Village of Morattico Historic District

Morattico is a small watermen's village on a peninsula along the Rappahannock River in Lancaster County, Virginia. The land was once home to the Moraughtacund people and later part of Morattico Plantation. After the plantation's owner lost his finances, brothers John S. and John H. Whealton bought 480 acres in 1889 and founded the village, first called Whealton. It received a post office in 1892 and took back the name Morattico in 1911. Its earliest surviving buildings date to the 1890s and include two-story wood-frame houses with restrained Victorian detail and a general store, now a museum. Later resources include small offices, concrete block crab houses, a church and mid-century dwellings. The district is listed for its connection to steamship transport, oystering, crabbing and seafood processing between 1890 and 1960, and for plain buildings shaped by the needs of the working waterfront. Newer houses and sheds make up most of the noncontributing resources.