{"nrhp_refnum":"92001389","name":"Rice's Hotel","other_names":["Hughlett's Tavern","Shirley Hotel","VDHR File No. 66-9","See Also:"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Jct. of Co. Rts. 1001 and 1002","address_restricted":false,"city":"Heathsville","county":"Northumberland County","state":"VA","lat":37.916916162000064,"lon":-76.47303576999997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1992-10-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Historic - Non-Aboriginal"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Rice's Hotel, also called Hughlett's Tavern, is a large two-story frame tavern and hotel next to the Northumberland County courthouse in Heathsville, Virginia. It was built in four campaigns, beginning in the late eighteenth century and ending in the 1920s.","why_significant":"The nomination presents it as a rare, well-preserved example of a Virginia courthouse tavern, with a surviving eighteenth-century core and later additions that show changing travelers' needs for privacy and entertainment. It is described as perhaps the largest traditional tavern in any Virginia town east of Fredericksburg and north of Gloucester Court House. Its early framing also shows hand-craft building methods no longer used.","narrative":"Rice's Hotel, also known as Hughlett's Tavern, is a two-story frame building about 110 feet long beside the Northumberland County courthouse in Heathsville. It grew in four stages. The original late-eighteenth-century section, measuring 32 by 16 feet, retains pit-sawn oak framing. In the 1830s the tavern was tripled in size and given a two-story front piazza, a ballroom, double parlors and a row of small upstairs rooms reached by a long passage. The Rice family bought it in 1866 and ran it as a hotel for more than sixty years, adding a north wing around 1880-81 and a private family wing in the 1920s. The nomination argues that the building is a typical courthouse tavern whose plan reflects growing concern for traveler privacy and the need for entertaining space. Ruined early-nineteenth-century outbuildings, a smokehouse and a kitchen, stand behind it. The property is currently vacant.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Early Republic: Federal; Mid-19th Century: Greek Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as vacant/not in use as its current function; the outbuildings behind it are ruins.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:59.694352-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/94/6822/41682294/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/92001389.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92001389/f9bf94d8f7-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92001389/f9bf94d8f7-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"AlbertHerring","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rices_Hotel_-_Hughletts_Tavern,_Heathsville,_VA.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">AlbertHerring</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rices_Hotel_-_Hughletts_Tavern,_Heathsville,_VA.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41682294","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice%27s_Hotel","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14713126"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/northumberland-county/rices-hotel-92001389/"}