Walkerton Tavern

Richmond Times-Dispatch Archives

Published: July 22, 2008

Check our photos of Walkerton Tavern.
Check our photos of Walkerton Tavern from the T-D photo staff.

Walkerton Tavern, 2892 Mountain Road in Glen Allen, just east of the intersection with Old Washington Highway in Henrico County. It is the largest brick 19-century tavern still standing in Henrico. The home is notable for a hinged, swinging, two-segment partition that was used to enlarge an upstairs room to accomodate guests. Site has gardens and a gazebo and is available for events and is located next to the Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen.

Info: 261-6898 co.henrico.va.us/rec/

HISTORY
The warm pine floors are worn from town gatherings, intimate family celebrations, locals drinking, voting and retrieving messages from afar.

Henrico County residents danced across the knotty planks, decades after Union soldiers may have placed their wounded there. Henrico's newest generations can now saunter across the pine planks of Walkerton Tavern. A decade after Henrico County purchased the Mountain Road landmark, it was restored and updated to accommodate new visitors in 2005.?

"That well-known brick tavern on the road from Richmond to Louisa courthouse" as it was described on the auction block in 1827, was built in 1825 for John Walker, but he died a year later. The property was sold at auction, to the auctioneer, who ran it as a tavern in 1828 and 1829, said Kim Sicola, curator for Henrico recreation and parks. The tavern then changed hands until the Hopkins family owned it from 1857 until 1941.

Preservation of the tavern is dear to Laura Hill Bowles Cook, who held her wedding reception on the lawn of Walkerton about 54 years ago. Cook's parents, George and Ruth Bowles, purchased Walkerton in 1941, when Cook was in middle school. She stayed until she was married, and she and her husband, who has since died, lived there as newlyweds for five years before moving.

After her father's death in 1981, the house was too much for her mother to maintain, and she sold it several years later to S. Douglas and Helen S. Fleet for slightly less than the asking price, she said. Fleet extensively restored the house. He sold it and about 2 acres to the county for $200,000. He later donated about 19 adjacent acres.

Henrico officials are pleased to offer the public access to the tavern to make their own memories -- be it holding weddings, meetings or small dinners there. The 7,600 square-foot tavern has 10 rooms, several of which are furnished with period antiques and reproductions. Brick walkways, a gazebo and outbuildings complete the picturesque property. Included in a 2000 county bond referendum was $3.1 million for this project.
[Credit: Times-Dispatch archives, historical markers]