Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 03/19/2003
NRHP Listing Date 06/23/2003
NRHP Reference Number 03000566
Middletown Historic District encompasses most of the town of Middletown, located in southwestern Frederick County in the lower Shenandoah Valley. Established by an act of the Virginia General Assembly in 1794 at the request of Dr. Peter Senseny, who laid out the original 60-acre plan of half-acre lots, the community developed along the Great Wagon Road, later known as the Valley Pike (today’s U.S. Route 11). Frederick County’s third oldest town, Middletown represents a typical planned community of the late-18th-century, with a main thoroughfare flanked by parallel streets and intersected by shorter cross streets. The Valley Pike was important to the town’s economic development as evidenced by one of Middletown’s most noted landmarks, the Wayside Inn, originally a tavern dating to the 1790s. Middletown is also significant for its variety of architectural styles and forms from the 1790s to the 1950s and ranging from late-18th-century vernacular log dwellings to mid-20th-century Colonial Revival buildings. The town also boasts an excellent example of the Gothic Revival in St. Thomas Chapel, built in 1836 and individually listed in the Virginia Landmarks Register and National Register of Historic Places.
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: November 4, 2021
