Written by Sean Restivo, Fairfield Foundation Fellow Summer 2023 Shorelines and islands are unique spaces of interaction, both among humans and between humans and nature. Once lost, the information that is unique to these spaces cannot be recovered at further inland sites. All around the world, these spaces are rapidly being lost to climate change-induced […]
Apotropaic Symbols at Timberneck
Written by Tom Karow and Lori Black Timberneck Farm is slowly revealing more of its hidden history more than two years after restoration work began on the circa 1793 house within Machicomoco State Park in Gloucester County, Virginia. Each week Fairfield Foundation volunteers gather at Timberneck to give tours of the house to the numerous […]
Lives from the Catlett Family Cemetery at Timberneck: Hettie Catlett (November 5, 1852-March 31, 1875)
Written by Sara Lewis, Development Officer Born in the fall of 1852, Hettie Catlett was the ninth child of 49-year-old John W. C. Catlett of Timberneck (1803-1883) and the fourth child of Frances “Fanny” Burwell Catlett (1814-1903), his second wife. Hettie’s birth was not celebrated in any known letters or journals, perhaps since, in the […]
The Plant-Cutter Riots and Fairfield Plantation
“… whereas many evil disposed persons Inhabitants of this Colonycontrary to their duty and Allegiance on the first day of May in the34th [year] of the King’s Reign and since tumultuously andMutinously assembled and gathered together Combining andpresuming to reform this Government by cutting up Tobacco plantsand to perpetrate the same in a traiterous and […]
King William Courthouse and Quarles Tavern Archaeology
King William County, Virginia boasts our nation’s longest continually used courthouse. The 1725 structure is set back from Route 30 amid a cluster of brick buildings inside a pair of nested walls. These include a late 19th-century jail to the east (now offices and restrooms), a mid-19th-century clerk’s office to the southwest (now the King […]
Mary Willis Burwell’s Portrait Returns to Gloucester
Written by Sara Lewis, Development Officer On a fall day in 1736, when Lewis Burwell (1711/12-1756) married Mary Willis (1718-1746), it may have been crisp and sunny with orange-yellow leaves rustling under foot, a day not unlike today. Although we don’t know exactly where the nuptials took place, we can imagine that they were as […]
Looking Towards the Future: A Peek Inside the Development of Fairfield’s New Online Museum
Guest blog by summer intern Ashleigh Cannata, a graduate student from the University of Maryland, College Park. Often museums are seen as places strictly with four walls, endless winding hallways, and a plethora of information it would take days to get through. However, following the COVID-19 pandemic and its lasting effects on our daily lives […]
Summer Archaeology Camps 2022
Blog written by Rachel Boyd, Public Outreach Coordinator The summer is over, and school is back in session. Hopefully our summer camp kids will talk about their time at Fairfield Plantation, learning what it was like to be an archaeologist… or how many tunnels they dug in the backfill. The beginning of fall is a […]
Help Us Enrich the African American Story at Fairfield Archaeology Park
By Sara Lewis, Fairfield Foundation Development Officer The Fairfield Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization in Gloucester, Virginia, has used its flagship Fairfield/Carter’s Creek archaeological site in White Marsh as one of its locations for historic preservation and educational outreach since 2000. The organization is planning to open the site to the public as a place for […]
Restoring the Timberneck House
The Fairfield Foundation began the restoration of the Timberneck House in 2020 as part of a long-term lease agreement with the Commonwealth of Virginia to repair and use the house for exhibits and short-term accommodation. This undertaking involves many facets, including historical research, archaeological investigations, design work, building preservation, and more. One of our primary […]
