Commonwealth of Virginia
Office of Governor Bob McDonnell

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 26, 2012

Office of the Governor
Contact: Jeff Caldwell
Phone: (804) 225-4260
Email: Jeff.Caldwell@Governor.Virginia.Gov

Virginia Economic Development Partnership
Contact: Suzanne West
Phone: (804) 545-5806
Email: swest@yesvirginia.org

Fulcrum Concepts LLC
Contact: Michael Zinanni
Phone: (480) 393-4559
Email: mike.zinanni@fulcrumconceptsllc.com

Governor McDonnell Announces 31 New Jobs in King and Queen County

Welcome to www.KingandQueen.Biz - the "Web 2.0" website serving the communities of King and Queen County, Virginia. Watch this site as we roll out new features. Register as a user and take advantage of the opportunity we offer to promote your business, share news and announcements of your group or organization, interact with fellow residents of King and Queen County, Virginia via the internet, and keep abreast of whats going on in King and Queen County, Virginia.

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The Newtown Historic District is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Located in King and Queen County, approximately forty-five miles northeast of Richmond, Newtown is a small, mid-19th-century crossroads settlement containing approximately ten dwellings and an equal number of outbuildings. The linear town marks the intersection of State Route 721 (running east/west) and State Route 625 (running north/south). The historic district boundaries were draw to include all structures within the town.

On the eve of English colonization, Newtown was an Indian trail junction situated two miles north of the Mattaponi River in the center of the land mass which dominates the northwestern section of King and Queen County. The Chiskiack Trail, following the ridges from the York River, crossed there, while other trails led northeast and northwest. Colonial roads generally followed the Indian paths, and the Great Post Road, or King's Highway, passed through Newtown when the colonial post was established. By the late colonial period, the junction had become known to travelers as the Great Cross Roads.

An advertisement in the Virginia Gazette of August, 1769, shows how Newtown received its name: "FOR SALE Newtown, a Plantation in the upper end of King and Queen upon the Great Cross Roads, formerly a store and ordinary kept by Capt. John Richards. It consists of very good houses and 163 acres of land and seems well situated for an ordinary

The purchaser of the plantation may have been James Gardner; ten years later the tavern was identified in a soldier's diary as "Gardner's Tavern at Newtown.

As a whole, Newtown retains much of its late 19th- and early 20th-century character. With the exception of the firehouse and several outbuildings, structures within the district date prior to 1925. Most dwellings reveal only minor exterior alterations. Newtown originated in the late colonial period as a crossroads settlement on the Great Post Road that ran from Williamsburg to Philadelphia. Its nucleus was a prerevolutionary store and ordinary kept by Captain John Richards, an early settler of upper King and Queen County whose neighboring plantation, Newtown, gave the village its name. During the first half of the 19th century, Newtown prospered as the largest post village in antebellum King and Queen County, supporting a long succession of private academies and schools. The scene of several important movements by both Northern and Southern troops in the Civil War, the village witnessed, in early June 1863, the last tactical action of Confederate General George Pickett's division before it began its long march to Gettysburg. Today Newtown survives in a predominantly rural setting as an example of a Tidewater crossroads retaining its 19th-century flavor. The town consists of ten dwellings and a nearly equal number of outbuildings. The architecture of Newtown's early years is represented by the following historic structures: The Hill, built in the late 18th century; the Lee Boulware House, built ca. 1823; the Richardson Lumpkin House, built ca. 1839; the Samuel S. Gresham House, built ca. 1845; and Walton's Academy, built ca. 1854.

Mattaponi Church in King and Queen County is listed in the National register of Historical Places.

Mattaponi Church stands surrounded by a churchyard in a clearing on the west side of Route 14 about six miles north of King and Queen Court House. The church's interior appearance dates from the renovations of 1922 when fire gutted the structure and left only the exterior walls standing. Mattaponi Church was originally designated Lower Church, St. Stephen' Parish, which was formed from Stratton Major Parish around 1674. The church takes its present name, in use since the early nineteenth century, from the near-by Mattaponi River This is the second church on the site, and although its exact date is not known, two periods of construction, 1730-34 and circa 1755, have been advanced. The church was abandoned after the Revolution and the resulting Disestablishment. In 1803 the building was taken over by the Baptists, and has been used by them from that time to the present.
In addition to the four original tablets of the Creed, Lord's Prayer and the Decalogue, the church owns a Bible inscribed 1753 on the flyleaf. Three colonial graves marked by flat stones dated 1708, 1736 and 1748 lie near the church. These graves include members of Carter Braxton's family. Mattaponi Church is recognized as an excellent example of the cruciform type of Virginia colonial ecclesiastical architecture.