Built 1869-70, the B. Williams & Company Store preserves the link between Mathews County's rich maritime traditions and the rapidly changing modern landscape. The Williams and Murray families owned, occupied, and operated Williams Wharf from the late... Read More

This simple, worn earthwork of Fort Cricket Hill in Mathews County is the tangible remnant of the event that marked the end of the last vestige of British rule in the Virginia colony. In July 1776, Virginia troops commanded by Gen. Andrew Lewis took ... Read More

Fort Nonsense Historical Park, a joint project of Mathews County Historical Society, Inc., the County of Mathews and the Virginia Department of Transportation, celebrated its grand opening May 10, 2014. The creation of this gateway park to Mathews Co... Read More

Located in Mathews County on historic Gwynn's Island, the Gwynn's Island Museum was established in 1991 as a community project to preserve the rich history of Gwynn's Island and Mathews County. A 100-year-old building, originally serving as the Odd F... Read More

With only 94 square miles of land, Mathews is one of the smallest of Virginia's counties. It was originally delineated c. 1651 as Kingston Parish within neighboring Gloucester County. In 1791, the Virginia General Assembly designated it as a separate... Read More

The Mathews Downtown Historic District captures an area generally known as the Mathews Court House village in Mathews County and which had been occupied by Virginia Indians since the Early Woodland period. Substantive Euro-American development of the... Read More

The Mathews County Historical Museum mission is to preserve and promote the cultural heritage and history of Mathews County and to provide relevant displays, collections and educational and experiential programs for the public. This museum in Mat... Read More

In May of 1991 Mathews celebrated its 200th anniversary. The county, formed in 1791 from a portion of Gloucester, was named for then Speaker of the House Thomas Mathews of Norfolk. With more than 200 miles of shoreline on the Chesapeake Bay, and the ... Read More

Standing at the end of what was once the southernmost peninsula in Mathews County, now surrounded by water and hundreds of yards from the mainland, the lighthouse marks the entrance to Mobjack Bay. Authorized by Congress and commissioned by Thomas Je... Read More

The Old Thomas James Store is an excellent example of an early-19th-century commercial building now long absent from the rural Virginia landscape. Researchers have identified this 1810 building in the Mathews Downtown Historic District as being one o... Read More

The Poplar Grove Mill and House property, overlooking the scenic Mobjack Bay in Mathews County, includes the only surviving tide mill in Virginia. Tidal power, along with wind power, was harnessed by necessity in the low-lying coastal regions where o... Read More

Sibley's General Store is one of three commercial buildings to comprise the Sibley's and James Store Historic District where Mathews County residents shopped for odds and ends for nearly 200 years: Thomas James store (1820), the "1840 store" (which i... Read More

Tompkins Cottage, near the Mathews historic courthouse district, is headquarters to the Mathews County Historical Society. The oldest wooden structure in the courthouse, it was used as a mercantile store starting in 1815 by Christopher Tompkins, fath... Read More

Williams Wharf, an historic boatyard and steamship landing provides public access to Mathews' picturesque East River for engineless watercraft (canoes, kayaks, rowing shells). The site was also used to film a scene in the Harriet film! Recent res... Read More