Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 12/01/2004
NRHP Listing Date 01/20/2005
NRHP Reference Number 04001535
Located at the junction of U.S. Route 17 and Virginia Route 55 in the Crooked Run Valley Rural Historic District, Yew Hill covers 98 acres and features a complex of late 18th-century buildings—a tavern, meat house, dairy, and a barn. The tavern was housed in a one-and-one-half-story, three-bay, frame dwelling, which Robert Ashby had built between 1760 and 1761, the year he received an ordinary license, thus making it the earliest dated house in Fauquier County. Set on a stone foundation, the dwelling had a porch extension added ca. 1808 by later owner Edward Shacklett, when it was referred to as Shacklett’s Tavern; other modifications occurred circa 1840, 1870, and 1920. The tavern dwelling, situated atop a high hill, faced east toward the Shenandoah-Winchester Road (now U.S. Route 17), a major thoroughfare beginning in the 18th century. Near the former tavern is a one-story, one-bay dairy of masonry and rubble stone that abuts a square meat house, also a one-story, one-bay construction of rubble stone. The dairy and meat house would have been vital adjuncts to a thriving tavern house. Yew Hill’s barn reveals that it was originally a one-story-and-loft, three-bay, timber frame, side-gable building, erected on a stone foundation, circa 1798-99, for threshing and multi-purpose use. Later modifications in 1858 and 1900 expanded the barn. Well-crafted and in surprisingly good condition, it is the earliest dated barn in Fauquier County to have remarkably survived the Civil War without damage. Also, at Yew Hill are the ruins of a stone springhouse built circa 1800, located downhill from the tavern, dairy, and meat house.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Updated: April 13, 2021
