County: Lancaster County

The Compass Entertainment Complex is a vibrant family destination located in Virginia’s Northern Neck. Positioned between Kilmarnock and Irvington, it features a multi-screen movie theater, arcade, go-karts, indoor adventure course, climbing walls, and a full-service restaurant and bar. Designed for all ages, it’s ideal for business outings, family adventures, or birthday parties.

Founded by Julien Patterson and Terri Wesselman, the venue enriches the local community by providing entertainment and creating year-round jobs, ensuring guests leave with memorable experiences and a sense of connection.

Churchill’s Beach in Lancaster, Virginia, was a prominent venue on the Chitlin’ Circuit, a network of performance spaces that helped shape the careers of legendary African American artists like James Brown, Etta James, and The Temptations in the 1950s and 60s. These venues, scattered across the Eastern, Southern, and Upper Midwest United States, offered much-needed opportunities for Black entertainers to perform during a time of racial segregation.

This Historic Highway Marker reads: “About 2,400 enslaved African Americans in Virginia escaped to the British during the War of 1812, encouraged in part by a proclamation issued on 2 Apr. 1814 offering them freedom and resettlement in “His Majesty’s Colonies.” Three enslaved men from Corotoman, a plantation two miles west of here, fled on 18 Apr. 1814. Several days later, they guided British barges back to carry off friends and relatives, including 46 children, the largest group of slaves to leave a Chesapeake Bay plantation during the war. Some settled in Nova Scotia or Trinidad. British reparations later compensated some owners for departed slaves, including, in 1828, those from Corotoman.”

Dr. Morgan E. Norris, a Lancaster native and the Northern Neck’s first black physician, practiced medicine at this site 1917-1964. He opened to all races specialty surgical clinics, bringing enhanced medical care to the lower Northern Neck. In 1928 Dr. Norris led a campaign to build the first brick elementary school for black children in the Northern Neck. In 1939 he spearheaded a boycott to secure free bus transportation for black school children and led the Northern Neck Progressive Association’s annual fair from 1927 until 1959. He was the second black trustee of Hampton University, and the first black coroner in the state.

HMdb.org

Armistead S. Nickens represented Lancaster County in the House of Delegates for two terms (1871–1875). Born into a free family, Nickens became prosperous enough by the end of the American Civil War (1861–1865) that the local agent of the Freedmen’s Bureau listed him as a respectable citizen capable of holding public office. The marker honors the county’s first and only elected Black representative in the House of Delegates.

The Steamboat Era Museum in Irvington, Virginia, offers a fascinating look at the history of steamboat travel in the Northern Neck. The museum highlights Captain Bayton’s pivotal role in revolutionizing river transportation. Bayton operated steamboats on the Rappahannock River, making vital connections between the Northern Neck and larger urban centers during the 19th century.The museum’s exhibits showcase a variety of artifacts and historical displays, shedding light on the influence of steamboats in shaping local commerce and culture. Visitors can explore the technology, transportation, and economic impact of the steamboat era.

For more details, visit here.

Historic Christ Church

The first church erected at the site was a wooden building, the construction of which was funded by powerful landowner John Carter in 1670. Carter died before the construction was completed but was buried on the church grounds alongside four of his five wives. John Carter’s son Robert, a wealthy vestryman and planter, decided that the parish deserved a more substantial place of worship and, in 1730, funded and supervised the construction of a brick building on the approximate foundations of the old wooden church.

Established by law and supported by taxation, the Church of England was the official religion of colonial Virginia. Church life revolved around the parish, a geographical area that supported a minister and functioned as a unit of local government. All Virginians were members of a parish and were taxed to support it. Like the county courthouse, the parish church served as an important center of the community.

By 1665, Christ Church Parish had formed as one of several parishes in Lancaster County. Residents were dispersed and diverse and included young and old, male and female, black and white, rich and poor, enslaved and free, planter and tradesman, landowner and tenant, native and immigrant. The parish was central to daily life, and many never traveled beyond its boundaries.

The Carter connection to Christ Church began with Robert “King” Carter’s father, John. Born in London, England in 1613, John sailed to Virginia in 1635 and later settled in Lancaster County, where he established the Corotoman plantation and became a prominent tobacco planter, merchant, and political figure. 

Corotoman was first inhabited by the Cuttatwomen Native American tribe several hundred years before the arrival of English colonists to Lancaster County, Virginia. Corotoman is the English translation or conversion of the name.

John Carter built the first Christ Church on this site, a frame structure that was completed in July 1670, six months after his death. John was buried in the chancel of the original Christ Church, along with four of his five wives and two of his six children. Today, his grave marker lies in the the chancel of the 1735 Christ Church.

Robert Carter was born at the Corotoman plantation in 1663 and attended school in London, where he learned the trans-Atlantic tobacco trade. In 1690, Robert inherited his father’s Corotoman plantation, ultimately making it the center of a vast estate that would encompass forty-eight plantations, 300,000 acres, and over 700 slaves.

Robert’s prodigious influence continued through his numerous offspring, who include three signers of the Declaration of Independence, two presidents, eight Virginia governors, General Robert E. Lee, a Supreme Court justice, and more than 20,000 other descendants.