Berryville began as a colonial crossroads settlement known as Battletown. It expanded in the early 1800s following the construction of turnpikes linking Berryville to trade between Winchester and Alexandria. The town became the county seat when Clarke County was formed from Frederick in 1836. The arrival of the Shenandoah Valley Railroad in 1879 secured Berryville’s role as a processing and shipping center for the lower Shenandoah Valley. Preserved in the Berryville Historic District is a fine range of commercial, residential, governmental, religious, and industrial buildings associated with nearly all periods in the town’s development. These structures, particularly the tidy old houses lining its tree-shaded residential streets, preserve a classic American small-town image. Principal landmarks are the 1836 courthouse and the 1857 Italianate Grace Episcopal Church. The 1810 Sarah Stribling house, long the Battletown Inn, and the adjacent Jonathan Smith house, are conspicuous buildings of the Federal period within the Berryville Historic District.