books.
Most closely related to this area, in my opinion, is The Billionaire's Vinegar; The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine, by Benjamin Wallace. Wallace gives a non-fiction account of intrigue and mystery that centers around several bottles of wine that purportedly belonged to Thomas Jefferson. The researchers at Monticello's Jefferson Library at Kenwood are involved in this mystery.
American Eye; Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, the Birth of the "It" Girl, and the Crime of the Century by Paula Uruburu, is a more distant connection. Nesbit, a showgirl, had had an affair with architect Stanford White of McKim, Mead, and White of New York, when she was only 17 and he was in his 40s. Nesbit eventually married millionaire Harry K. Thaw, who in 1906, murdered White by shooting him point-blank during a show at Madison Square Garden. What is the connection to Charlottesville, you ask? McKim, Mead, and White was the architectural firm that renovated the University of Virginia's Rotunda (in fact, the Rotunda was Stanford White's project), and which designed Carr's Hill (the University President's mansion) and Old Cabell Hall.
Another interesting book (it came out in 2006) is Archie and Amelie; Love and Madness in the Gilded Age, by Donna M. Lucey. Amelie was Amelie Rives, a granddaughter of Senator William Cabell Rives. She was a popular writer of sensational novels who owned Castle Hill on Louisa Road (Rt. 22) in Albemarle County. The story is fascinating, reminding us that even the rich can behave badly.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Monacan Indian Pow-Wow, May 16-18, 2008
The Monacan Indians are having their 16th Annual Pow-Wow this coming weekend. Events include Indian dancing, drumming, arts, food. For more information, contact the tribal office, 434-946-0389, or see http://www.monacannation.com/powwow.shtml
The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities has a great calendar on their website: http://www.virginiafoundation.org/calendar/, which lists even more events related to Virginia Indians.
The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities has a great calendar on their website: http://www.virginiafoundation.org/calendar/, which lists even more events related to Virginia Indians.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Historic Garden Week in Virginia - April 19-27, 2008
This weekend marks the beginning of this year's Historic Garden Week in Virginia. There are going to be a number of interesting gardens open in Albemarle County, among them Morven; Casa Maria, Ramsay, and other properties in the Greenwood area; and the University of Virginia Grounds and Gardens. I urge you to take advantage of these rare opportunities to see these private homes and gardens up close; Garden Week is usually the only time they are open to the public. Plus, the entrance fees help the garden clubs of Virginia continue the preservation of historic sites around the state.
For more details, check out the Albemarle-Charlottesville schedule.
For more details, check out the Albemarle-Charlottesville schedule.
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