# Planning a photo walk with Henge Days: sunrise and sunset on Main Street, Mathews, Virginia, Saturday, October 24, 2026 > Plan a morning and evening photo walk down Main Street in Mathews, Virginia, on Saturday, October 24, 2026: when the low sun lights up its shops and churches, where the buildings across the street cast them into shadow, and six buildings to save for their best light. This is the Markdown form of https://hengedays.com/articles/photo-walk-main-street-mathews-virginia-october-24-2026, with the same words as the page. *Main Street, Mathews, on October 24, 2026, in [Along a street](https://hengedays.com/route?from=37.43705,-76.32060&to=37.42816,-76.32362&street=Main%20Street&d=2026-10-24). North is to the left. Pink marks the walls the rising or setting sun lines up with that day.* For Saturday, October 24, 2026. For a few minutes after sunrise and before sunset, the light comes in nearly level. It lands square on the buildings that face it, warms brick and painted wood, and pulls long shadows from every window frame and doorway. Henge Days finds those minutes for any building. It lists the days when the rising or setting sun lines up with one of its walls, the way the sun lines up with the streets of Manhattan on Manhattanhenge, and calls them henge days. This article uses Henge Days to plan one walk, on Main Street in Mathews, Virginia, on Saturday, October 24, 2026. Every step works on your own street too. Mathews is a small county seat on the Chesapeake Bay side of Virginia's Middle Peninsula. Its Main Street runs about a kilometer south from Route 198, at the left of the map, past the Court Green, shops, churches and museums. Buildings on the west side of the street face the sunrise, and buildings on the east side face the sunset. On October 24 the sun rises at 7:22 AM and sets at 6:16 PM, and in between the farmers market fills the Court Green from 9 AM to 1 PM. ### How the walk was planned - Open [Along a street](https://hengedays.com/route) and enter the two ends of the street, its name and the date. For this walk the ends are Route 198 at the north end of Main Street and a point about a kilometer south, past the Maritime Museum. - Look at the map. Every wall the low sun lines up with that day is marked in pink, and the list beside it puts them in walking order, with the time the light arrives at each. Main Street has 51 on October 24. - See what is in the way. A low sun can hide behind the building across the street. For this article Henge Days also checked each of the 51 walls for buildings standing between it and the sun, and 20 have a clear view. The tables below give the result for every building with a name. - Save the mornings and evenings you want. Each building page lists the days in the year when the sun lines up with its walls. Save keeps a day in your [planner](https://hengedays.com/planner), which can send it to your calendar app and shows the cloud forecast from 10 days ahead. Signing in takes only an email address. The map and the list for this walk, on October 24 or any other day you choose: [Open this walk in Along a street](https://hengedays.com/route?from=37.43705,-76.32060&to=37.42816,-76.32362&street=Main%20Street&d=2026-10-24) ### The plan for October 24 - 7:20 AM: start at the north end, where Route 198 meets Main Street. Walk south on the east side of the street with the sun at your back. - 7:23 to 8:01 AM: the sun clears the horizon and reaches the east-facing buildings all at once, wherever nothing stands in its way. Kingston Parish House, with nothing in its way, is the one to reach by 7:31 AM. - 8:20 to 8:31 AM: at the south end, three buildings that turn a little more to the south catch the sun straight on. The Mathews Maritime Museum catches it at 8:25 AM. - 9 AM to 1 PM: the farmers market on the Court Green. - 5:38 to 6:14 PM: walk back north on the west side. The sun sets off to the south, so its last light slants across the west-facing buildings and picks out every doorway and window frame. ### What stands in the way A low sun reaches a wall only when nothing taller stands between them. For each stop, Henge Days looked from just in front of the wall toward the sun, out to 600 meters, and found the highest roofline. Where the sun is above it, the view is clear. 