Glen Allen's 250th Fourth Got Called Off. Meadow Farm Gets the Encore in November.

Henrico County planned the nation's 250th birthday as two nights in two parks, and the Glen Allen night never happened. On July 4, 2026, the county canceled A Henrico Fourth at Crump Park "due to the extreme heat and increasing potential for evening storms." The same grounds on Mountain Road now host the county's most concentrated run of Revolution-era programming this year. From Wednesday, November 4 through Sunday, November 8, something tied to the 250th happens every day at Meadow Farm Museum and the Parsons Community Center next door.

The county doesn't call that week a make-up date for July. On the calendar, though, it is the biggest 250th event Glen Allen will get in 2026. It also has more to it than the July plan did, because it continues a story that started on the same lawn last November.

What July 4 was supposed to look like

The county's June announcement described A Henrico Fourth as two free evenings. Dorey Park would host a concert and fireworks on July 3. Crump Park would host the Richmond Symphony, a laser light show and a traditional Independence Day celebration from 6 to 10 p.m. on July 4. Both nights would have a hot air balloon display sponsored by the Henrico Federal Credit Union, plus free parking and admission. By the time the release was updated, the headline already said start times would be pushed later because of the heat.

In the end, the heat and the storm forecast canceled the Crump Park night entirely. The county's event page still lists the cancellation, and none of the county pages we reviewed show a new date for that event. July was meant to be one evening of music and lights at a Glen Allen park. November puts a museum, a movie, living history and two talks on the same property, five days in a row.

Five days, one property

Henrico's description of the Meadow Farm site lists Crump Park, Meadow Farm Museum, Parsons Community Center and RF&P Park as one connected place. That's why the November lineup works as a single week instead of scattered events around the county. Here is the schedule as Henrico's VA250 page lists it today.

The county's page says the mobile museum will stay open all weekend "to coincide with events included in Henrico's annual 250th events." Note the word annual. Henrico also says that while state and federal 250th efforts may peak in 2026, the county plans to keep offering programs after that.

What's inside the trailer

"Out of Many, One" is the Virginia American Revolution 250 Commission's museum on wheels. It's built into an expandable tractor trailer and travels to schools, museums, fairs and local events across the state. VA250 says its two units have drawn more than 60,000 visitors since the first one launched in January 2025.

Cardinal News toured the second unit at its debut in Abingdon in January 2026. Visitors walk in to a hologram of an actor delivering Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death!" speech. From there, touchscreen exhibits cover Indigenous people, enslaved and free Black people, and women who played a part in the Revolution, along with the Siege of Yorktown and the Battle of Kings Mountain. There's also a simulated U.S. citizenship test on a touchscreen, and an exhibit called "1776: Words for a New Nation," which VA250 executive director Cheryl Wilson told the paper is one of her favorites. Food City's CEO, whose company is a sponsor, said it's "a place you can easily spend more than an hour."

One caveat applies. The headline on that story says the second unit is set aside for Southwest Virginia, and the Kings Mountain exhibit there focuses on that region. The trailer parked at Meadow Farm may not match that tour exactly. Both units carry the "Out of Many, One" name.

Last November was 1775. This November is 1776.

The Signing Day program makes more sense next to what happened at Meadow Farm a year ago. On November 8, 2025, the county ran "1775: Subject or Citizen?" from 1 to 4 p.m. It asked visitors whether they would stay loyal to the King or "forge a new path as an independent citizen," with live musket demonstrations at 2:00 and 3:00. The first-person interpreters moving around the grounds played Lord Dunmore, Virginia's last royal governor; Patrick Henry; Anne Harrison Randolph of Wilton; and London, a young man enslaved by the Quaker Pleasants family.

This year's program, on the same Saturday afternoon slot a year later, moves the story forward twelve months:

It's 1776, and the fate of the colonies hangs in the balance. Will you join those signing their names for independence, or remain faithful to the King?

The county lists musket firing, soldier life, music of the era and games "from 250 years ago." The 2025 musket times have not been posted for 2026, so check before you plan around a specific demonstration.

London from last year's cast gets his own evening on November 4. The Parsons Community Center talk follows him from enslavement to self-emancipation in Henrico and his service as a Black Loyalist. Henrico's VA250 page explains how that happened. In January 1781, Benedict Arnold's troops came through Henrico and raided Robert Pleasants' Curles Neck Plantation. London, then 14, joined Arnold's American Legion as a trumpeter and was recorded boarding a ship in New York bound for Newfoundland in September 1783. The county has also added a mural of London by artist Jowarnise Caston at Four Mile Creek in Varina, if the talk makes you want to see more.

Why the county keeps choosing Meadow Farm

Signing Day asks visitors to pick a side, and few sites in the county have a longer documented record of people facing those choices than Meadow Farm. According to Henrico's history of the site, Richard Baker and William Sheppard received the land through a headright grant in 1713. Mosby Sheppard built the current farmhouse in 1810 and expanded it in 1820. From 1800 until 1865, between 8 and 21 enslaved men, women and children lived and worked there. In 1800, two men enslaved by the Sheppards, Tom and Pharaoh, told Mosby Sheppard about the uprising planned by Gabriel. That episode is now one of the museum's three permanent exhibits.

The modern building on the grounds was rededicated in fall 2021 as the Parsons Community Center, named for the family of enslaved workers associated with the Sheppards from 1809 to 1939. That's where the London Pleasants talk and Hamiltrivia take place. Elizabeth Adam Crump donated the farm to Henrico County in 1975 in memory of her husband, Major General Sheppard Crump, and the museum opened to the public in 1981.

Meadow Farm is also one of 70 historic sites in the Virginia 250 Passport, a statewide program for visiting America's 250th landmarks. If you're already collecting stamps, November gives you a busy week to pick up this one.

Making the week work

• Friday timing. The county suggests seeing the mobile museum before the Hamilton screening, but the trailer closes at 5 p.m. and the movie starts at 6:30. If you want both, come in the afternoon, then bring a blanket or chair and a picnic for the evening.
• Saturday overlap. On November 7, the museum and 1776: Signing Day run the same hours, 1 to 4 p.m., so you can do both in one afternoon.
• Weekday visits. The Wednesday and Thursday museum hours, 2 to 5 p.m., are the only times the trailer isn't sharing the grounds with another event.
• Confirm first. VA250 says its event locations, dates and times are subject to change. Henrico takes questions at [email protected].
• Earlier fall dates. Meadow Farm also has a Movie in the Park on Friday, October 16, from 7 to 9 p.m. Trough or Treat follows on Saturday, October 24, from 2 to 5 p.m., with a pasture walk, treats and archery at pumpkins. Costumes are encouraged but not required.

Today is October 5, so the mobile museum's first day at Meadow Farm is about four and a half weeks away.

At Moving For Good, we think events like this week at Meadow Farm are a big part of why Glen Allen feels like home. If a busy fall gets you thinking about what your own Glen Allen home is worth, you can get an instant home valuation in a few minutes, and we're glad to talk it through whenever you're ready.