West Point Historic District

West Point sits at the tip of a peninsula where the Pamunkey and Mattaponi rivers converge, and its historic district preserves the look of a small southern river town. Laid out on a grid of half-acre lots, it contains mostly houses, along with churches, banks, government buildings and a row of brick commercial buildings on Main Street. No buildings predate the mid-19th century, because fires during the Civil War and in 1903 destroyed much of the early town. The surviving architecture shows the town's growth as a port, railroad terminus and resort destination, then its later expansion after a pulp mill opened in the 1920s. Styles include Victorian Italianate, Queen Anne, Gothic Revival, Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival and Craftsman, plus two Sears mail-order houses. Notable buildings include St. John's Episcopal Church of 1882, the 1931 post office and the 1923 Citizens and Exchange Bank. Few buildings have been added since the 1940s, and tree-lined streets and long rows of porches remain.