20 of the 51 stops have a clear view. Most of the blocked ones are downtown, where buildings stand close on both sides of the street. Ten of the clear east-facing walls have no name on the map; six of them are between 430 and 515 meters from Route 198. Few buildings in Mathews have a height in OpenStreetMap. Where one is missing, the check assumes a height from the kind of building: 6 meters for a house or shop, 10 meters for a church, school or public building. The tables mark those results as estimated. Trees are not part of the check, and in October they still have their leaves. #### Morning, east-facing fronts StopTimeBuildingWallLightClear view 37:30 AMHyCo MarketWest side, 25 m from Route 198E 95°Sunrise, 10° off the wallBlocked by Hardee's, 7.3° (height estimated)77:30 AMMoughon's Ace HardwareWest side, 64 m from Route 198E 98°Sunrise, 7° off the wallBlocked by Morgan & Edwards, 12.6° (height estimated)167:30 AMFoster-Faulkner Funeral HomeWest side, 257 m from Route 198E 96°Sunrise, 10° off the wallBlocked by Food Lion, 2.4° (height estimated)217:30 AMIsabell Horsley Real EstateWest side, 336 m from Route 198E 91°Sunrise, 15° off the wallBlocked by a building, 12.7° (height estimated)287:31 AMRichardson’s CafeWest side, 357 m from Route 198ESE 103°Sunrise, 3° off the wallBlocked by a building, 12.5° (height estimated)307:31 AMThe Halcyon BuildingWest side, 388 m from Route 198ESE 103°Sunrise, 3° off the wallBlocked by Mathews Memorial Library, 8.3° (height estimated)337:31 AMERA Bay & RiverWest side, 408 m from Route 198ESE 103°Sunrise, 3° off the wallBlocked by Westville Christian Church, 4.6° (height estimated)387:30 AMMi Casa AztecaWest side, 459 m from Route 198E 100°Sunrise, 6° off the wallBlocked by Roane's Antiques, 9.5° (height estimated)487:31 AMKingston Parish HouseWest side, 558 m from Route 198ESE 103°Sunrise, 3° off the wallClear518:25 AMMathews Maritime MuseumWest side, 776 m from Route 198ESE 114°Head-on, sun 11° upClear #### Evening, west-facing fronts StopTimeBuildingWallLightClear view 46:08 PMHardee'sEast side, 30 m from Route 198W 276°Sunset, 22° off the wallBlocked by Moughon's Ace Hardware, 5.5° (height estimated)86:08 PMMorgan & EdwardsEast side, 69 m from Route 198W 276°Sunset, 22° off the wallClear156:08 PMMathews Post OfficeEast side, 255 m from Route 198W 276°Sunset, 21° off the wallClear296:08 PMMathews Visitor CenterEast side, 380 m from Route 198W 280°Sunset, 26° off the wallBlocked by a building, 8.0° (height estimated)326:08 PMMathews Memorial LibraryEast side, 405 m from Route 198W 280°Sunset, 26° off the wallBlocked by a building, 12.2° (height estimated)376:08 PMBay School Community Arts CenterEast side, 450 m from Route 198W 281°Sunset, 26° off the wallBlocked by Mi Casa Azteca, 11.3° (height estimated)406:08 PMRoane's AntiquesEast side, 469 m from Route 198WNW 282°Sunset, 28° off the wallBlocked by a building, 10.3° (height estimated)466:08 PMOriental Lodge No. 20East side, 512 m from Route 198WNW 283°Sunset, 29° off the wallClear ### Weather - Late October at Norfolk, the nearest long weather record, averages a high near 68°F and a low near 54°F. Expect the low 50s at sunrise. - October is the clearest month of the year there. The sky is clear, mostly clear or partly cloudy about 63% of the time and overcast or mostly cloudy the rest. - On a calm, clear morning, fog can form over Put in Creek and the other creeks around the village and lift after sunrise. A thin fog softens the light on the fronts; a thick one hides the sun until it burns off. - Check the forecast from the National Weather Service office in Wakefield the evening before. A day saved to your planner shows the cloud forecast for its minute from 10 days ahead. ### Leaves Expect mostly green trees on October 24, with early color in the maples and sweetgums. Color in the Tidewater usually peaks in early to mid November. ### Six buildings on the walk Each entry shows the building the way its Henge Days page does: the map with the sunlit wall highlighted, the wall's next run of henge days with a Save button, and a strip with a year of sunlit days for every side of the building. On October 24 several of these buildings catch the sun at an angle. Their rows point to the days when it meets them straight on: October 17 to 20 for the Halcyon Building and Kingston Parish House, November for the Maritime Museum, and April for the three buildings that face the sunset. #### 1 The Halcyon Building Mathews, Virginia Wall east-southeast, facing 103° Sun At 7:31 AM the rising sun is almost square to the front, but the Mathews Memorial Library across the street hides it until about 8:10 AM. After that the