William King (1769-1808), the eldest of four children born to Thomas and Rachel (Davis) King, was born in King’s County, Ireland, now known as County Offaly. Thomas King immigrated to America in 1782, and William King immigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as an indentured servant in 1784. In 1792, after his contract of indenture was satisfied, William King returned to Ireland, collected an inheritance of 100 pounds from his late grandmother Elizabeth Davis, and returned to America with other family members.  

Late in 1792, William King settled near Saltville as a merchant, where he rented a salt furnace from General William Campbell and began the manufacturing of salt, a valuable commodity on the frontier. Due to Saltville’s location, salt could be shipped down the North Fork of the Holston River, transferred to larger barges at King’s Port on the Long Island, and marketed downstream as far as New Orleans. King acquired 14 to 19 lots in the Town of Abingdon along with 19,473 acres of land in Washington County and over 14,000 acres in Wythe County and Tennessee. 

William King became a U.S. citizen in 1798 and married Mary Trigg, daughter of Colonel Daniel Trigg of Montgomery County, in 1799. William King had this building “Grace Hill” constructed in 1803 on Lot 10 in the Town of Abingdon, exhibiting brick laid in a fine example of Flemish bond. It is believed to be the first brick building built in the Town of Abingdon and is the earliest brick building in the Town of Abingdon still standing. It was also the first building with running water, drawn from a spring on his father’s property north of Valley Street and conveyed through pipes made of hollowed-out logs. Located nearby was his storehouse on Main Street and his “counting house,” or office, on Valley Street.  

Bibliography: 

Cuddy, Victoria H. “Abstracts of Washington County VA,” Will Book no. 3, 1806-1812 (25 August 2002): 80-82.  

Kegley, Mary B. and Buchanan Jr., William T. The Saltville Entrepreneurs and Their Endless Litigation (2014): 9-10.   

King, Nanci C. Places In Time, Vol. 1: Abingdon, Virginia 1778-1880) (1989): 59.  

The documented history of the land where The Washington House is located begins in the early years of Abingdon. Between 1783 and 1785, William Bagnall and his wife arrived from Baltimore, Maryland, and had a large log tavern built here. Like many of the early taverns along the Great Wagon Road, it served not only as a place of drink but as a vital gathering point for the town. 

By 1810, the property was in the hands of John Gum, who maintained a dwelling house for his family of seven, a stable, and a lumber house on the property as well as the tavern. 

In 1817, Lots 23 and 24 of the Town of Abingdon were purchased for $1,750 by Fincastle  Sterrett, formerly enslaved by William King (1769-1808). Fincastle Sterrett had traveled the South entrusted with handling business for William King, and after William King’s death in 1808 he was freed and allowed to remain in Virginia after successfully petitioning the Virginia General Assembly for the right to remain in Virginia following his attainment of freedom. He proceeded to acquire land that was being sold for tax debts, acquiring 789 acres of land and ten town lots. In 1820, he obtained a license to operate an ordinary on the property, offering meals, lodging, and entertainment to travelers. Fincastle Sterrett was remembered for attracting and entertaining guests with jigs from his fiddle and hornpipe, and his business flourished until his death in 1832.    

In 1833, Thomas Findlay purchased the property along with Fincastle Sterrett’s son Theodore, who was subsequently freed too. In 1835, Thomas Findlay had The Washington House built, celebrated as the Town of Abingdon’s first multi-story brick hotel.  

After the Civil War the property was remodeled and managed by D.J. Ayres. The hotel was complete with a restaurant, bakery and stables, and a hack and porter were stationed at the new railroad depot west of town for the convenience of traveling customers. In 1868, half of the eastern end of the building collapsed, leaving the building in the unusual shape seen today. Fortunately, none of the many occupants in the building were killed or crippled. It was restored and reopened by D.E. Davis in August of 1869 as the Central Hotel.  

Arthur and Eldridge Clark purchased the hotel in 1923 and added two street-level storefronts where they established Clark’s Meat Market and a hat shop. 

The Federal style building is a contributing resource in the Abingdon Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.  

Bibliography: 

Cuddy, Victoria H. “Abstracts of Washington County VA,” Will Book no. 3, 1806-1812 (25 August 2002): 80-82.  

Kegley, Mary B. and Buchanan Jr., William T. The Saltville Entrepreneurs and Their Endless Litigation (2014): 9-10.   

King, Nanci C. Places In Time, Vol. 1: Abingdon, Virginia 1778-1880) (1989): 59.  

The land where Abingdon Bank is located begins in 1779, when Lots 11 and 12 were first used for Washington County’s earliest courthouse built in 1778, a one-story log structure built on the eastern part of the property. Over the following decades the land saw a variety of uses, housing a carpenter’s shop, a tin shop, a law office, and a tavern. 

