Northern Neck National Heritage Area

05/29/2026

The VA250 Mobile Museum offers a hands-on, interactive, immersive experience titled “Out of Many, One.”

This pop-up museum started rolling around the Commonwealth in January 2025. If you haven’t experienced it yet, save the date!! In June, you’ll have two opportunities right here in the Northern Neck.

The VA250 Mobile Museum will be in Westmoreland at Stratford Hall June 6-7 as part of the two-day “Virginia Resolved” mega-event.

Check out the full itinerary: https://www.stratfordhall.org/virginiaresolved/

From June 26-28, the museum will be available at Historic Christ Church & Museum in Weems, open each day from 10am- 4pm.

05/27/2026

05/27/2026

The Claud W. Somers will hold a volunteer crew training sail this coming Saturday (30 May). Crew muster is at 0900 at the Reedville Fishermen's Museum dock and we'll be underway by 1000.

Anyone interested in learning to sail on a 115 year-old historic sailing vessel should contact the Museum office or stop by.

05/26/2026

A Historic Congressional Race...

There is only one known congressional race in U.S. history in which future presidents ran against each other for the same seat. Both men were born in the Northern Neck, and the race was for the 1st U.S. Congress.

In 1789, James Madison and James Monroe both aimed to be the representative for Virginia’s 5th congressional district, a contest that came just after the Constitution took effect.

Virginians were deeply divided over how powerful the new federal government should be. Madison, often called the “Father of the Constitution,” supported ratification and argued the new government was necessary to preserve the union. But he was initially opposed to adding a Bill of Rights.

Monroe, an Anti-Federalist, appealed to Virginians who feared centralized federal power and worried the Constitution lacked protections for individual liberties.

Patrick Henry, also an Anti-Federalist, was reportedly a central figure in an effort to shape the congressional district to defeat Madison politically. But Madison adapted, notably by shifting to support the Bill of Rights.

Ultimately, Madison received 1,308 votes to Monroe’s 972 and became the first representative from Virginia’s 5th District.

Monroe, however, soon entered Congress as well, winning election to the Senate in 1790 to fill a vacancy created by the death of Senator William Grayson.

Decades later, the former congressional opponents would serve back-to-back as Presidents of the United States — Madison from 1809 to 1817, followed immediately by Monroe from 1817 to 1825.

Get to know America’s 5th President Better. Visit James Monroe’s Birthplace:
4460 James Monroe Highway, Colonial Beach

05/22/2026

Great weekend for books! Check out the Saddlery in Warsaw below, Dee's Attic Bookstore at Lancaster Community Library and Northumberland County Library's bookstore in Heathsville - if you happen by the St. Stephen's Strawberry Festival and the Heathsville Farmers Market!

05/21/2026

Completed in the early 1760s, Mount Airy near Warsaw is both a Virginia and National Historic Landmark (NHL).

Built for John Tayloe II, the mansion overlooks the Rappahannock River from land held by the Tayloe family from 1682 until today.

The mansion qualified as a NHL for its exceptional importance in illustrating U.S. history. Its main significance being the unaltered exterior, noted a Dept. of Interior memo.

Mount Airy is one of the few stone homes built in 18th-century Virginia, and the first in the colonies “to fully achieve the ideal design of a Palladian villa,” NHL documents state.

Its north and south facades blend English influences into “a style which really must be recognized as an entity in its own right, Colonial Georgian,” the docs add.

Tayloe established a racecourse and successful thoroughbred breeding operation, making Mount Airy a major player in colonial horse racing.

Francis Lightfoot Lee, a Declaration of Independence signer, and his wife, Rebecca Tayloe Lee, daughter of John Tayloe II are buried on the property and reportedly lived at Mount Airy for some time while their home, Menokin, was being built.

Historian Richard S. Dunn noted Mount Airy is also significant for its surviving slave records. For generations, large populations of slaves were kept on the property and “richly detailed” inventories survived to be included in the Tayloe Papers providing valuable insight into the lives, structure, and operations on the plantation.

The Tayloe Papers are held at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

Mount Airy is a private home and not open to the public.



Photo Credits:
Tayloe: Virginia Historical Society
Top: Elizabeth Lipford/DHR
Middle: HABS / Library of Congress
Bottom: Calder Loth / DHR

05/20/2026

At Wayside in Visit King George, rent a kayak & gear!

Rent a Kayak and SUP near King George County, VA . Our Kayak stations are self-service, so you only need to install our app to unlock your Kayak

05/20/2026

05/15/2026

By the spring of 1776, Virginia delegates were done with Britain.

On May 15, in Williamsburg, the Fifth Virginia Convention took a risky step—one that potentially carried the threat of costing them their lives. Treason against the Crown was punishable by death, yet the delegates unanimously approved Virginia’s Independence Resolution.

That resolution gave an order to Virginia representatives heading to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia — “declare the United Colonies free and independent states absolved from all allegiance to or dependence upon the crown or parliament of Great Britain.”

Richard Henry Lee of Stratford Hall in Westmoreland would carry the torch on that directive, making a push in Philadelphia that added momentum to the birth of our nation.

If you missed it, check out the April NNK 250 Newsletter for more on what unfolded ahead of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

And get details about “Virginia Resolved,” an event coming June 6-7 that will celebrate this pivotal chapter in American history.

NNK 250 Newsletters: https://www.nnk250.us/newsletters

05/15/2026