{"nrhp_refnum":"88002179","name":"Tankersley Tavern","other_names":["Old Bridge"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"VA 631","address_restricted":false,"city":"Lexington","county":"Rockbridge County","state":"VA","lat":37.79379823600004,"lon":-79.42833908799997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1988-11-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Transportation"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A frame toll house built ca. 1835 and later enlarged, on State Route 631 near Lexington in Rockbridge County, Virginia, on a steep hillside above the north bank of the Maury River. It was built by the family of Colonel John Jordan and later served as a tavern.","why_significant":"The nomination presents it as a rare surviving building tied to regional transportation from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century. It began as a toll house at the bridge into Lexington from the Valley Turnpike. It later became a tavern, canal ticket office, general store, post office and dwelling.","narrative":"Tankersley Tavern is a nine-bay, single-pile frame building with an exposed basement and a two-level gallery on its south facade, set into a steep hillside along the Maury River near Lexington. Its oldest section dates to about 1835, when the family of Colonel John Jordan built it as a toll house at the north end of a bridge connecting the Valley Turnpike with Lexington. The toll keeper lived upstairs. By the 1870s the east room below served as a tavern and the west room as a ticket office for canal boats. The Tankersley family bought it in 1886 and gave it its name. After the county voted dry in 1900, the bar was left untouched for about four decades, while the building continued as a general store, post office and community gathering place. The site also includes a washhouse or kitchen, three sheds and the stone abutment of the former covered bridge, plus one non-contributing 1978 building.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899, 1900- (specific date ca. 1835)","architect_builder":"John Jordan and Samuel F. Jordan","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied as a private residence; described as in good condition and altered.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:00.932972-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/48/6834/41683448/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/88002179.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/88002179/0d25e5826e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/88002179/0d25e5826e-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tankersley_Tavern_from_west.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tankersley_Tavern_from_west.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41683448","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tankersley_Tavern","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16901213"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/rockbridge-county/tankersley-tavern-88002179/"}