By the early 1800s the lots came into private ownership. James and Elizabeth Hathorn held title until 1808, when they sold to Andrew Russell and David Campbell. Just three years later, in 1811, Russell and Campbell transferred the property to Charles S. Carson, who, within the same year, sold it to William Trigg. Upon Trigg’s death, his son Lilburn H. Trigg inherited the land. 

In 1848, Lilburn H. Trigg conveyed the western portion of the property - referred to as the “old tavern lot” - to James Galt, settling a dispute between the heirs of Trigg and Carson. Galt and Barbara Trigg, Lilburn’s widow, later sold this section in 1857 to George V. Litchfield. Soon afterward, George and his wife, Rachel D. (Mitchell) Litchfield, sold the land to the Exchange Bank of Virginia, which had established a branch in Abingdon in 1849. 

The bank continued to consolidate its holdings. In 1860, the Exchange Bank secured additional western property through the Litchfields. Then, in 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, the bank acquired the eastern half of Lot 11 from Charles S. Bekem, heir of Charles S. Carson, completing its control of the site. 

The postwar years brought significant changes. In 1866, stockholders of the Exchange Bank in Norfolk voted to liquidate operations under new Virginia law. George W. Camp was appointed trustee of the liquidation. In 1873, Camp sold Lots 11 and 12, including the bank building, to James W. Preston of Abingdon. Preston, the son of John McDonald Preston and Eleanor Wilson, raised six children in the house. His daughter, Kate G. Preston (1889–1942), later married John Stuart (1860–1939). Their son, William A. Stuart, inherited the property in 1949. 

The structure reflects nearly 250 years of Abingdon’s history - from its origins as the county’s first courthouse site, to a hub of antebellum commerce through the Exchange Bank, and finally to a long-standing Preston–Stuart family residence. 

The Greek Revival style building is a contributing resource in the Abingdon Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. 

Bibliography: 

Hagy, James William, History of Washington County, Virginia to 1865, (2013): 70, 71. 

Fullerton, Phebe, Historical Homes of Washington County, Virginia, Historical Society of Washington County, Virginia Bulletin, Series II, No. 6 (Spring 1968): 16-18.  

Garland, Jack R. An Economic Survey of Southwest Virginia During the Ante-Bellum Period, Historical Society of Washington County, Virginia Bulletin, Series II, No. 24 (1987): 13.  

Hockett, Jack, Abstracts & Summaries of Washington County VA (WCV) Deed Book (DB) 25: Mar 1860-1863, Historical Society of Washington County, Virginia (May 2006): 206. 

Hockett, Jack, Abstracts & Summaries of Washington County VA (WCV) Deed Book (DB) 26: Apr 1863-Dec 1866, Historical Society of Washington County, Virginia (July 2006): 61, 362-363.  

King, Nanci C. Places In Time, Abingdon, Virginia, Vol. I, 1778-1880 (1989): 5-6. 

King, Nanci C. The Bank in The Bank vertical files of the Historical Society of Washington County, VA.  

Kegley, Mary B. and Buchanan Jr., William T. The Saltville Entrepreneurs and Their Endless Litigation, (2014): 71-74.  

This dwelling was originally two separate dwellings. The western half was built in 1790 for Morris Morrison, and the eastern half was constructed in the following year for Colonel Matthew Willoughby, who served under Colonel William Campbell at the Battle at King’s Mountain.  

By 1798 James Longley had acquired both houses and combined them into a single dwelling by the time he sold the property in 1817. Subsequent owners included Lilburn L. Henderson, Augustus Oury, and Judge Benjamin Estill, for whom the town of Estillville was named in 1817 which later became Gate City.  

Abingdon native James King Gibson (1812-1879) purchased the house in 1844 and added a wing at the rear in 1856. Born in Abingdon in 1812, Gibson served as a deputy sheriff, teller of the Exchange Bank, postmaster from 1837 to 1849, and as a member of Congress from Virginia. His heirs owned this property until 1918 when it was sold to William M. Stiles.  

The Federal style building is a contributing resource in the Abingdon Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 

Bibliography: 

King, Nanci C. Places In Time,” Abingdon, Virginia, Vol. I, 1778-1880 (1989): 1.  

“Bioguide Search.” 2025. Congress.gov. 2025. https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/G000162.  

‌Draper, Lyman Copeland. King’s Mountain and Its Heroes : History of the Battle of King’s Mountain, October 7th, 1780, and the Events Which Led to It. (Cincinnati, 1881): 583.  

