Letter to the Editor: Tidewater and Big Bend Foundation

To My Neighbors in New Kent and Charles City Counties,

Inquiries arise from time to time regarding the purpose of my sizeable purchases of land in New Kent County. This is part one in a two-part letter to the editor to address those inquiries.

I have acquired to date roughly 5000 acres of central New Kent County centered on the intersection of I-64 and Highway 155. In the years since 2012, as my land and historical building purchases built up far beyond original expectations, a Foundation was formed to own some and eventually all of my real estate acquisitions. Its name is the Tidewater and Big Bend Foundation and it is dedicated to acquiring, restoring, landscaping and furnishing ante bellum houses and properties in New Kent and Charles City Counties and one other area in Texas.

The Foundation’s operating goal is to help educate Americans on our history by introducing visitors to rural homes, farms and old lifestyles much as Williamsburg shows us a restored urban colonial environment. The Foundation hopes to play a small but useful part in reminding future visitors of our young nation’s distinguished heritage and the hard-won accomplishments of our ancestors. Naturally, this heritage includes all races, genders, income levels, free and enslaved persons, and social orientations that constituted our way of life before 1861.

You can recognize us today by sizable forest clearances on #155, #249, Olivet Church Road and Cumberland Road and by our distinctive white fences, historical markers and restored residences. We have three historical restorations carried out to date, we will add three more within a year and we seek further acquisitions.

Thank you for reading this and for any support you care to afford our activities in New Kent and Charles City.

John B. Poindexter
New Kent