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Summer gets off to a “historic” start on Saturday, June 3, with the Brownsburg Community Association’s Historic Brownsburg House and Garden Walking Tour.
Four private historic Brownsburg homes and three gardens will be open to visitors from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on a self-guided walking tour of about half of a mile. The owners will be available at each property to welcome participants and answer questions.
The historic houses on the tour cover a period of approximately 100 years, from the 1770s to the 1870s. T he earliest structure on the tour is Lavelle’s Tavern, circa 1775. The tavern sat on the busy Brownsburg-Middlebrook Turnpike and would have served stagecoach passengers traveling between Lexington and Staunton and westward to the many Virginia Springs resorts, as well as immigrants traveling south and west for settlement, farmers with livestock, food crops and whiskey, and merchants with market goods in wagons being taken to Cedar Grove and Lexington for boat transport to Richmond and beyond. The tavern and tavern kitchen, furnished to suggest their function as Lavelle’s Tavern, are open for the tour.
The small two-story log structure at the back of the main house will also be open for the tour. It initially housed slaves and at various times also served as both a summer kitchen and community hospital run by Quakers. The garden on the north side of the house is home to a 200-year-old pecan tree that still produces hundreds of non-hybridized pecans. Other trees of interest in the west garden are a large Dawn Redwood and a quite mature crabapple. The more recent parts of the garden contain about 20 different hostas and are splashed throughout with chartreuse foliage, a favorite of the gardener. The vegetable garden contains freeroaming strawberry plants and large blueberry bushes. Perennial flower beds provide splashes of color and stone walls and paths add structure. D ozens of shards of antique pottery have been uncovered while gardening.
The Elizabeth Ward House, circa 1813, is one of the earliest residential dwellings in B rownsburg. S imilar i n form to the many Scots-Irish structures found throughout the Shenandoah Valley, the original home contained a single room below with a loft above accessed by a corner stairway. I n the late 1800s, an attached kitchen with a room above was added, maintaining the two-story style. Visitors will notice the original 3-foot-by-10foot-by-20-foot oak beams spanning the living room area and the hand-hewn oak logs. T he h ouse, d ecorated with the owner’s collection of “all things Americana,” is a lovely juxtaposition of the early 19th century and comfortable modern living, typified by the view from the light-filled kitchen that looks out to a 200-year-old maple tree…the oldest tree in Brownsburg.
House, circa 1874, was built by Zachariah Johnston Walker, a captain in the home guards in Brownsburg and later a surgeon in McCausland’s Confederate brigade during t he C ivil War. I t i s believed that he was also the headmaster of the Brownsburg Academy, a private, Presbyterian high school for young men built with funds raised by residents. Prior to this structure being built on the lot, there was most likely another house built pre-1820 by a member of the Alexander Walker family.
For the last 25 years, Sweet Berry Farm has been a small but functional homestead with vegetables, fruits, herbs, chickens and cows, 75% of the produce they enjoy throughout the year. Visitors can learn about no till and vertical gardening, organically controlling insects with herbs and flowers, tips on having no weeds in the garden and raising healthy backyard chickens. The Rockbridge Area Master Gardeners will also be on site with their composting display. Sweet Berry Farm is a good example of how to grow a high quality and quantity of produce in a small garden space.
Twenty years ago, the 19th century log cabin now known as “Misty Meadows” began a new life in Brownsburg where an earlier cabin stood many years before. In the kitchen and baths and added air-conditioning. A small log structure to the rear serves as a gardener’s cabin. The owners have added many trees and shrubs and a n h erb g arden. T he cabin is furnished with early furniture, pottery, tinware and baskets. G lenn Wilson, of Olde Log and Stone, who relocated and restored Misty Meadows, will be available to answer questions. -Coffee and donuts will be available to purchase at Asbury Church in the morning and lunch will be available to purchase from LexVegas Bistro at Asbury Church from 11 a.m. There will also be container gardening demonstrations p.m.
Registration for pre-paid tickets, day-of ticket sales (if still available) and tour parking will be at Wade’s Mill in Raphine starting at 9:30 a.m. Tour participants will board a Rockbridge County school bus for the short, scenic 10-minute drive to Brownsburg. T here w ill be two school buses on a continuous loop. Due to on-street parking limitations, no tour parking will be available in Brownsburg.
The tour is “rain or shine” and no refunds will be made for inclement weather. Tour proceeds will support the BCA’s college scholarship program for local high school students, local fire and rescue departments and charitable activities in the local community.
Tickets are $35 in advance and $40 on the day, if not sold out. The tour committee strongly advises purchasing tickets in advance as attendance will be capped to prevent overcrowding at the houses and gardens. To visit all tour sites by the 3 p.m. tour closing time, participants are advised to start the tour by 1 p.m. at the latest.
Tickets are available online at https://brownsburgva.com/ historic-brownsburg-area-country-garden-tour. Online ticket sales close at midnight May 31. M ail-in registration forms are also available at the Brownsburg, Fairfield, Raphine, Rockbridge Baths and Middlebrook post offices. To receive a registration form by email or for any other questions, email [email protected].