light falls on the front nearly straight on. Leaves Expect mostly green trees on October 24, with early color in the maples and sweetgums. Color in the Tidewater usually peaks in early to mid November. Where to stand Stand on the east side of Main Street, by the library, and frame the front with the corner of Church Street. The mural is on the side wall. Clear view Blocked by Mathews Memorial Library, which rises 8.3° toward the sun (height estimated); the sun is 1.3° up. J. Eddie Callis built the Halcyon in 1930 as the Foster Bros. department store, at the corner of Main and Church Streets by the Court Green. Its third floor has been a roller rink, a furniture store, a film theater and a dance studio. A mural covers one side wall, and a mosaic made by Mathews High School students carries a line by Walt Whitman. *The building page in Henge Days. The highlighted walls face 103°, toward the sunrise on the days in the row below; every wall carries its bearing.* - **Sat, Oct 17 to Tue, Oct 20, 2026**4 mornings · best Tue, Oct 20 **7:19 AM** Henge sunrise, sun on the horizon ESE 103° wall Its row in the Henge days list, with the time of the head-on moment on the best day. Save keeps that day in your planner, which can send it to your calendar app. Saving asks you to sign in with an email link; there is no password. *The year for every wall of the building. Each row is a wall; the colored runs are its henge, golden and low-sun days.* [Open this wall in Henge Days](https://hengedays.com/at/37.43362,-76.32133?q=Halycon+Building%2C+Mathews%2C+VA&b=osm%2Fway%2F616464751&facade=1&d=2026-10-17) #### 2 Kingston Parish House Mathews, Virginia Wall east-southeast, facing 103° Sun At 7:31 AM the sun is just over the horizon and almost square to the front, with nothing in its way. The light stays low and warm on the wall until about 8:00 AM. Leaves Expect mostly green trees on October 24, with early color in the maples and sweetgums. Color in the Tidewater usually peaks in early to mid November. Where to stand Stand on the east side of Main Street with the sun at your back. Clear view Clear. No building in the map data rises above the sun (1.3° up) in its direction. Kingston Parish, the Episcopal parish of Mathews, bought this property on Main Street in 1894. St. John's Church stood here from 1898 until 1954. The parish house dates from the 1980s, and the rectory on the same lot is older than 1900 and part of the Mathews Downtown Historic District. *The building page in Henge Days. The highlighted walls face 103°, toward the sunrise on the days in the row below; every wall carries its bearing.* - **Sat, Oct 17 to Tue, Oct 20, 2026**4 mornings · best Tue, Oct 20 **7:18 AM** Henge sunrise, sun on the horizon ESE 103° wall Its row in the Henge days list, with the time of the head-on moment on the best day. Save keeps that day in your planner, which can send it to your calendar app. Saving asks you to sign in with an email link; there is no password. *The year for every wall of the building. Each row is a wall; the colored runs are its henge, golden and low-sun days.* [Open this wall in Henge Days](https://hengedays.com/at/37.43211,-76.32165?q=Kingston+Parish+House%2C+Mathews%2C+VA&b=osm%2Fway%2F617102203&facade=3&d=2026-10-17) #### 3 Mathews Maritime Museum Mathews, Virginia Wall east-southeast, facing 114° Sun The sun meets the front straight on at 8:25 AM, still low in the sky, with nothing in its way. It is the last stop of the morning, south of the center. Leaves Expect mostly green trees on October 24, with early color in the maples and sweetgums. Color in the Tidewater usually peaks in early to mid November. Where to stand Stand across Main Street with the sun at your back. At 8:25 AM the shadows of the trim fall straight back into the wall. Clear view Clear. No building in the map data rises above the sun (11.1° up) in its direction. The Mathews Maritime Museum fills the former School Board and Extension office building at 482 Main Street. It is a museum of the county's maritime history and opens Fridays and Saturdays, 10 AM to 2 PM, from May through November. *The building page in Henge Days. The highlighted walls face 114°, toward the sunrise on the days in the row below; every wall carries its bearing.