{"nrhp_refnum":"74002131","name":"Boykin's Tavern","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"W of U.S. 258","address_restricted":false,"city":"Isle of Wight","county":"Isle of Wight County","state":"VA","lat":36.90771372700004,"lon":-76.70919545499999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1974-06-19","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Boykin's Tavern is a late eighteenth-century frame and brick building with later wings, built by Colonel Francis Boykin near the Isle of Wight County courthouse in Isle of Wight, Virginia.","why_significant":"It is the only surviving structure associated with the original Isle of Wight Court House of 1800. The nomination also values its fine period interior woodwork, which shows the shift from Colonial to Federal styles, and its link to Francis Boykin, a Revolutionary War officer and county official.","narrative":"Boykin's Tavern is a two-story frame building with brick ends, built in the late eighteenth century by Colonel Francis Boykin on land he bought in 1780. It may have begun as a story-and-a-half house. It was raised to two stories and given a gambrel-roofed rear wing in the early nineteenth century, and repairs and additions between 1900 and 1902 added the present porch and a second wing. The brickwork and chimneys follow eighteenth-century practice, with unusual weatherings at the roof line. Inside, the northwest room has paneled walls, fluted pilasters and Wall-of-Troy cornice moulding, and folding multi-panel doors between rooms are rare for a public house of the period in Virginia. Boykin deeded land to the Commonwealth in 1800 for a new county courthouse, settling a long search for a central county seat. The tavern is the only surviving structure from that original courthouse complex. An early dairy stands to the northwest.","period_of_significance":"18th and 19th centuries","architect_builder":"Colonel Francis Boykin","architectural_style":"Transitional Colonial to Federal","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as in good condition, altered, on its original site, and described as vacant with preservation work in progress; owned by Isle of Wight County.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:57.752001-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/46/6813/41681346/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/74002131.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74002131/a607e7acee-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74002131/a607e7acee-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Joel Bradshaw","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IsleofWight-Boykins-Tavern-obl.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Joel Bradshaw</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IsleofWight-Boykins-Tavern-obl.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"100004263","name":"Isle of Wight County Courthouse Complex","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/virginia/isle-of-wight-county-courthouse-complex-100004263/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41681346","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boykin%27s_Tavern","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14712064"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/isle-of-wight-county/boykins-tavern-74002131/"}