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Northumberland County Chamber of Commerce

P.O. Box 149
804-529-5031

About Us :

The Northumberland County Chamber of Commerce welcomes you to "The Mother County" of the Northern Neck of Virginia, a peninsula that borders the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers and the Chesapeake Bay. Northumberland County's 220 +/- square miles consists mainly of flat to gently rolling countryside bounded by 438 miles of shoreline on inlets, creeks, the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay. The history of the county dates back to the mid 1600's when it was officially established, although the area began to be settled earlier in the 17th Century.

The county was split in the early 1650's with Lancaster County being formed from the southern part in 1652, and Westmoreland County being formed out of the western part of Northumberland County in 1653.

Today, the county seat at Heathsville, is a remarkably well preserved village comprising a veritable museum of 18th, 19th and 20th century architecture. It was the birthplace of Congressman John Heath, one of the founders of Phi Beta Kappa at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg. In Reedville, Main Street provides a striking example of the elegance and diversity of the Victorian and Edwardian periods.

From Burgess to Kilmarnock and on through Lancaster County, Route 200 bears the name of Jessie Ball duPont, a native of Ball's Neck in Northumberland, who became one of the most generous philanthropists of the century. Her historic home, "Ditchley" built in 1752 is in the lower end of the county. Nearby is "Cobbs Hall", the site of Richard Lee the Emigrant's first plantation in 1639. His grave in a walled garden there evokes the memory of the family he founded in the new world.

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