Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 02/18/1975
NRHP Listing Date 06/04/1979
NRHP Reference Number 79003073
This mile-long linear village is one of the region’s most picturesque and well-preserved 19th-century turnpike towns. Newbern was laid out in 1809 by Adam Hance with twenty-nine lots along the Wilderness Road. Purchasers were required to build a house within two years “at least 16 feet square, 1 1/2 stories high of hewn logs with a stone or brick chimney.” The dominating house types—the two-story rectangular log house and the two-story frame house, both sheathed in weatherboards–conform to these standards. These well-finished log buildings make the district representative not of a frontier settlement but of a second generation village. Newbern became the county seat in 1837. The courthouse burned in 1893, and the county seat was removed to Pulaski, a more promising site on the railroad. Newbern then became and has since been a quiet residential community unmarred by modern development.
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: February 28, 2021
