Town of Halifax Historic District

Halifax's historic district covers sixteen blocks of the county seat, centred on a courthouse square and a commercial row on King Street. The town was laid out in 1757 on land sold by James Leslie, and it became a centre of river trade and Revolutionary-era politics. Its buildings span from the c. 1783 William R. Davie House to the 1961 Post Office. Among them are the Royal White Hart Masonic Lodge, built in the early 1820s, and St. Mark's Episcopal Church, a board-and-batten Carpenter Gothic building of about 1855. The 1909 courthouse anchors the district, and its commercial blocks were rebuilt in brick in the early 1900s. The district is regarded as a well-preserved example of a small Albemarle Sound town, with buildings in Federal, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate and Neoclassical styles.