Beverley Historic District

Downtown Staunton's Beverley Historic District covers about 30 acres and eleven square blocks, with roughly 150 buildings. Beverley Street, the city's Main Street, runs east-west through the middle, and the streets still follow the grid laid out in the 1740s by William Beverley and surveyor Thomas Lewis. Little remains of the 18th-century frontier village. The commercial core is instead a well-preserved group of 19th-century buildings, mostly dating from after the Civil War. Brick Italianate buildings of two to four stories give the area its cohesion, while stone, terra cotta and Romanesque, Queen Anne and Neo-Classical designs add variety. Heavy cornices, decorated lintels and stained glass survive, especially on upper floors. An unusual number of the buildings were professionally designed, many by local architect T. J. Collins, who worked in Staunton from 1891 to 1912. Landmarks include the old YMCA, the Masonic Temple, the courthouse and National Valley Bank. The hilly setting gives the downtown a varied skyline.