Rosewell Foundation

This place is pretty amazing even if you're not a history buff. Kids enjoyed the place. There's unmark parking available. Picnic tables available for a luncheon. They have a visitor center for all your questions. They offer ghost tours as well! If you're in the area definitely stop by and check it out!

Built in the 1600's. At one time the largest private dwelling in colonial America. One of 3 large plantations. 17 fireplaces, 33 bedrooms! Burned down in 1916. This house has been through a lot over the past centuries. A nice stop to see an interesting architectural feat. Stop by the visitor's center for admission and information about this mansions previous grandeur and storied history.

Spent a lovely and informative morning here with my daughter who is visiting from NYC. Very nice, well laid out visitor center that, together with staff member and Rosewell expert Chris, helped us appreciate the ruins we were about to see. We agreed that Chris' enthusiasm for both Rosewell's architectural wonders and its long history was contagious. I just wish I could have commemorated the visit by purchasing my traditional fridge magnet (tacky I know but less tacky than a beer cozy or a shot glass), but alas, they have none in the visitor's center. A magnet would have rated 5 stars.

There's not much out there but was nice and quiet and a bit interesting. It used to be 12,000 square feet three story, basement and cupola home. It's out on the corn fields. You go to a small visitor center first (couple shelves of books etc. for sale) and you can see handful of small artifacts and watch a short film (don't worry it's only 115 minutes so). The you drive through the corn on a dirt road and it's right there...skeleton of the home....it burned in a fire in I believe 1916 and went to ruin ever since. It is part of Gloucester history and during revolutionary war. I'll post photos later...they have no money to rebuild this and the family that owned it wasn't quite noteworthy enough (though well known in their time and knew a lot of the famous people.). The guide told us Thomas Jefferson had been there etc. There were two fantastic gentlemen, both chatty and very knowledgeable, helpful and were fun to talk to. We were only people there and that was cool. Very quiet and peaceful. It's near Chesapeake Bay, the river and a creek . You could see the water beyond the cornfields next door. We went very slow and talked a lot to guy there and were in and out in under two hours because all there is to do is walk around ruins, see an icehouse and a couple brick outlines of where the kitchen and laundry were. Kind of a small neat treasure. Maybe one day a donor will save it