A Hornsby-Bowditch Legacy of Hospitality
The family patriarch, John William “J.W.” Hornsby, born in 1888 in rural York County, Virginia, left school in the 8th grade to begin his career as a waterman. He eventually came to own a large deadrise “buyboat” and several smaller “tonger” boats to obtain oysters, clams, and crabs across the Chesapeake Bay. During the off-season his boats would transfer goods to market up the Bay. In the early 1920s, J.W. began bringing heating oil back from Baltimore, and soon became the Amoco Oil and Gas distributor for the entire Virginia Peninsula area, where his business thrived.
J.W. built Hornsby House in the early 1930s on Main Street, Yorktown, during the time of the original buildup of nearby Colonial Williamsburg. He aspired to build a grand home overlooking the York River for his large family. To this end, J.W. had the home designed by the two architects who led the restoration and reconstruction of Colonial Williamsburg under the direction of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin.
In 1933, he moved in with his wife and six children, five sons and one daughter: Sherwood, Charles, Robert, Norman, Billy, and Marian. J.W.’s wife, Georgiana White, decorated the house with both American and English antiques she collected during her travels, and today, many of these antiques still fill the home. Hornsby House soon became a well-known center of hospitality to family, friends, neighbors, and business associates.
Marian Hornsby married Willits Henry “Bill” Bowditch, a dashing naval officer, in 1943 during World War II. Their reception in Hornsby House was one of many weddings and receptions held in the home, including their son David’s in 1978. In 1956, after J.W. died, they moved in to care for her mother, Georgiana. Marian and Bill raised their four sons in Hornsby House: Bill, John, David, and Phil. David describes growing up there as a “Norman Rockwell painting experience in this special, small village surrounded by the national park and the battlefields.”
During these wonderful years filled with lots of entertaining and large extended family gatherings, Marian wrote From the Kitchen at Hornsby House in Yorktown, Virginia. Published in her own handwriting, this remarkable cookbook has an extensive variety of delicious recipes and culinary delights, served to family and guests over the years.
In 2011, brothers David and Phil Bowditch brought new life to the family home by lovingly transforming it into a welcoming bed and breakfast, Hornsby House Inn. They preserved its rich heritage, and the Inn carries on the Hornsby-Bowditch legacy of hospitality in this refined and gracious setting with the many guests who have visited since. The brothers* have delighted in sharing at breakfast many of their mother’s recipes out of her cookbook and stories of the home and history of Yorktown. Hornsby House Inn continues to be an anchor of community and welcome in historic Yorktown.
*Brother Phil passed away in February 2021. This true southern gentleman is greatly missed and fondly remembered by family, friends, and the many guests who got to know him and his special sense of humor.
Brothers Phil and David