* - **Wed, Nov 4 to Thu, Nov 19, 2026**16 mornings · best Thu, Nov 19 **6:50 AM** Golden sunrise, sun 0° up ESE 114° wall Its row in the Henge days list, with the time of the head-on moment on the best day. Save keeps that day in your planner, which can send it to your calendar app. Saving asks you to sign in with an email link; there is no password. *The year for every wall of the building. Each row is a wall; the colored runs are its henge, golden and low-sun days.* [Open this wall in Henge Days](https://hengedays.com/at/37.43038,-76.32261?q=Mathews+Maritime+Museum%2C+Mathews%2C+VA&b=osm%2Fway%2F617102212&facade=1&d=2026-11-04) #### 4 Mathews Memorial Library Mathews, Virginia Wall west, facing 280° Sun In late October the sun sets well to the south of the front, and the buildings across Main Street block it from about 5:05 PM. In April the sunset lines up with this wall. Leaves Expect mostly green trees on October 24, with early color in the maples and sweetgums. Color in the Tidewater usually peaks in early to mid November. Where to stand Stand on the west side of Main Street in the late afternoon, when the light crosses the front from the southwest. Clear view Blocked by a building, which rises 12.2° toward the sun (height estimated); the sun is 1.0° up. The library began in 1926 as a memorial to the county's World War I dead and was dedicated in 1937. In the early 1980s it moved into the former Farmers and Fishermens Bank on Main Street, and an expansion was dedicated in 2003. *The building page in Henge Days. The highlighted walls face 280°, toward the sunset on the days in the row below; every wall carries its bearing.* - **Sat, Apr 10 to Mon, Apr 12, 2027**3 evenings · best Sat, Apr 10 **7:33 PM** Henge sunset, sun on the horizon W 280° wall Its row in the Henge days list, with the time of the head-on moment on the best day. Save keeps that day in your planner, which can send it to your calendar app. Saving asks you to sign in with an email link; there is no password. *The year for every wall of the building. Each row is a wall; the colored runs are its henge, golden and low-sun days.* [Open this wall in Henge Days](https://hengedays.com/at/37.43343,-76.32059?q=Mathews+Memorial+Library%2C+Mathews%2C+VA&b=osm%2Frelation%2F8534227&facade=16&d=2027-04-10) #### 5 Bay School Community Arts Center Mathews, Virginia Wall west, facing 281° Sun In late October the sun sets well to the south of the front, and the buildings across Main Street block it from about 5:10 PM. In April the sunset lines up with this wall. Leaves Expect mostly green trees on October 24, with early color in the maples and sweetgums. Color in the Tidewater usually peaks in early to mid November. Where to stand Stand on the west side of Main Street, before about 5:10 PM, when the light still clears the buildings across the street. Clear view Blocked by Mi Casa Azteca, which rises 11.3° toward the sun (height estimated); the sun is 1.0° up. The Bay School, founded in 1997, has been at 279 Main Street since 2001. It is a community arts center with a gallery, and its front was renovated in 2015. *The building page in Henge Days. The highlighted walls face 281°, toward the sunset on the days in the row below; every wall carries its bearing.* - **Sat, Apr 10 to Tue, Apr 13, 2027**4 evenings · best Sat, Apr 10 **7:34 PM** Henge sunset, sun on the horizon W 281° wall Its row in the Henge days list, with the time of the head-on moment on the best day. Save keeps that day in your planner, which can send it to your calendar app. Saving asks you to sign in with an email link; there is no password. *The year for every wall of the building. Each row is a wall; the colored runs are its henge, golden and low-sun days.* [Open this wall in Henge Days](https://hengedays.com/at/37.43297,-76.32073?q=Bay+School+Community+Arts+Center%2C+Mathews%2C+VA&b=osm%2Fway%2F617102239&facade=7&d=2027-04-10) #### 6 Oriental Lodge No. 20 Mathews, Virginia Wall west-northwest, facing 283° Sun At 6:08 PM the setting sun reaches the front from the side, with nothing in its way, and draws long shadows across it. In April the sunset lines up with this wall. Leaves Expect mostly green trees on October 24, with early color in the maples and sweetgums. Color in the Tidewater usually peaks in early to mid November. Where to stand Stand on the west side of Main Street. The sun sets to your left, so its light slants across the front. Clear view Clear. No building in the map data rises above the sun (1.0° up) in its direction. OpenStreetMap lists this building as the hall of Oriental Lodge No. 20, a Masonic lodge. An 1887 booklet of its by-laws places the lodge at Mathews Court House. Henge Days found no date for the building. *The building page in Henge Days. The highlighted walls face 283°, toward the sunset on the days in the row below; every wall carries its bearing.