Sponsor: The Garden Club of Gloucester

Tickets: $25; single-site, $10; ages 6-12, half-price

Info: (804) 693-4490; www.VAGardenweek.org

Lunches: Boxed, $10; 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Historic Williams Wharf, at the end of Route 614 near "Eastham" on the East River in Mathews. Make reservations by April 23 with the Mathews Land Conservancy. Info: (804) 725-9685 or mclc@3bubbas.com.

When Hurricane Isabel visited Virginia in September 2003, she left mud and debris in her wake. Many of the waterfront properties in Gloucester and Mathews counties suffered extensive damage. Homeowners spent months rebuilding their properties and replanting their daffodils.

Tour highlights:

Channelside, North (Drs. Hugh and Barbara Bryan, owners) is a new house, built after the 1920s Greek Revival-style residence that was severely damaged by the hurricane. Four columns were salvaged from the waterside of the old house and incorporated into the new design. There are no halls on the first level and the rooms flow easily, one to another, with light maple flooring and 10-foot ceilings.

Consistent with the tradition that waterfront homes present their best side to the water, Eastham, Mathews (Mr. and Mrs. Butler Burton, owners) faces the East River. This 19th-century Greek Revival was moved piece-by-piece to its present location in 1954 by banker Joseph E. Healy, who added a kitchen wing to the original structure. The present owners have furnished Eastham with family pieces, portraits and American and Dutch antiques.

The Farmhouse On Woodas Creek, Mathews (Mr. and Mrs. John L. Dutton, owners) enjoys a view of the East River and is situated only 22 feet from Woodas Creek. Most of the rooms of this renovated 19thcentury farmhouse enjoy water views. A conversation area on the southeast corner offers close-up views of water birds, fish and, in the winter, river otters.

Original heart pine flooring and a chimney constructed of handmade bricks with mortar made of oyster shells are part of the two-story house first listed on land tax records in 1840 and valued at $50.

Although the elms for which Elmington Gardens, Gloucester (Mrs. Peter Glasel, owner) was named have been claimed by time and the notorious Dutch Elm disease, oaks, magnolias, crape myrtles, Ginkgo, ash and Osage orange trees now grace the grounds. European and Virginia influences are found in the formal gardens.

Boxwood-bordered brick walks lead to a central fountain with limestone statuary. Another area offers a variety of annuals and perennials for a cutting garden.

A ghost is said to appear on occasion at Auburn Plantation, North (Mr. and Mrs. C.A.S. Hornsby, owners). The Federal-style mansion of three stories over an English basement was completed for Dr. Henry Wythe Tabb and his family in 1824.

Sadly, one of Dr. Tabb's daughters, Mary Eliza, fell down the curving staircase in the front hall and died hours later. It's her ghost that some say appears at her former home. The satin slippers that Miss Tabb was wearing have been passed down to successive owners of Auburn and are on display in the front hall.

*Guess what? Auburn was once owned by Beatle John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono.