Bacon's Castle

Another day trip with Molly and the kids -- this time to Bacon's Castle in Surry. Seems like we do a lot of stuff in Surry these days -- probably because it's a really good distance away. Just a little over an hour -- short enough so that the kids don't revolt in the car but long enough so that it feels like you're really going somewhere. Surry might as well be another world compared to the HRVA metro area -- there are gravel roads, fields of soybeans and tobacco, picturesque white farmhouses, the works.

Bacon's Castle is a 17th century Jacobean-style home, one of the only surviving examples of Jacobean architecture in the Western Hemisphere and the oldest house in Virginia, built in 1665. The house has a long and storied history, was home to a prosperous planter and his family, and a landmark during Bacon's Rebellion (which gave the house its name). The house has been expanded over the years, and underwent extensive renovations in the 1980s, but the past still feels very close when you're inside it. It was mind-boggling to peek into rooms and imagine the people who had lived in them, to touch a hundreds-year-old wooden banister and think about all of the hands that had touched it over the years.

We had thought that we would probably be allowed to roam the house, as we did when we visited the Moses Myers House a few weeks ago, but actually, the folks at Bacon's Castle prefer to take groups on a tour of the premises. Older kids will enjoy it, thanks to the interesting and very knowledgeable tour guides, but our little ones were antsy and wanted to run, which was a bit awkward at times. However, once the tour was over and we turned them loose on the grounds of the 17th century garden and the nearby slave quarters, they were able to whoop and holler to their hearts' content. Add in a picnic lunch under the trees on the house's wide lawn, and you've got a wonderful way to spend a summer afternoon.

Bacon's Castle is open from Friday to Sunday, March through November. Block admission can be purchased with Smith's Fort Plantation, another Preservation Virginia site that stands just across the James River. In addition to seasonal events, Bacon's Castle also offers group tours and has one of the best gift shops we've seen in a long while. Click here for more info.