Have you enjoyed the wonderful historic artifacts we have discovered on the plantation?

Help us restore the Summer Kitchen so those wonderful artifacts will have a home!

Summer Kitchen
Built in 1790s
This building is half kitchen and half slave quarters

Don’t forget our Silent Auction Page!

< ———————————–    Find it just to the left side of our blog!

Look at some of the wonderful Vintage and Antique Items!

Lot 1
Blue Glass Inkwell
Late 19th Century
value est. $25.00
Gates Antique Ltd
12700 Old Buckingham Road
Midlothian, VA 23113
www.gatesantiques.com
jgates@gatesantiques.com
John A. Gates III Vice President 

Lot 32
Royal Albert Salad Plate – Bone China – Royal Doulton
Vintage – 1962
value est. $25.00
Siege City Antique Company – Bob
(804) 892-7531
Petgva@verizon.net
Located in The Oaks Antique Mall
400 N. Sycamore Street
Petersburg, Virginia 23804

Lot 7
Oil Lamp
Vintage
value est. $25.00
Nansemond Antique Shop
3533 Pruden Blvd
Suffolk, Virginia 23434
Open Wed – Fri from 10-4 and Sat 10-2
(757) 539-6269
Elsie Brinkley
Buy and Sell

Auction ends Friday, November 2nd

Want to place a bid?

Email us at virginiaplantation@gmail with the following information:

Your name, address, email address and blog address

and

the Item number and description with the amount you would like to bid!

All proceeds go to the restoration and preservation of the 1790s Dependencies and Museum for

the History of Belle Grove Plantation.

Thank you for your support!

Sunset over the Rappahnnock River
Looking from the Riverside of Belle Grove Plantation

I can’t tell you how wonderful and amazing this week has been since the article in the Free Lance Star has come out. We have had so many individuals come forward from the area with family history and stories of Belle Grove. Through one of these individuals, we have discovered a new resource for historic information. So on Saturday, Brett and I will be heading to Fredericksburg to the Central Rappahannock Heritage Center to find out what new pieces we can add to the ever growing historical records for Belle Grove Plantation. By the time we finish, we are going to really need that Summer Kitchen as a museum to house all this!

On Monday, we met with another reporter from Chesapeake and completed our second interview for a local newspaper. This article will come out on October 22nd. The newspaper is The Citizen of Chesapeake and talks about local Chesapeake citizens. The reporter who is writing this article turned out to be a young lady we have known for years. It was so much fun revealing our plantation, business and history to her and watching her interest in the plantation ending with her wanting to visit soon.

Virginia Executive Mansion

Today, we submitted our information for the 2013 Celebration of Virginia Historic Homes with the Virginia Executive Mansion. How wonderful to celebrate this rich history within Virginia. We completed a small survey and submitted some pictures of the Manor house. Do you know how hard it was to pick just one or two pictures of Belle Grove! There are so many we truly love. We are so honored to that Belle Grove will be recognized along with the likes of Mount Vernon, Monticello and Montpelier.

Brett has also met with the surveyor who will be doing our preliminary site plan. The surveyor and Brett spent some time walking the plantation and discussing the areas we will be using for the bed and breakfast. At this point, we are waiting for the surveyor to complete the plan and put together his part of the zoning package. After the surveyor has finished his part we will add our part and submit it to the Zoning Board for approval. Fingers crossed that we can get this done quickly so we have time to get the house and grounds completed in time to open in March. (That of course isn’t a firm date, just the one I hope for) It would be so wonderful to open on James Madison’s birthday on March 16th.

Silent Auction Item
Check out all that we have to offer!

Don’t forget to check out our Silent Auction page located just to the left side of our blog under our “About Us” page. This is your chance to grab a bit of Virginia History! And the proceeds go to help us restore and open the Summer Kitchen as our plantation museum!

And finally, back by popular demand…. Hurley, our Plantation Dog. Yes, he is still hanging out wishing he was at the plantation when we go. We haven’t been able to take him with us lately because we’ve been meeting with others. But his time is coming soon. Maybe we will take him with us to help us clean up the Summer Kitchen, Ice House and Smokehouse.

Hurley
The Plantation Dog

View from the Riverside Bluff
of the Rappahannock River
(Great view for a wedding)

Busy day tomorrow! Brett is heading to King George tomorrow to meet with the Zoning Director and the Building Code Director. He may be meeting with the Engineer who will be doing our preliminary site plan for the zoning package too. We are trying to get as much information on what is needed so we can limit the number of reviews and revisions. We have been told that it take four months minimum for zoning approval. We just want to be prepared.

We are also working on other permits we will need to get once the approval is done. By having the Building Code Director’s recommendations we can be ready to get the occupancy permit shortly after the zoning is done. Brett has also talked to the State Health Department to get an idea of what we are going to need for our Health and Safety certification. According to the contact Brett has spoken to, as a Bed and Breakfast, we don’t have to be certificated. But Brett and I like to make sure that our guests are in the best environment possible. So we are going to complete the all certifications. Plus we are going to be taking a couple of courses for food service.

As for me tomorrow, I have to be in Richmond for my current job. But…. after work, I am going to take advantage of my being in Richmond on a Thursday night. There is an antique auction in Richmond every Thursday night. So I will be going to my first antique auction! I have already seen the preview online for the lots. This is going to be really interesting.

View of the long drive up to the Manor House at Belle Grove

We are working on setting up a date to meet a reporter from the Fredericksburg Free Lance Star. This will be our first public appearance in the media! I hope that there will be a lot more before we open, but this will be a great way for the local community to meet us and know what is coming soon! I know we have had some ask to do a feature on their blog of us. We welcome the invitations!

Lastly, thank you to all for the “Likes” and comments on our 9-11 post. We chose not to comment on the post or relay to comments. We felt it should be all about the “Remembering the Day” instead of about us. We appreciate all the comments and welcome all of you to leave your thoughts for others to read.

Bowling Green in the middle of the circular drive – two white post are the Entry Gate Posts
(Great Place for an Event)

Check back Friday for an update on our Thursday and what we have going on Saturday. Things are starting to get busy!

 Thank you for your support!

 Brett and Michelle

and Hurley too!