Accomac Historic District

A courthouse village of about 500 people that has changed remarkably little since the 1790s — a compact cluster of Federal and colonial buildings around a green, most of the town listed as a historic district.

The Accomack County Circuit Court has records running back to 1663, among the oldest continuous county records in the United States. Beside it stands the Debtor's Prison, a small brick building of about 1783 originally the jailer's house and later used to hold people imprisoned for debt; it is one of very few surviving in the country. St. James Episcopal Church nearby has an unusual trompe-l'œil painted interior from 1838.

Practical: free, and mostly an exterior walk of fifteen to thirty minutes; interiors open irregularly or by appointment. There is essentially nothing commercial here, which is precisely why it looks the way it does. Easy to miss from the highway.