The Eastern Shore courthouse town of Accomac in Accomack County has been a judicial center for over three centuries. The settlement, originally called Matompkin, grew up around John Cole’s tavern, where court was first held in the 1670s. It became the county seat by 1690. The town was laid out adjacent to the court square in 1786 and was known as Drummond or Drummondtown because it was on land which had been owned by Richard Drummond. Renamed Accomac in 1893, the town has evolved gently; its quiet, tree-shaded streets preserve numerous 18th- and 19th-century regional building types, both high-style and vernacular. Outstanding Federal houses include the Seymour house and the brick rectory for St. James Church. Other noteworthy structures in the Accomac Historic District are Seven Gables, The Haven, and the Francis Makemie Presbyterian Church. The colonial courthouse was replaced in 1899 by the present sober Victorian structure designed by F. Bartholomew Smith.
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