The building appears much as it must have so very long ago.  Through the years there have been repairs, additions and modifications, but as shown in an 1809 Survey Map, it has always been a two story house.  Huge hand hewn timbers are visible in the basement as the remnants of an early wine cellar.

License to operate what are variously called, "tavern", or "ordinary", "house of entertainment", "public house" and "Inn", were issued to "men of good character, and not addicted to drunkenness or gaming, and that they keep orderly and useful houses of entertainment."  The Assembly regulated charges.  Fixed rates in 1804-1805, were 34 cents for a quart of Good West India Rum and Apple or Peach Toddies.  Dinner with Toddy, Small Beer or Cider, 50 cents.  Wines were 67 cents per quart.  Lodging with clean sheets was 12 cents.

Entertainment, such as Minstrel shows were occasionally offered, and the tavern became a meeting place for the local Masons, "in the tavern of Brother Lewis Dix", before they built their Lodge in the late 1840's.

For over a hundred years the Tavern operated as a public house.  For 13 years until 1894, a woman, Mrs. Sarah George, leased the tavern for $150 per year.  The stipulations in the contract were that the dining room be put in good repair, the barn and attached shed newly covered and stable and front porch thoroughly repaired.  This front porch added at an earlier date, but not original to the house, was finally removed in the late 1930's when the main road was widened. 

Apparently Mrs. George ran a successful establishment.  From a journal kept by Robert Randolph Carter of Shirley Plantation, a descendant of Robert "King" Carter, an entry dated 1886 when he made a trip to the Northern Neck, "Following the road to Lancaster Court House, we arrived at Mrs. George's clean and cozy Inn, where we found shelter from an Easterly storm of rain and wind all night."  (1886)

From 1894 until 1982, the Tavern became a private home.  William and Oscar Chilton, both Clerks of the Court consecutively lived there.  The building was then sold to Jeremiah O'Meara, a dentist, who converted the kitchen to a dental office.

In 1982, Ann Thomas Parsons Carter bought the house and re-established it as a fine restaurant, after subsequent ownerships, continues today.  When the tavern was approved in 1790, the Court deemed it "a public advantage."  We hope you will view it in the same way.