Tavern Cellar

A large depression within the Tavern’s foundation marks one of two cellars beneath the circa 1822 Brentsville Tavern building, under rooms flanking the central passageway. When owner Thomas R. Hampton advertised the tavern for sale in 1828, he wrote that two rooms had been fitted up as a store and counting room with a large cellar underneath, and this may have been that cellar. It was likely reached by an interior stairway and an exterior bulkhead. By the early 1900s, little of the tavern remained, most walls had collapsed, and many large features such as cellars and pits had been backfilled, though this cellar stayed open. As debris accumulated and weather, rodents, and people threatened the site, the Historic Preservation Division lined and filled the cellar with sand in 2006 so it could be preserved for later archaeological excavation.

Virginia · United States