Northern Neck Now

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 (above), 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.

Millers Tavern Rural Historic District