* - **Thu, Apr 15 to Sat, Apr 17, 2027**3 evenings · best Thu, Apr 15 **7:38 PM** Henge sunset, sun on the horizon WNW 283° wall Its row in the Henge days list, with the time of the head-on moment on the best day. Save keeps that day in your planner, which can send it to your calendar app. Saving asks you to sign in with an email link; there is no password. *The year for every wall of the building. Each row is a wall; the colored runs are its henge, golden and low-sun days.* [Open this wall in Henge Days](https://hengedays.com/at/37.43244,-76.32104?q=Oriental+Lodge+20%2C+Mathews%2C+VA&b=osm%2Fway%2F617102236&facade=3&d=2027-04-15) ### Near Main Street - Mathews County Courthouse Square, at Church and Court Streets, holds the courthouse of about 1830, the clerk's office, a small jail and the Court Green. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. - Tompkins Cottage, about 1820, is on Brickbat Road, off Main Street. The Mathews County Historical Society opens it on Saturdays from 10 AM to 1 PM in season; check that it is open on October 24. - The Mathews Visitor Center on Main Street opens Thursday to Saturday, 10 AM to 4 PM. ### Plan a walk on your street - Open [Along a street](https://hengedays.com/route) and enter the two ends of a street, its name and a date. The map and the list show every wall the sun lines up with that day, in walking order. - Change the date to compare seasons. On Main Street in Mathews, the west-facing fronts take the setting sun head-on in mid April. - Search for one building on the [home page](https://hengedays.com/) to see every wall's days for the year. - Save the days you want in your [planner](https://hengedays.com/planner). It keeps them in one list, can send them to your calendar app and shows the cloud forecast from 10 days ahead. [Plan a walk in Along a street](https://hengedays.com/route) [Open your planner](https://hengedays.com/planner) ### Sources - [Virginia Department of Historic Resources, Mathews Downtown Historic District](https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/historic-registers/057-5415/) - [Wikipedia, Mathews County Courthouse Square](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathews_County_Courthouse_Square) - [Gazette-Journal, Mathews Farmers Market opens for season](https://www.gazettejournal.net/mathews-farmers-market-opens-for-season-saturday) - [Gazette-Journal, Tompkins Cottage](https://www.gazettejournal.net/now-the-tompkins-cottage) - [Gazette-Journal, Kingston rectory being converted to housing](https://www.gazettejournal.net/kingston-rectory-being-converted-to-housing) - [Mathews Maritime Museum](https://mathewsmaritime.com/museum.html) - [Mathews Memorial Library, history](https://mathewslibrary.org/about-us/history) - [Gazette-Journal, Bay School to get new look](https://www.gazettejournal.net/bay-school-to-get-new-look/) - [Visit Mathews, the Halcyon Building](https://visitmathews.com/?p=9146) - [Gazette-Journal, J. Eddie Callis](https://www.gazettejournal.net/j-eddie-callis) - [Huntington Library, by-laws of Oriental Lodge No. 20](https://www.huntington.org/collections/lib-193903) - [Visit Mathews, Visitor Center](https://visitmathews.com/?p=14136) - [Weather Spark, October weather at Norfolk International Airport](https://weatherspark.com/m/147077/10/Average-Weather-in-October-at-Norfolk-International-Airport-Virginia-United-States) - [National Weather Service, Wakefield, Virginia](https://www.weather.gov/akq/) - [Explore Fall, fall foliage map](https://www.explorefall.com/fall-foliage-map) ### The newsletter Henge Days also has a newsletter. It covers what each release of the site adds and how to use it, and the buildings the #HengeDays community photographs in head-on light. [Read it on Substack](https://hengedays.substack.com/). The address goes to Substack, which sends the email and asks you to confirm. Henge Days does not keep it. --- Every date and time on Henge Days is computed from a building outline in OpenStreetMap and the position of the sun. Nobody has checked it on the ground. Hills, trees and other buildings can block a low sun. Treat each date as a plan to confirm before you travel. See https://hengedays.com/terms.md. Henge Days is free to use; sign in only to save days to a planner. Contact: hello@hengedays.com.