African American Heritage Tour
Pen & Ink drawings by late Harriet Cowen.
A Driving Tour of Selected African American Historic Sites in Gloucester County, Virginia
Gloucester, Virginia, holds a rich tapestry of African American history, rooted in the resilience, strength, and contributions of the local community. The African American Heritage Trail highlights significant locations, each telling a unique story of empowerment, education, and legacy. This tour, developed in 2000, was a project of the Gloucester County 350th Celebration Committee.
Here is a map of the 12 sites along the African American Heritage Tour throughout Gloucester. Addresses for each location can be found below.
Explore these meaningful sites that shaped the history of Gloucester and beyond:
Soon after the settlement of Jamestown, Gloucester County was formed from York County in 1651. The African American presence then and throughout the last 350 years was celebrated during the County’s Anniversary in 2001 and continues today. This heritage has significantly influenced Gloucester’s development and culture. We hope that you enjoy and are enriched by the information on this tour.
SITE 1
Private James Daniel Gardiner
(aka Gardner)
6509 Main Street Colonial Court Circle
A Gloucester native, Mr. Gardiner was born in the Ware Neck community on September 16, 1839 to free parents. He joined the Union Army at Yorktown, Virginia, on September 15, 1863, the day before his 24th birthday. Mr. Gardiner was assigned to the 2nd North Carolina Colored Volunteers, New Bern, North Carolina. In February 1864, the 2nd was re-designated Company I, 36th Infantry Regiment United States Colored Troops and placed under the command of the Army of the James, headquartered at Fort Monroe, Hampton, Virginia. Early on the morning of September 29, 1864 in a battle at New Market Heights, Gardiner took such actions so as to distinguish himself by initiating a charge that ultimately captured New Market Heights (vicinity of Richmond) and led to eventual occupation of Richmond. Because of his acts of bravery (the Civil War), Gardiner was awarded the Medal of Honor.
This Medal is the highest honor awarded a soldier in time of combat. It is awarded only by recommendation of the President of the United States and approval by Congress. He is the only known Congressional Medal of Honor recipient who is a native of Gloucester County.
Mr. Gardiner died September 1905 in Clark Summit, Pennsylvania. He is buried in Ottumwa, Iowa.
This memorial stone honoring Private Gardiner was unveiled and dedicated in the Court House Circle with a memorable ceremony on May 6, 2006.
SITE 2
Thomas Calhoun Walker
6739 Main Street
Born enslaved in 1862, Thomas Calhoun Walker became the first Black man to practice law in Gloucester county and some historical accounts suggest the first in Virginia. His many achievements are summarized on a marker in front of his home which reads:
“Here lived Thomas Calhoun Walker the first Black to practice law in Gloucester County and a civil rights spokesman who vigorously advocated education and land ownership for blacks.”
Mr. Walker was elected for two terms to Gloucester’s Board of Supervisors, serving from 1891 to 1895.
President William McKinley appointed him the Commonwealth’s first Black collector of customs in 1893. He became the only Black to hold statewide office in President Roosevelt’s Works Project Administration when he was appointed Consultant and Advisor on Negro Affairs in 1934.”
SITE 3
Zion Poplars Baptist Church
7000 T. C. Walker Road
Established in 1866, Zion Poplars Baptist Church is one of the oldest independent African American congregations in Gloucester County. The founding mothers and fathers first met for religious services under seven united poplar trees, four of which still stand on the church grounds.
The church building, which dates from 1894, is an excellent example of 19th-century gothic revival style with vernacular detailing. The spectacular interior of the church exhibits the creative craftsmanship of Mr. Frank Braxton, a former slave. Mr. Braxton, early congregants, their descendants and war veterans are buried in the church cemetery.
Like most independent Black churches established during the Reconstruction era, Zion Poplars was a multifunctional institution, serving the spiritual, educational, and economic needs of its congregants and the larger community. That spirit of mutual aid persists among its current congregants, many of whom are descendants of Zion Poplars' founders. Zion Poplars Baptist Church is listed on the Virginia and National Historic Landmarks Registers.
SITE 4
Gloucester Training School / Thomas Calhoun Walker Center
6099 T.C. Walker Road
Thomas Calhoun Walker Education Center
The present building stands on the site of the Gloucester Training School. The school was established in 1920 through the efforts of T. C. Walker and others as the first free public secondary school for Black students in Gloucester County.
