Newtown Historic District Featured on Garden Week Tour

Newtown in upper King and Queen County is one of the Garden Club of Virginia’s Historic Garden Week tours and was hosted by the Garden Club of the Middle Peninsula on Friday, April 28 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. It is one of the historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places. In the colonial era the Great Post Road from Philadelphia to Williamsburg ran through Newtown. For a time it was the largest village in the county and prospered as a rest stop for travelers and a commercial hub of the community. Today, the village retains its antebellum charm. There were five buildings on the tour. The Hill, also known as Locust Hill, is the oldest building and was once the store and ordinary kept in 1769 by Captain John Richards. Old Town House, also called the Lumpkin House, was built ca. 1839 by Richardson Lumpkin, a man of considerable talents and property whose papers give a glimpse of pre-Civil War Newtown. Greenway, also known as the Turpin House, was built in 1845 by Samuel S. Gresham, manager of the local general store and postmaster of Newtown. Walton’s Academy was built in 1853 by Andrew Moore Boulware, a leading Newtown merchant, for Rev. E. Payson Walton, A.M., serving as his home and a female seminary. The Post Office, built in 1922, was a country store that also served as a post office, and is a true example of the rural stores of long ago. The Courthouse Historic District where the Tavern Museum is located was also highlighted as a place of interest for those on tour.