Between the Ambler House ruins and the Visitor Center stood a “long house” (18), one made of several sections with common connecting walls. Its long walls have been outlined on the ground as it stood some three centuries ago. Behind this site are the original ruins (displayed under cover) of an early building that appears from its fireboxes and other features to have served some, but as yet unidentified, “manufacturing” purpose. Near it, unmistakeable evidences of pottery manufacturing have been found. This particular locality has evidences, too, of other types of workmanship. Perhaps, for a time, it was a kind of “Production Center” (19) in Jamestown.
The story of Jamestown is not all concerned with the townsite itself. Much of it deals with farming and other activities on the island surrounding the town except on the river front, and especially to the east. The Island Drive is a motor road that gives access to this island area. Starting from the central parking area, it traverses the island’s 1,559.5 acres of marsh and woodland. The full drive is about 5 miles although it has a shorter 3-mile loop. Natural features are named and markers carry legends about the land and the people. Large paintings here and there picture the life of the times in daily activities such as winemaking, tobacco-growing, and lumbering. After passing the Confederate Fort (20), you come to Black Point (21) at the east end of the island where there is an excellent view of the lower reaches of the James River. Then the loop takes you past the Travis Graveyard (22) and The Pond (23), where Lawrence Bohun collected herbs for medical experiment in 1610.
Winemaking as it may have been practiced at Jamestown three centuries ago. (A painting by Sidney E. King.)
The one-way tour road loops back to the parking area and to the isthmus connecting the island and Glasshouse Point on the mainland, so named because the colonists, in 1608, undertook to produce glass at this location. Here are exhibited the Original Glass Furnace Ruins (24) the remains of the first attempt to produce glass in America. Nearby is a Working Furnace (25) of the same type housed in a thatch-covered building constructed in the manner of those used in Virginia and England three and a half centuries ago. The Jamestown Glasshouse Foundation, Inc., representing a number of leading American glass companies, helped to make this possible. The Foundation operates the furnace and in season the blowing of glass in the old way can be observed. Handmade glass objects can be purchased.
The tour of Jamestown ends here at the “Glasshouse.” From this point the Colonial Parkway leads to Williamsburg and Yorktown. Following this route you can read history on the spot in the order it occurred.
A building, such as may have been used in 1608-09, houses the glassmaking exhibit on Glasshouse Point.
How to Reach Jamestown
Jamestown Island is easily reached over the Colonial Parkway from Williamsburg only 10 miles away. Williamsburg is the nearest rail and bus terminal and the closest point of concentration of housing and eating facilities. The approach from the south is over State Routes 10 and 31 to the ferry over the James River from Scotland to Glasshouse Point near the Jamestown Entrance Gate. From Richmond and points to the West, State Routes 5 and 31 can be used without entering Williamsburg.