GLOUCESTER TRAINING SCHOOL - ( a Rosenwald School)
As in the rest of the South, public education opportunities for Black people in Gloucester were limited in the early 1920s. While under the same administration as White schools, the separate Black public schools received less funding, offered a shorter school year, and stopped at the seventh or even sixth grade level. In response to these conditions, lawyer Walker appealed to the school board, he was told that no money was available for secondary education of Black students. Blacks were assumed to need only training in basic reading and writing. Mr. Walker led a fundraising effort for a secondary school, donating the down payment himself. Other funding sources included Julius Rosenwald of Chicago and other national and local donors. The school was known as one of the Rosenwald schools.
T.C. Walker Education Center today - Sketch by Harriet Cowen.
The two-classroom Gloucester Training School (so named to reassure those in the White community who opposed publicly-supported higher education for Black students) opened in 1920 with an eighth grade class. A ninth grade class was added the following year and eventually expanded through the eleventh grade, becoming a campus of several buildings.
In the early 1950s a new brick building was constructed to serve the entire county’s Black student population, grades one through eleven. A twelfth grade was added by 1954 and later the school was named Thomas C. Walker.
Students and teachers standing in front of the finished Gloucester Training School, 1921. Courtesy of the Gloucester Museum of History
With the integration of schools and subsequent reorganizations, the present school functioned as Gloucester Intermediate School in the late 1960s, Gloucester Middle School in the mid-1970s,and as Thomas Calhoun Walker Elementary School from 1986 to 2012, honoring the man instrumental in securing public secondary education for the Black students of Gloucester. In Summer 2012, the school board repurposed the building, but the school’s general layout was preserved. The school board’s office moved into the building in 2013, and it was renamed the T.C. Walker Education Center.
The building’s new name, THOMAS CALHOUN WALKER EDUCATION CENTER, continues to honor this civil rights pioneer.
SITE 5
Woodville School
(a Rosenwald School)
4310 George Washington Memorial Hwy
Woodville School sits in an area of Gloucester County known as Ordinary. It was built in 1932 during a time when public education was difficult for all and extremely difficult for African Americans. The construction of the school was made possible through the efforts of the local African American Community, T.C. Walker and Mr. Julius Rosenwald, one time chairman of Sears and Roebuck Company. In a cooperative effort with Dr. Booker T. Washington, Mr. Rosenwald pledged to assist in the building of schools throughout the south to provide improved conditions for the education of southern Blacks. After the communities raised funds, Mr. Rosenwald would contribute. These schools became known as Rosenwald Schools.
Woodville is the sole remaining Rosenwald structures out of the seven built in Gloucester, one of which was a teacher residence at Gloucester Training School.
The Rosenwald Schools were built following a standard plan as outlined in the publication, Community School Plans. It is a complete and comprehensive guide to the architecture and landscape of all Rosenwald Schools. Plans for the Rosenwald Schools ranged from one teacher to seven teacher schools, depending on the need of the community. Each school was built east-west or north - south, allowing for optimal sunlight as there was no electricity.
Woodville was a two-teacher, east-west school, with an industrial room on the front of the building and privies to the side.
The Gloucester County School Board purchased Woodville School and in 1942, Mr. George W. Marshall, a real estate speculator purchased the school. Mr. Marshall sold it to Mr. and Mrs. James (Edith) Stubbs. It served as their residence until their death. Mr. David Peebles purchased the property in 2001. In order to insure the historic asset remains a part of Mr. Booker T. Washington, Mr. Thomas Calhoun Walker, and Mr. Julius Rosenwald's legacies, as well as Gloucester County's history, the County's Economic Development Authority purchased the property in July 2012.
The T. C. Walker and Woodville/Rosenwald Foundation was incorporated May 2012 to preserve and restore the building, establishing it as a living monument to those persons who made the school possible. Membership on the Foundation includes citizens from Gloucester, Newport News, Hampton, and other locations.
Through the initial efforts of the Charter Board members, ongoing efforts of new Board members, the many community and beyond supporters, a Grand Opening was held in February 2024. Major funds had been raised and renovations made to restore and reopen the former school for various uses.
