Historic Homes & Gardens

Richmond has a ghost walk on Friday evenings at 6pm. The tour takes a light-hearted approach to morbid manifestations and features many of the areas historic homes.

Block tickets at discounted prices are available for Agecroft Hall and Virginia House.

Quick Tips:

Best Way To Get Around:

John Marshall, the third Chief Justice of the United States, lived in this beautiful Federal-style home for 45 years. Although his demanding work schedule kept him away to some degree, his deep love for his wife led him to never be away from the city for more than three months at a time.

Built in 1790, this is the oldest brick house surviving in the city. When you visit here, you'll feel you're seeing the place just as Marshall left it. Personal belongings, family furnishings and other period furniture fill the spacious rooms.

Marshall was a captain during the Revoloutionary War. He was a member of the Virginia assemby and took a leading part in the Virginia convention that acted on the Constitution. Although offered the position of Attorney General by George Washington, as well as that of Minister to France but he declined both in favor of continuing to practice law in Richmond. He was, however Secretary of State under John Adams.

At the time of his appointment to the position of Chief Justice, the structure of the Court system was such that the opinions of the Supreme Court were almost exclusively his. He served for 11 years.

Virginia House is surrounded by elegant gardens designed by landscape artist Charles Gillette. Elizabethan furnishings, Flemish tapestries and an extensive portrait collection fill the interior. The portraits include works by Charles Dana Gibson (creator of the "Gibson Girl") and the Peale Brothers. From them, the eyes of Pocahontas and other figures in Virginia history will follow you as you tour the rooms.

In the 12th century, this building was a priory in Warwickshire, England. It was moved to Virginia in the 1920s and rennovated by the U.S. Ambassador to Spain and his wife, Virginia. When they died in a train wreck in the 1940s, the home was willed to the Virginia Historical Society, of which Mr. Weddel was President.

See Shakespeare on the lawn of a Tudor home without travelling to England. This 15th century manor house was moved from Lancestershire to Richmond in the 1920s and is now both a museum and home to Encore!, Richmonds' Shakespeare company. Plays are performed in the summer.

The 23 acre site overlooks the James, reminiscant of its former place overlooking the Erwell River in England. Furniture from Elizabethan and Stuart periods includes a clock that keeps time only on the hour, armour and rich tapestries. The oak panneling of Agecrofts' authentic interior is elaborately carved.

Joint tours with nearby Virginia House area available.

One Governors' wife complained in the 1800s that the only antiques in the place were the tin roof & the falling floors. The Executive Mansion has undergone quite a bit of renovation since then, including one by the current First Lady of Virginia. Elegant first-floor rooms (which now contain a great many antiques) may be toured by the public on Mondays, Tuesdays (2-4) & Fridays (10-4).

The Executive Mansion has been the home of several Governors who were later U.S. Presidents. It was also here that Confederate General Robert E. Lee lay in state after his death.

Reports of hauntings at the site begin in the 1890s, when a Governor saw a woman in an upstairs bedroom. When he asked his wife who her guest was, she replied that she had no guest. The same woman has been seen by guards over time. One was so frightened by her he quit!

News correspondent Ann Compton was called to the Mansion to see an unearthly manifestation during one of her visits to Richmond. Although a hurricaine had caused a city-wide power failure, she was surprised to find that a light in the ladies stairwell at the Mansion continued to burn.

Built in 1712, Tuckahoe is one of the oldest plantation homes in Virginia. It is considered by architectural historians to be the finest existing early 18th century plantation in the country.

Thomas Jefferson lived here as a child when his father took over the Plantations' management from his cousin. The school where he studied is still on the grounds.

Other elements of the history of Tuckahoe are shocking. Once home of the Randolph family, it has been the site of both intrigue and murder. A husband here began an affair with his wifes' sister. The relationship ended in a pregnancy that was kept hidden even from close family members. The baby died dubiously, soon after its birth. The husband and sister-in-law were brought to trial for murder. The pair were acquitted by defense of statesman Patrick Henry. Henry became famous for the more honorable act of uttering the inspiring phrase: "I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death." at St. John's Church (see Museums & Sites).

The wife never recovered from the ordeal of the trial. She soon slipped into a semi-delusional religious fervor. When her own son was born deaf, she blamed his condition on the wrath of God; deciding that he was smiting her husband for his affair and for the death of the other infant. The husband was poisoned by persons unknown soon after. She is, of course, suspected.

Another hapless resident of Tuckahoe was a young Randolph daughter who fell in love with the overseer of a neighboring plantation. The pair ran away and were married. Her family and the community protested the union and insisted that she return to marry someone of her own social group. Against her wishes, she returned to Tuckahoe and was forced to marry a man twice her age who she did not love. It is her ghost that is suspected to rush, distressed, down Tuckahoes' 'ghost walk'.

Walk through the gardens, tour the Dooley Mansion and visit the petting zoo at Maymont. If that's not enough to do, concerts are held at the carriage house in the summer.

Maymont has 100 acres of exotic landscapes, containing trees and plants from around the world. Japenese and Italian gardens and a quaint gazeebo are just a few of the attractions here. Wild animals graze throughout the park, (fenced in, of course) making it a kind of zoo as well.

The home of the Dooleys, Victorian entrepeneurs, is available for tours. One highlight worth going inside for is the swan bed in the master bedroom. Something unseen moves objects in the room from place to place too.

The Dooleys not only left the grounds and home to the city upon their death, but also a mysterious box kept locked inside the Richmond Public Library.

Tues.-Sun. noon-5. Lovely views of the James River.