Home of President John Tyler

Only 30 minutes from Williamsburg on historic Route 5 is Sherwood Forest, home of President John Tyler and his second wife, Julia Gardiner Tyler. Beginning in 1845 after his term in office, they transformed an 18th-century Tidewater farmhouse into a stately residence suitable for entertaining prominent guests and raising their seven children. The home, an impressive 300 feet in length, was furnished largely with fashionable pieces shipped from New York. Gardens and grounds were arranged according to the principles of landscape designer and horticulturalist Andrew Jackson Downing, whose work at picturesque Hudson River valley estates was widely influential in the mid-19th century. Sherwood Forest remained a home to the president’s descendants into the 21st century.