Fabulous Francis Land House
The first beautiful and historic home and gardens in Virginia Beach on my self-led tour is Francis Land House.
Because this home is right off Virginia Beach Boulevard, it’s very centrally located from just about every part of the city. There’s ample parking and you don’t have to worry about paying, because it’s free.
Step inside
There’s a small gift shop and they offer tours every 15 or 20 minutes. I enjoyed talking to the people working in the shop. Actually, everyone on my tour clearly loved sharing history. Each person enthusiastically discussed the grounds, the items in the gift shop, or generously gave me suggestions of other places to visit.
I went to Francis Land to see gardens, but it started to rain while I was inside. So I decided to take a tour.
On the Saturday I visited, the woman there led a fabulous discussion about the upstairs section of the house. This part was an unexpected and fun twist to the typical historic home visit.
Keeping Shop
I learned about Francis Land, namesake of the house and thst the home wasn’t always considered historic by the Virginia Beach. In fact it was used as a dress shop up until the late in the 20th century.
Because of this, they now display fashions upstairs from all the decades that it was Rose Hall (the dress shop). I enjoyed this element of my visit. Like I said: it’s not your typical historic home tour!
Nowadays, they put on a fundraiser featuring a runway of local people modelling different fashions from all the years that the Francis Land was a dress shop. It sounds like a fun event, especially if you love nearby, or like fashion history.
The land behind the Francis Land
Virginia Beach’s Master Gardeners are doing a great job in the gardens here, off Vitginia Beach Boulevard.
Oyster shell pathways and beautiful picket fences form the garden’s architectural hardscapes. (I’m a sucker for a nice picket fence). Despite drought and the late-season waning appearance of most gardens that were on my tour, the Land’s garden appeared impeccable.
Here, you can see things that were grown by the Land family at the time (and probably some things that weren’t): Hyacinth bean, Jerusalem artichoke.
The gorgeous American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) out front is estimated to be about 300 years old, and well-worth hugging. Planted around 1670, the tree predates the home by over a century. was Built in the early 1800s, the site features nicely-done signs that tell what grow, and why.
The Francis Land House, has several facets: the historic home element, the more-recent historic dress shop displays and gorgeous mature gardens and trees. It is located at 3151 Virginia Beach Boulevard.
Ferry Plantation, the place behind the name “Witchduck”
The next stop on my tour was the Ferry Plantation house, where my mom worked when she was in school for Interior Design.
My previous visit was 12 years ago when Beverly Nash was there. She’s since departed this world, but was a true champion for getting Grace Sherwood (the person that was tried as a witch there hundreds of years ago) exonerated by the Governor of Virginia hundreds of years after the fact.
Beverly Nash also did a great job making sure the home here (near the courthouse site and jail) was saved and renovated, too.
This home is not included in register of city-funded historic homes in Virginia Beach, so there is a small fee to tour the home. It is also considered one of the most haunted homes in Virginia. It’s on my list of future “gardens with ghosts” articles.
As far as Gardens, the delightful herb garden out front is accessible and labeled. There were figs dripping off the trees in front of the house the day I visited. The house was closed, and it was raining, but I still walked the beautiful grounds across the street from where Sherwood was tried for witchcraft by dunking, and survived.
Parking is rather discreet. I highly recommend visiting when you can get a tour of the home.
My favorite Virginia Beach statue
Leaing Ferry Plantation, I head to nearby Virginia Beach General hospital. There, I visit the statue of Grace Sherwood which is in a corner of the Parking lot, not far from Ferry Plantation.
Though we arent sure what she looked like, we do know she was jailed for 7 years in Virginia Beach (Princess Anne County at the time), then released.
She managed to pay off her years of back taxes, continue farming, and lived out her years at the family home where she raised three sons, who were reportedly at her bedside when she died.
The Lovely Lynnahven House
From Ferry Plantation, I head to the Lynnhaven House. It also was closed, unfortunately, but the grounds were open.
There was a private event that day, so the person in charge of historic homes for Virginia Beach was there. I commended him on for shining a spotlight on the historic homes of my former hometown.
Just the day before, I complained to my parents that I didn’t think Virginia Beach cared about historic homes. Thanks to my trip and the places I visited, I feel differently now.
According to people at the houses that were open, Virginia Beach is starting to invest more resources into protecting some of the oldest homes in this area. This list includes Lynnhaven House.
While there, I walked the nice oyster shell pathways and admired the beautiful brick chimney.The windows at Lynnhaven are gorgeous.
The next day, I learned the windows there are quite similar to the ones at the Thoroughgood House. This makes sense, as both were built around the same time.
Lynnhaven House’s gardens are not extensive, but the grounds are beautiful. There is also a really nice pathway that runs behind the house and came out onto the road nearby. I walked contemplatively in the lingering mist of the earlier rains, and enjoyed myself.
Thoroughly ThoroughGOOD
If you’re looking for gorgeous gardens, I recommend heading to my next stop, which is the Thoroughgood house.
It was Labor Day weekend when I visited, and I felt like I stepped back in time twice: once, into the 1700s, and on my way through the surrounding neighborhood.
Kids were on bikes everywhere. I counted not one, but TWO lemonade stands in the while driving slowly, looking for the entrance. It felt like i was back in 1980s’ Virginia Beach (where I grew up). It was a nice feeling.
There is a fabulous historic display about the house and grounds, with bathrooms and meeting space. While I waited for the next tour, I spent a while looking at the fabulous displays and learned much about the city of my youth that I’d not heard before.
Celeste, my tour guide, was one of the volunteers there. She grew up in Thoroughgood, lived all over the country after graduating high school, since graduating, and then returned. I don’t blame her.
The neighborhood there was doenright bucolic: kids playing outside, tidy yards, neighbors chatting in the street, beautiful water views and the beautiful historic Thoroughgood grounds embedded within it all.
I really enjoyed talking to her! She showed me a binder of myriad historic homes and gardens in Virginia Beach that I didn’t know existed. Some are open to the public. Some are at least visible driving by.
I am very thankful for the information that she shared with me. Thanks, Celeste!
The arbors, water views, and vegetable and herb gardens are all well-kept here too. The tour of the house was fascinating.
Why to visit
While checking out these very old homes, make sure to visit the gardens there, too. They are all great example of things that you can do in your own yard in the Hampton Roads area
Especially if you have a lot of volunteers helping you, like the V.B. Master Gardeners! As a former VBMG, it is with some pride that I note the great job they do, maintaining the historic heritage of this city! Especially after visiting all these special places, I realize just how much I appreciate their efforts.
The past is a future present
People love to live near the ocean. The pressure for development means older homes and properties left are few. The foresight to preserve most of them succumbed to the greater desire for dollars, and the ravages of time.
Because I lived in Vitginia Beach for quite some time, I have many memories there. We have to protect this history, because there’s not many of these homes left.
The weekend’s tour restored my hope that the city of my youth is indeed being proactive. The homes were all clean, well-kept, staffed with passionate, friendly history buffs. Each place also has a plan of how they are going forth into the future.
I came for the gardens, but found that the preserved and renovated houses had restored my sense of home as well.