Citizens are needed in support of this cause to secure the funding as well as plan for design and use of the building. Preservation of Woodville is dependent on the dedication and commitment of the Gloucester community leading the way. Woodville School is listed on both Virginia Department of Historic Resources and National Register of Historic Places.
For more information or to help the foundation, please visit our website at: www.woodvillerosenwaldschool.org
SITE 6
Irene Morgan Story
Former site of Hayes P.O. 2425 Hayes Rd.
Photographs provided by Cleo Warren, Morgan’s niece.
In July 1944, a young mother named Irene Morgan (later Kirkaldy) boarded the Greyhound bus at the Old Hayes Store Post Office. A short time after boarding, and with additional passengers joining them, the driver ordered Mrs. Morgan and another Black passenger seated next to her to give up their seats so that Whites might be seated. Mrs. Morgan refused. After warning that he would have her arrested, the driver called upon the sheriff in Saluda (Middlesex County). The sheriff boarded the bus with a warrant, but Mrs. Morgan threw the warrant out the window and kicked the sheriff. She was eventually arrested by a deputy and jailed.
Enlisting the help of the State Conference of the NAACP, Irene Morgan appealed her case through the local, state, and Supreme courts. Her lawyers, Thurgood Marshall and William Hastie, argued that it was a burden to interstate commerce for each state to have its own rules for seating passengers on interstate buses. The Supreme Court ruled in Mrs. Morgan’s favor in June 1946.
A song written soon afterwards declared, "You don’t have to ride Jim Crow, ‘cause Irene Morgan won her case!” Unfortunately, the victory was not so clear-cut. A courageous group of Black and White men attempting to test the ruling met with mixed responses as they rode buses into the south; in the absence of state laws, bus companies created their own Jim Crow rules. Nonetheless, Irene Morgan’s stand for equal treatment paved the way for Rosa Parks to take a similar stand on a Birmingham city bus eleven years later.
Photographs provided by Cleo Warren, Morgan’s niece.
SITE 7
Eldridge Cook
1778 Yacht Club Road
No visitation to business site
While born a grandson of former slaves, Eldridge Cook (known by many as El Cook) learned from his grandfather and Gloucester’s first African American attorney Thomas Calhoun Walker, who was born in slavery, that one could achieve many dreams through hard work and dedication. Mr. Cook purchased his first freight truck upon graduation from high school at the age of 17 and began transporting seafood from local markets along the east coast and beyond as his business developed.
He expanded his route across the country, starting Cook’s Oyster Company, Inc. followed by Cook’s Seafood Company which he operated for six decades in the Bena area of Gloucester County. A leading seafood supplier along the east coast, he worked until the age of 95 after more than 70 years in business. He was a major employer in Gloucester County and the Hampton Roads area, providing employment for more than 200 people.
Among the recognitions received for his great work in the seafood industry and beyond are resolutions by the Virginia General Assembly and the Gloucester Democratic Committee; the Daily Press newspaper recognized him as one of the top 100 community leaders in Hampton Roads in 1996.
Mr. Cook contributed to his community and church throughout his lifetime. He served with distinction on local and state boards, and was recognized by Governors Douglas Wilder and Mark Warner.
He had a special interest in young people and wanted to help pave a way for them to achieve their dreams. He gave generous donations to this cause. His passion led him to designate funds to various foundations to help future generations to come. At age 98, he departed this life, having stood as a beacon to the fact that hard work, persistence, and sacrifice have their rewards.
SITE 8
Gloucester Agricultural and Industrial School (Cappahosic Academy)
3379 Cappahosic Rd
Highway maker’s location is near former entrance to school grounds, no buildings remain.
Douglass Hall, dormitory and classroom building, named for Frederick Douglass, who spoke at the schools graduation in 1894.
Founded by local Black residents under the leadership of lawyer T. C. Walker and William B. Weaver, the Gloucester Agricultural and Industrial School was the first Black secondary school in the county and possibly the first in Virginia. It opened in 1888 with four students in a vacant store in Cappahosic. By 1896, 70 students studied and many boarded, on its campus with two newly constructed buildings. From 1891 until its closing in 1933, the school was funded by the American Missionary Association, an agency of the northern Congregational Church.
