The Millers Tavern Rural Historic District covers 3,619 acres on the western end of Essex County, with a small portion of the district extending into King and Queen County. The district consists of buildings, structures, and archaeological sites situated on small and medium-sized farm fields, defined by tree lines, and the Piscataway Creek and its many branches. The district tells the story of a rural Tidewater community’s growth and change from its settlement by Europeans in the late 1700s through its evolution into the latter 20th century. Among the district’s historic houses are five late-18th-century dwellings (including the individually listed Cherry Walk), with similar raised brick basements, large exterior brick chimneys, and side-gambrel roofs with steeply pitched lower slopes. Early-19th-century structures include mills, churches, stores, and other buildings that commonly arose to support a planter economy of the antebellum era. Late-19th- and early-20th-century properties, including the 1893 Beulah Baptist Church, are associated with African Americans who remained in the area after the Civil War to establish their own farmsteads. Bounding the Millers Tavern Rural Historic District are historic roadways, some of which began as Native American trails.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia