The physical and psychological heart of Northern Virginia’s hunt country, the Middleburg Historic District, within the compact and fastidious southern Loudoun County  village of Middleburg, retains the qualities of its early years. Founded in 1787 by Leven Powell, a Revolutionary War officer and regional Federalist leader, the town developed as a coach stop and relay station on Ashby’s Gap Turnpike, becoming by the mid-19th-century a commercial center for lower Loudoun and upper Fauquier counties. The town saw frequent Civil War cavalry action and won a reputation for fierce Confederate loyalty but afterwards it declined in fortune and population. By the second decade of the 20th century, it assumed a new identity as a social and equestrian center. With its tree-lined streets, brick sidewalks, and harmonious scale, the Middleburg Historic District has a diverse collection of late-18th- to early-20th-century architectural styles highlighted by early stone and brick structures.