While in Virginia for the 44th General Assembly, attendees may want to plan visits to the many Colonial era sites that are within an hour or two of our capital.
No lodging, transportation, or meals are provided for this in connection with the Assembly, although the hotel has agreed to provide rooms for a few days before and after the Assembly at the Assembly price, subject to availability.
In addition to the list below, the Virginia Museum of History and Culture launched a virtual tour of historic colonial and revolutionary sites on its website: virginiahistory.org. The title of the virtual tour is “Virginia Explorer: Virginia and the American Revolution Virtual Tour” that you may want to take whether you attend the Assembly or not. It is currently listed by that title on the VMHC website under the events tab as America’s 250th.
General Assembly registrants may want to attend an optional, post-General Assembly, self-paced, “add-on” opportunity to visit Jamestown Island on Monday, September 22, 2025, at their expense for which Virginia Warrior Channing Hall has graciously arranged a lecture in the church on Monday morning should 12 people commit to attending.
Participants are responsible for arranging their own transportation to and from Jamestown, overnight accommodations, and meals. Jamestown is approximately one hour from Richmond by car. Subject to availability, rooms at Assembly hotel for those who wish to stay over may be booked at the Assembly rates. The hotels of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation provide an alternative in Williamsburg, approximately 8 miles from Jamestown, and offer options from affordable to luxurious. See www.colonialwilliamsburghotels.com.
Participants will meet at 10:30 a.m. in the Memorial Church at Jamestown for a special private briefing on “Recent Jamestown Developments,” to learn about new discoveries, ongoing archaeology, and insider information, led by senior officials of the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation. Before and after, one can walk about Jamestown Island to visit the 1607 James Fort site, the Vorhees “Archaearium” Archaeological Museum, the bronze “Horse Trough” placed by the GSCW for the 1907 Jamestown Exposition, and other features. Lunch may be purchased at the Dale House Cafe. See www.historicjamestowne.org. The VASCW may also dedicate a new plaque as part of these festivities.
If interested, please contact Channing Hall at cmhall@channinglaw.com for more information and to register for it. The private briefing in the church will require a minimum of 12 registrants.
Scotchtown is a plantation located in Hanover County, Virginia, that from 1771 to 1778 was owned and used as a residence by U.S. Founding Father Patrick Henry, his wife Sarah and their children. He was a revolutionary and elected in 1778 as the first Governor of Virginia.
The Virginia State Capitol is the seat of state government of the Commonwealth of Virginia, located in Richmond, the state capital. It houses the oldest elected legislative body in North America, the Virginia General Assembly, first established as the House of Burgesses in 1619.
Dozens of properties both north and south of the James River from Jamestown to the Richmond fall line once served as the hub for tobacco trade from the Americas. Now mostly in private hands, many still welcome visitors who drive State Routes 5 (north) and 10 (south) along the river.
Monticello was the primary plantation of Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third president of the United States. Jefferson began designing Monticello after inheriting land from his father at the age of 14.
James Madison’s Montpelier, located in Orange County, Virginia, was the plantation house of the Madison family, including Founding Father and fourth president of the United States James Madison and his wife, Dolley. The 2,650-acre property is open seven days a week.
Highland, formerly Ash Lawn, located near Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, and adjacent to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, was the estate of James Monroe, a Founding Father and fifth president of the United States.
The Virginia Museum of History & Culture is owned and operated by the Virginia Historical Society, a private, non-profit organization. The historical society is the oldest cultural organization in Virginia, and one of the oldest and most distinguished history organizations in the nation. For use in its state history museum and its renowned research library, the historical society cares for a collection of nearly nine million items representing the ever-evolving story of Virginia.
The Valentine is a museum in Richmond, Virginia dedicated to collecting, preserving and interpreting Richmond’s history. Founded by Mann S. Valentine II in 1898, it was the first museum in Richmond.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia, is one of the largest comprehensive art museums in the United States. VMFA, which opened in 1936, is a state agency and privately endowed educational institution. Its purpose is to collect, preserve, exhibit and interpret art, and to encourage the study of the arts.
For more than 100 years, members of the Randolph family called Wilton home. Built c. 1753 for William Randolph III, Wilton was the centerpiece of a 2,000 acre tobacco plantation and at one point was home to the largest enslaved population in Henrico. It is now the headquarters of the Virginia Society of Colonial Dames in America.
Christ Church is a historic Episcopal church in Lancaster County, Virginia, north of Irvington. Built in 1732-35, it is notable for its unique Georgian design, it is a National Historic Landmark and is one of the best-preserved colonial churches in the southern United States.
Sabine Hall is a historic house located near Warsaw in Richmond County, Virginia. Built about 1734 by noted planter, burgess and patriot Landon Carter (1710–1778), it is one of Virginia’s finest Georgian brick manor houses and a National Historic Landmark.
Mount Airy, near Warsaw in Richmond County, Virginia, is the first neo-Palladian villa mid-Georgian plantation house built in the United States. It was constructed in 1764 for Colonel John Tayloe II, perhaps the richest Virginia planter of his generation.
Stratford Hall is a historic house museum near Lerty in Westmoreland County, Virginia. It was the plantation house of four generations of the Lee family of Virginia.
Ditchley is a historic plantation house located near Kilmarnock, Northumberland County, Virginia. It was built in 1762, and is a two-story, Georgian style brick mansion and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Yeocomico Church is a historic Episcopal church in Westmoreland County, Virginia. The original wooden structure was built in 1655 but replaced in 1706 by a structure built of locally fired bricks. May have been the site of the christening of George Washington.
St Mary’s Whitechapel is an Episcopal church in Lancaster, Virginia, founded in 1669, and located three miles south of Lively, in Lancaster County, in the Northern Neck. The parish of St Mary’s Whitechapel is notable for being the church of Mary Ball Washington, mother of George Washington, during her youth.
James Monroe Birthplace Park & Museum, also known as James Monroe’s Birthplace, is a historic archaeological site located near Oak Grove and Colonial Beach, Westmoreland County, Virginia.
Historic Jamestown is the cultural heritage site that was the location of the 1607 James Fort and the later 17th-century town of Jamestown in America. It is adjacent and complementary with Jamestown Settlement, a living history museum built and run by the Commonwealth of Virginia to interpret the early colony.
Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum and private foundation presenting a part of the historic district in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia. Its 301-acre (122 ha) historic area includes several hundred restored or recreated buildings from the 18th century, when the city was the capital of the Colony of Virginia; 17th-century, 19th-century, and Colonial Revival structures; and more recent reconstructions.
Bacon’s Castle, also variously known as “Allen’s Brick House” or the “Arthur Allen House” is the oldest documented brick dwelling in what is now the United States. Built in 1665, it is noted as an extremely rare example of Jacobean architecture in the New World.
