By the 1830s, a log tavern down this lane was an overnight stop on the Old State Road from Cumberland Gap to Lexington, and the older half of the building dates to about 1800. During the Civil War, Jones Tavern was alternately held by Confederate and Union forces. During the Battle of Richmond on Aug. 29-30, 1862, the building served as a Confederate field hospital for men wounded while fighting farther north near Mt Zion Church. Thirteen who died here, including a boy soldier only fifteen years old, are buried in a small cemetery in the woods above the house. In Jan. 1864, Gen. U.S. Grant and staff stayed overnight on their way from east Tennessee to Lexington.