Taverns played an important role in the early years of the Town of Abingdon, when large numbers of settlers passed through the area on their way further west. The documented history of the land where The Tavern is located begins in 1778, when John Yancey and Christopher Acklin were issued the first licenses to operate taverns in Washington County. Washington County was established on January 1, 1778. John Yancey's tavern was located on Lots 25 and 26 of the Town of Abingdon. The tavern served both as John Yancey’s business and his residence. In 1779, John Yancey was fined twenty shillings for keeping his sheep in the nearby courthouse. By 1784, John Yancey had moved about 32 miles further west on the Island Road, east of Kingsport, Tennessee, where he established Yancey's Tavern.  

In 1778, John Campbell (1741-1825) married Elizabeth McDonald (1753-1827) and settled in the Town of Abingdon as Court Clerk for the newly established Washington County. Campbell purchased John Yancey's land and converted the tavern into his residence. On February 21, 1786, he formally recorded his purchase of the property. His son, Governor David Campbell wrote when he first saw Abingdon as a boy in 1783: there were only four log buildings, three taverns, and the courthouse. Later in 1785, he goes on to say there were only a few more log buildings, which were residences, a blacksmith shop, a small store, and Billie Bagnall’s tavern. This tavern, described as being constructed of round logs covered with clapboards, was located on the adjacent lot where William Bagnall and his wife lived.  

By the late 1780s, John Campbell had shifted his residence to his Hall’s Bottom property in Washington County, known as “Holly Bottom”. Around 1788, he sold the property to his mother-in-law, Mary McDonald. The building that stands today may have been built at this time and is believed to be the oldest building in the Town of Abingdon still standing. By 1792, when Christopher Acklin closed his own tavern, Mary McDonald was listed among the town’s active tavernkeepers.  

Ownership of the property eventually passed to her children. In 1818, Mary McDonald’s three daughters and their husbands John Greenway, Andrew Russell, and Robert Campbell, all leading men of the Town of Abingdon sold the tavern lot to Abram Trigg, a former member of Congress and father of William King's wife, Mary Trigg.  

Two years later in 1820, the tavern changed hands again when the Dunn family purchased the property. Court records reveal they used it as an inn, and in the years that followed Mr. Dunn gradually acquired nearly all the other inns in town, creating a profitable monopoly. His success, however, began to fade in the 1850s, when the construction of the railroad depot west of Abingdon drew business away from Courthouse Hill.  

In 1858, the property was acquired by the Harris family from North Carolina. The Harris family would remain stewards of The Tavern for more than a century. Thaddeus Harris (1828-1871), a barber, hairdresser and confectioner, operated his business first in the hotel next door and later out of his own home within the tavern. Thaddeus Harris and his wife, Mary Jane (Rencher) Harris (1842-1923), were free people of color who were actively involved in the Freedmen's school in Abingdon during Reconstruction.  

After the death of Thaddeus Harris at the age of 43, Mary Jane (Rencher) Harris and their descendants continued the family’s connection to the property. Among them was their granddaughter, Sophronia M. (Harris) Wilkins (1909-1962), who lived in Abingdon during the early 20th century. Following the death of Sophronia M. (Harris) Wilkins in 1962, the property was finally sold out of the family to Mary Dudley (Payne) Porterfield (1921-2012). 

   During the building’s existence, the building adapted to many roles including housing a bank, bakery, general store, drug store, cabinet shop, barber shop, antique shop, private residence, and the first post office West of the Blue Ridge Mountains.   

 The building with no discernable architectural style is a contributing resource in the Abingdon Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. 

Bibliography: 

King, Nanci C. Places in Time, Vol. 1: Abingdon, Virginia 1778-1880. Privately published;  
printed by Abingdon Printing Services, 1989.  

Summers, L.P. In the Heart of the Holston Country. Historical Society of Washington County, Virginia Bulletin No. 9 (April 1943): 127-132.  

Blevins, Phebe Fullerton. 1968. Historical Houses of Washington County, Virginia. Historical Society of Washington County, Virginia Bulletin, Series II, No. 6 (Spring 1968): 19-20.   

King, Nanci. Early Abingdon Taverns, Inns, Ordinaries and Houses of Entertainment.  
Historical Society of Washington County, Virginia Bulletin, Series II, No. 38 (2001): 11-17.  

   .  

Predating both Washington County and Abingdon,

the cemetery was established as the burial ground for

members of Sinking Spring Presbyterian Church,

organized in 1773. Members of the congregation, led by

Rev. Charles Cummings, built a log church and laid out

the cemetery on 11 acres. Burials over the past 200

years reflect the long history of Washington County. On

the same parcel of land, separated by Russell Road, is

the burial place of the enslaved people owned by these

early Presbyterians, and also of the free people of color.

The log house at the cemetery entrance was built circa

1773 by Reverend Cummings, the most influential

leader of Presbyterianism in 18th Century Southwest

Virginia. It was later relocated to its current site, at the

location of the original Presbyterian Church.