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Visitors to new park able to visit historic home

By Sherry Hamilton on April 14, 2021
SHERRY HAMILTON / GAZETTE-JOURNAL Timberneck, the c. 1800 home that is surrounded by the new Machicomoco State Park in Gloucester, is undergoing renovations, thanks to the Fairfield Foundation, which has a 49-year lease on the property. Visitors to the park will be able to see the house and walk paths close to the grounds when the park opens next week. The house will eventually be open for tours and overnight stays. Historical archaeologist Dave Brown, pictured, is co-director of the Fairfield Foundation.

SHERRY HAMILTON / GAZETTE-JOURNALDave Brown points out Timberneck’s original clapboard siding, which is still intact on a wall that was later enclosed by an addition.

After the new Machicomoco State Park opens next week in Gloucester, visitors will have a chance to see Timberneck, the historic home built by the Page family in the early 1800s that is being preserved by the Fairfield Foundation.
With a 49-year lease on the property and some initial funding through the Conservation Fund, the foundation is working to secure and restore the interior and exterior of the structure so that it can begin to accommodate tours and even eventually house some guests who might want to stay overnight.
Dave Brown, co-director of the Fairfield Foundation, said that money from room rental will help sustain both the building and related programs that are planned. One of those programs will include Native American-authored exhibits that focus on the last 400 years of the long history of the local indigen...

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