William G. Price, a member of the Hampton Institute class of 1890 (and classmate of Dr. Robert R. Moton), served as principal from 1899 until 1933. Under his leadership, the school produced farmers trained in the latest agricultural techniques, teachers for Black public schools, and many students who attended college at Hampton and elsewhere. Despite the school’s name, its academic program expanded to offer four years of English (including black writers), four years of Latin and German, two years of French, four years of math (through trigonometry), and three years of science. Orator Frederick Douglass, lyricist James Weldon Johnson, and singer Marian Anderson were among the many notables who visited the school as part of its cultural enrichment program.
The Great Depression of the 1930s was the downfall of Gloucester Agricultural and Industrial. Tuition become more of a burden to impoverished Black families, who now at least had the option of sending their children to the free public Gloucester Training School. The resources of the American Missionary Association also declined, and without its support, the school closed. Portions of the entrance columns, an old bench, and the foundation of the cafeteria remain as witness to the dreams and opportunities nurtured here.
SITE 9
Robert R. Moton Home
6468 Allmondsville Road
Sketch by Harriet Cowen
A stately mansion on the banks of the York River at Cappahosic, Holly Knoll was built in 1935 as the retirement home of Dr. Robert Russa Moton. Dr. Moton, the second president of Tuskegee Institute and the successor to Dr. Booker T. Washington, guided Tuskegee’s progression from a normal school (teacher training school) into an accredited college and university. Although he had served more than 50 years at Tuskegee and Hampton Institute, Dr. Moton’s retirement was far from quiet. His famous invitation “Come to Cappahosic” brought many friends and fellow citizens from near and far to discuss and resolve problems, particularly in the field of education.
After the death of Moton and his wife in 1940, the Moton Conference Center was established to continue Dr. Moton’s work in education. Dr. Frederick Patterson, Dr. Moton’s son-in-law and successor at Tuskegee, expanded the site into a full conference center by adding residential space and training facilities. During the 1950s and 60s Dr. Patterson and his colleagues made plans for the economic development of historically Black colleges and universities, and the center served as a “think tank” on social justice and other issues. The United Negro College Fund was conceived here, and the Greensboro Four developed strategies to desegregate lunch counters at this historic place. On a bench under the 400-year-old live oak, Dr. Martin Luther King is said to have drafted portions of his “I Have A Dream” speech.
Holly Knoll, a national and state historic landmark, is currently owned by The Gloucester Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to continuing Dr. Moton’s legacy through programs, activities, and maintenance of his historic home. The Gloucester Institute is committed to raising a society of solutionists to find positive answers to the many questions facing our country, by providing an intellectually safe environment where ideas can be discussed and transformed into practical solutions that produce results.
SITE 10
Bethel Baptist Church
2978 Hickory Fork Road
Once known as the Old Sassafras Stage Church, Bethel Baptist Church is the oldest independent African American congregation in Gloucester. Bethel dates from the 19th century, when Sassafras Stage and nearby Allmond’s Wharf were at the peak of their activity as hubs of commerce and transportation.
Bethel was one of several Black Baptist churches founded during the Reconstruction era. In 1867, Dr. L. Catlett Stubbs donated one acre of land to his formerly enslaved butler, James F. Lemon. Mr. Lemon and other pious individuals used the land for their church, first meeting on crude benches under bush arbors, and later constructing a small but well-built church with an altar railing, pulpit, and gallery.
The present sanctuary dates to 1889. The chairmen of the building committee were carpenter George Leigh and bricklayer/plasterer Thomas Calhoun Walker, Sr. (father of lawyer T.C. Walker, who is buried in the cemetery next to Bethel Church).
Five daughter churches developed as offshoots from the Bethel congregation: New Mount Zion, Mt. Gilead, Smithfield, Shepherdsville, and Morning Glory (all located in Gloucester, with the exception of Mt. Gilead in Williamsburg). Governor George Allen officially recognized Bethel Baptist Church as a historic landmark in 1997.
Site 11
Bethel Rosenwald School
Sign located on Native American Trail, Gloucester
Located off route 614. No building remains.
