GLOUCESTER OFFERS HISTORY, RECREATION AND SCENIC BEAUTY

October 11, 2008 12:15 am

The brick ruins of Rosewell (built 1725-38) allow visitors an unusual view of a grand Colonial mansion.

Something's always blooming at Brent and Becky's Bulbs, growers and sellers of common and uncommon bulbs. The company has an international catalog business and also welcomes visitors to its home base in Gloucester.

THOSE ATTENDING the Battle of the Hook re-enactment will find plenty of other things to do in history-rich, scenic Gloucester, a largely rural county of 37,500 residents perhaps best known for its spring Daffodil Festival.

Pocahontas supposedly saved John Smith there. Thomas Jefferson's friend Virginia Gov. John Page lived at Rosewell, a mansion that crowned a 3,000-acre plantation. Visitors often find it a spiritual experience to view the spooky brick ruins of the grand, three-story house, which burned in 1916.

A brick wall contains Court Circle in downtown Gloucester, where the 1766 courthouse, a jail, debtors prison and other early buildings are clustered. An 1896 office of the clerk of the courts is being renovated for use as the new visitors center. Nearby is the Gloucester Museum of History, housed in a handsome 18th-century tavern.

Visitors also can wander among the Colonial tombstones in the graveyards at Warner Hall and at Abingdon and Ware Episcopal churches, inspect the tiny cottage where Dr. Walter Reed, the conqueror of yellow fever, was born in 1851, and take a driving tour of black historic sites.

Gloucester Point draws visitors for its river walk, fishing pier, beach and abundant bird life. It is home to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and Tyndall's Point Park, featuring earthworks from the Revolution and Civil War. Beaverdam Park is another place to fish, boat, hike and picnic.

Garden lovers will delight in the colorful, blooming displays at Brent and Becky's Bulbs, a worldwide distributor. Visitors can watch coffee beans being roasted at Mobjack Bay Coffee, where the owner touts organic, environmentally friendly practices and devotes 8 percent of the store's proceeds to Chesapeake Bay restoration. Worth a stop is Stone Lane Ice Cream, where handmade flavors as unusual as pomegranate and cake batter are crowd-pleasers.

A must is a stroll down Main Street (U.S. 17 Business), where an ongoing renewal project has spruced up downtown with attractive sidewalks, benches, lamps and hanging flower baskets.

A variety of restaurants including Olivia's, Stillwater's and the Wild Rabbit Cafe line the street, along with charming businesses like Twice Told Tales, Buttons & Bows, the Beauty Vault, Ware Neck Produce and Burke's, where sometimes the owner's two dogs greet customers.

--Gwen Woolf