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Open Air The Glebe is among the newly featured properties on the 2024 Autumn Pilgrimage House Tour in Charles City County.
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Westover Episcopal Church
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Sherwood Forest Plantation
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A dining room at Sherwood Forest
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Berkeley Plantation
Just east of the city, historic Route 5 follows the course of the James River, connecting Richmond with the Jamestown settlement and Williamsburg. One of the oldest roads in the country — leaders including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson traveled Route 5, then called New Market Road, on horseback on their way to the Colonial capital — the two-lane highway runs through one of the first areas settled by British colonists as they moved beyond Jamestown. There you’ll find some of the oldest homes in America, as well as Westover Episcopal Church, first established in 1613 on the Westover plantation grounds.
The 2024 Autumn Pilgrimage House Tour, a Charles City County tradition since 1954, returns Saturday, Sept. 28, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The driving tour features seven historic properties, four of them open to the public for the first time, all located within a few miles of each other along Route 5. Proceeds from the tour, organized by Westover Episcopal Church, support the church and its community outreach programs.
New properties featured on the Autumn Pilgrimage this fall include:
Piney Grove
- Piney Grove, which comprises the original 1790s log structure, the sole extant building of Southall plantation, and a collection of other historic buildings saved from destruction by the Gordineer family.
- Open Air The Glebe, built by Westover Parish in 1745 and carefully updated for 21st-century life while retaining its historic integrity.
- Greenway, the birthplace of the 10th president of the United States, John Tyler, which was built in 1776 by the president’s father, Judge John Tyler Sr., and remains largely unchanged from its original architectural design.
- Kimages, a mid-20th-century house and garden on a bluff of the James.
Berkeley and Sherwood Forest plantations and the 411-year-old Westover Episcopal Church, one of the oldest parishes in the nation, complete the 2024 tour itinerary.
Please note that the historic sites are not handicapped accessible. For tickets and tour details, visit westoverepiscopalchurch.org.