The Bethel Rosenwald School was built in 1923; the third Bethel School for African Americans in the Sassafras Community. In 1879 in a log cabin nearby, the first Bethel School was started by educator and Bethel Baptist Church member William B. Weaver. The Rosenwald school was built at a cost of $5500 with $3900 of this raised by the African American Community, $1100 contributed from the Julius Rosenwald Fund and $500 contributed by the Gloucester School Board. Julius Rosenwald, philanthropist and President of Sears Roebuck, created the Rosenwald fund in 1918 to help communities throughout the South address the deplorable conditions of African American Schools. Bethel Church member Thomas C. Walker, the first black lawyer in Gloucester, worked with Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald to promote the building of six schools and one teacher residence in Gloucester.
The four room Bethel Rosenwald was a three- teacher school serving grades 1-7 African American youth primarily from the Sassafras community. Other youth in the vicinity attended as needed. This school was closed in February 1951 when all students were transferred to Gloucester Training School, a Rosenwald School in Roanes; it was later renamed Thomas C. Walker in honor of his efforts to build the school in 1920.
SITE 12
The Servants Plot
Gloucester County and King & Queen Line on Adner Road.
During the summer of 1663, indentured servants (held for several years of service) in the Poropotank River and Purtan Bay region plotted an insurrection against their masters to occur on 13 September 1663. It was prevented when John Berkenhead, servant of Maj. John Smith of Gloucester County, informed the authorities of the planned uprising. As a reward for “his honest affection of the preservation of this Country” the Virginia House of Burgesses, on 16 September, granted Berkenhead his freedom and gave him 5,000 pounds of tobacco. Additionally the Burgesses proclaimed that September 13 would henceforth be “kept holy” every year.
While this event is included in several accounts of African American History, other accounts suggest that Black servants were not involved in this conspiracy. There is little information concerning the details of this event and there are convincing arguments for both accounts. This incident is dramatized in Mary Johnston’s novel Prisoners of Hope. The plot of 1663 may have been the first serous conspiracy involving Black servants.
HISTORICAL HIGHWAY MARKERS
As you drive through Gloucester watch for the 25 historical highway markers along our roadways. These marked sites are included in the African American Heritage Trails Tour:
THOMAS CALHOUN WALKER— NW-11
Located on Main Street- 6739 Main Street
ROBERT RUSSA MOTON—NW-12
Located at the intersection of Hickory Fork Road and GWMH/Rt 17.
UNITED NEGRO COLLEGE FUND—NW 13
Located at the intersection of Hickory Fork Road and GWMH/Rt 17.
ZION POPLARS BAPTIST CHURCH—NW 16
Located at the Intersection of T.C. Walker Road and GWMH/Rt 17. NW 17 located at Zion Poplars Baptist Church, 7000 T.C. Walker Road.
GLOUCESTER AGRICULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL—NW 18
Located at 3379 Cappahosic Road.
BETHEL BAPTIST CHURCH—NW 20
Located at Bethel Baptist Church, 2978 Hickory Fork Road
GLOUCESTER TRAINING SCHOOL—NW 21
Located at Thomas Calhoun Walker Educational Center, 6099 T.C. Walker Road
WOODVILLE ROSENWALD SCHOOL— NW-24
Located at 4310 George Washington Memorial Highway
INDENTURED SERVANTS PLOT—N 58
Located on Adner Road at the bridge between King and Queen and Gloucester Counties.
For more information on
Virginia Historical Highway Markers
and to view a most up-to-date list please visit www.dhr.virginia.gov
Partial funding and support was obtained through a grant from the Virginia Foundation for Humanities and Public Policy, as part of its African American History Initiative and the African American Heritage Trails project which was developed in partnership with the Virginia Tourism Authority.
Project Director: Dr. Dorothy Cosby Cooke
© Copyright 2000 Gloucester County, Virginia
Revised 2012, 2014. 2018 by
Ms. Denise Carter & Dr. Dorothy Cosby Cooke.
2023 Revised by Robert Kelly
2024 revised by Susan Ammons & Dr. Dorothy Cooke
Some artwork for this tour generously donated by:
Pen and Ink drawings by the late Harriet Cowen, a former resident of Bena, and home portrait artist. Harriet volunteered her time and talents to help bring these historic sites to life. We thank you Harriet and we miss you.