This Hanover County seat village retains the essential ingredients of a rural Virginia courthouse settlement. The focal point is the arcaded courthouse of ca. 1737-42, a major monument of Virginia’s colonial public architecture. On its surrounding green is the 1835 stone jail and a brick clerk’s office of the same period. Across the road is the Hanover Tavern, a rambling late-18th-century hostelry, probably the largest and best preserved of Virginia’s early courthouse taverns. Until recent years the building had long been home of the well-known Barksdale Theatre. It is now restored for exhibition and special events. A late addition to the Hanover County Courthouse Historic District complex is the 1942 Pamunkey Regional Library, an articulate Colonial Revival structure. Hanover Court House witnessed much Civil War activity. It was here that J. E. B. Stuart was commissioned a major general in the Confederate cavalry.