Clover Hill Tavern

Clover Hill Tavern is a preserved historic commercial building in Appomattox County, Virginia, rather than a contemporary hospitality brand. The tavern stands within Appomattox Court House National Historical Park and forms part of the historic village associated with General Robert E. Lee’s surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant in April 1865. Together with its reconstructed guest house and slave quarters, it is one of the park’s principal surviving structures and an important physical record of nineteenth-century community life in central Virginia. The building originated in the early nineteenth century, when brothers Alexander and Lilburne Patteson established a stagecoach operation connecting the Richmond and Lynchburg area. They acquired a farm at Clover Hill, approximately midway between the two destinations, and developed an existing small building into a tavern and lodging stop. The tavern opened in 1819 on the Richmond–Lynchburg Road. Its location made it a practical resting place for travelers and helped stimulate the growth of a settlement around it. For several decades it reportedly provided the emerging village with its principal restaurant, overnight accommodation, and bar. The tavern’s commercial importance also influenced the development of Appomattox Court House as a civic center. Farmhouses and other buildings appeared around the inn, and the Virginia legislature later selected the settlement as the seat of Appomattox County. A courthouse was constructed across the road in 1846. By the time of the American Civil War, however, the tavern had declined from its earlier prosperity and was described by one Union officer as a poor and uncomfortable establishment. Its most consequential role came after Lee’s surrender to Grant in April 1865. The building and its associated property were then owned by Wilson Hix, whose son Billy Hix served as the village sheriff. On April 10, Union Brigadier General George H. Sharpe, who directed military intelligence and served as an assistant provost marshal, used the tavern as a headquarters. Union personnel established printing operations there to produce parole documents for Confederate soldiers who had surrendered. More than 30,000 paroles were printed, allowing former Confederate soldiers to travel home without being treated as ordinary prisoners of war. Historical research indicates that the presses may have operated in a wooden dining-room wing at the western end of the tavern, a section that no longer survives. The main tavern is a two-story brick building with a full attic, local materials, Flemish-bond masonry, a full-length porch, exterior chimneys, and surviving interior decorative evidence. The associated guest house contained additional sleeping rooms and kitchen functions. The slave quarters, reconstructed from the original type and period, provide evidence of the enslaved labor system that supported the property and the wider agricultural community. Their inclusion in the preserved site is significant because the tavern’s history encompasses both public hospitality and the lives of people held in slavery. The National Park Service restored the principal structures during the 1950s and subsequently rehabilitated the guest house in the 1990s. The tavern, guest house, and slave quarters were documented and entered in the National Register of Historic Places and the National Park Service’s official structures database on October 15, 1966. Today the site is interpreted as part of the national historical park’s broader account of the Appomattox village, the final stages of the Civil War in Virginia, emancipation, military surrender procedures, and nineteenth-century rural commercial architecture.

Clover Hill Tavern began as a transportation and hospitality enterprise connected with the stagecoach route between Richmond and Lynchburg. Alexander and Lilburne Patteson established the route in the early nineteenth century after acquiring a farm at Clover Hill. The property occupied a strategically useful position between the two Virginia communities, and a small building initially used as an operational headquarters was expanded into a tavern and inn. The tavern opened in 1819 and became the earliest major building in what developed into the village of Appomattox Court House. The tavern’s services helped create a local settlement. Travelers could eat, drink, and stay overnight, while nearby farm families and businesses formed around the road stop. Its role as the community’s main public accommodation contributed to the settlement’s importance and to the later decision to establish the county seat there. The courthouse, built across the road in 1846, formalized the village’s civic role. The tavern’s associated buildings included a guest house that accommodated additional visitors and supported kitchen operations, as well as quarters for enslaved people whose labor was part of the property’s antebellum operation. By 1865, the establishment was no longer at the height of its commercial prosperity. Nevertheless, its location in the village made it important during the surrender events at Appomattox. The property was owned by Wilson Hix, and his son Billy Hix was the local sheriff. Following Lee’s surrender to Grant, Union authorities used the tavern as one of their operational sites. Brigadier General George H. Sharpe established a headquarters there on April 10, 1865, and Union soldiers installed printing presses for the production of parole documents. The paroles were issued to Confederate soldiers who had surrendered. They served as official authorization for the men to return to their homes without interference, subject to the terms of surrender. More than 30,000 documents were produced at the tavern. Although the exact room used for printing has been the subject of historical investigation, National Park Service research has associated the operation with a wooden dining-room wing formerly attached to the western end of the main building. That wing is no longer extant. The surviving tavern is a two-story brick structure built with local materials in Flemish bond. It is approximately 39 feet wide and 23 feet deep, with four bays on each floor, a full attic, a full-length porch, wood-shingle roofing, and exterior brick chimneys at the gable ends. Decorative evidence, including wall stenciling, painted plaster, and grained interior trim, provides clues about the building’s nineteenth-century appearance. The guest house, located northwest of the tavern, was reconstructed and renovated in the 1950s and rehabilitated in 1997. It contains former kitchen and lodging spaces, fireplaces, an attic, and an exterior stair arrangement. The one-story slave-quarters cabin, originally dating to the same period, was reconstructed in 1954. The National Park Service restored the principal tavern during the 1950s as part of the preservation of Appomattox Court House. The tavern, guest house, and slave quarters were recorded as historic resources on October 15, 1966. They are now preserved within Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. Their significance extends beyond the surrender narrative: the buildings illustrate rural commercial architecture, the formation of a Virginia county-seat village, the operation of antebellum hospitality businesses, the realities of slavery, and the logistical work required to process the surrender of a large army.

• 1997

  Guest house rehabilitated

  [1]Clover Hill Tavernen.wikipedia.org

  The reconstructed guest house underwent later rehabilitation as part of the continuing preservation of the site.

• 1966

  Historic resources formally documented

  [1]Clover Hill Tavernen.wikipedia.org

  The tavern, guest house, and slave quarters were registered in the National Park Service’s official structures records on October 15.

• 1954

  Historic structures restored or reconstructed

  [1]Clover Hill Tavernen.wikipedia.org

  The National Park Service restored the main tavern and reconstructed associated elements, including the guest house and slave quarters.

• 1865

  Tavern used during the Appomattox surrender

  [1]Clover Hill Tavernen.wikipedia.org

  After Lee’s surrender to Grant, Union forces used the tavern as a headquarters and printed more than 30,000 parole documents for Confederate soldiers.

• 1846

  Appomattox County courthouse built

  [1]Clover Hill Tavernen.wikipedia.org

  A courthouse was constructed across from the tavern, reinforcing the settlement’s role as the county seat and civic center.

• 1819

  Clover Hill Tavern opens

  [1]Clover Hill Tavernen.wikipedia.org

  The tavern opened on the Richmond–Lynchburg Road and became a stagecoach stop, inn, restaurant, and bar for travelers.

• 1809

  Patteson stagecoach route established

  [1]Clover Hill Tavernen.wikipedia.org

  Alexander and Lilburne Patteson established a stagecoach operation linking the Richmond and Lynchburg area, creating the transportation context for the later tavern.

A preserved historic site and interpretive resource representing nineteenth-century stagecoach travel, rural Virginia commerce, slavery, and the administrative aftermath of the Appomattox surrender.

1. 1Clover Hill Tavernen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Appomattox Court House National Historical Parknps.gov