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.  

The Tavern, the oldest of Abingdon’s historic buildings and one of the oldest buildings west of the Blue Ridge, was built in 1779 and was used as a tavern and overnight inn for stagecoach travelers. It is located on the “Great Wagon Road” (now Main Street and U.S. Route 11). This road was the primary transportation and migration route for early settlers traveling to the West.

From its beginning the Tavern had such guests as Henry Clay, Louis-Philippe, the King of France, and Pierre Charles L’Enfant, the designer of Washington, D. C.

It is said that Daniel Boone and his dogs, while traveling through this area around 1760, were attacked by wolves at the base of the hill where the Tavern is now located. The wolves were making their home in a nearby cave, the entrance to which is on Plumb Alley across the street from The Tavern. Hence Daniel Boone called this area Wolf Hills. The wolf has become an iconic symbol for Abingdon and “Wolf Hills” is now used in the trade name of many businesses and enterprises in Abingdon.

It is thought that John Yancey was the first keeper of the Tavern, since according to the court records he obtained a license to keep “ordinaries” in the Town of Abingdon in April of 1779. Yancy, a colorful character in his day, was fined 20 shillings and costs by the same court a month later for enclosing his sheep in the courthouse which was at that time located directly across the road from the Tavern. Yancy apparently redeemed himself with the Court since the following summer in 1780 the Court named him a Deputy Sheriff for Washington County.

Abingdon’s first post office was located in the Tavern. The original mail slot is still in place on the northeast side of the building and can be seen from the street.

During the Civil War the Tavern was used as a field hospital for wounded Confederate and Union soldiers. On the third floor of

the building the original charcoaled numbers are still on the plastered walls which designated the soldiers’ beds.

During the past two centuries the Tavern has served as a tavern, bank, bakery, general store, cabinet shop, barber shop, private residence, post office and antique shop.

From 1858 until 1965 the Tavern was owned by Thaddeus and Mary Jane Harris and their descendants. The Harris family took great pride in the fact that the Tavern stayed in the ownership of one family for more than 100 years. This fact greatly contributed to the Tavern being able to continue for two centuries with its original structure.

In 1965 the Tavern was acquired from the Harris family by Mary Dudley Porterfield, the wife of Robert Porterfield, the founder of the Barter Theater.

After nearly 200 years, time had taken its toll on the building, and it had fallen into disrepair.

In 1977 Abingdon attorney Emmitt F. Yeary began much needed restoration of the building and preservation of the site. The skills and talents of local archaeologists, carpenters, blacksmiths, tinsmiths, stonemasons and other artisans were called upon in restoring the building with materials and construction methods appropriate to the American colonial period. Included in the Tavern are two-foot-thick brick and stone walls, plaster over wood lath, log beams, hand forged locks, bolts and hinges, wood shingles, hand-hewn timbers, hand-planed poplar lumber, hand cut stone and hand-made bricks.

The Tavern is one of Abingdon’s most treasured historic landmarks and a lasting symbol of the Town’s rich heritage.

Today, The Tavern restaurant is operated by Josh and Celia Fuller. Josh and Celia hope your time in Abingdon will be pleasant and that you will come again, and often.

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.