Louisa County Couple To Save Historic Landmark
CBS 19, Charlottesville
May 20, 2008

In an effort to preserve a piece of history, a Louisa County couple adopted a tavern more than 200-years-old. The couple and a team of builders will now relocate and restore the historic landmark.

Hall's tavern, also known as Hackney's Old Stand is one of the oldest buildings in Louisa County, dating back to 1750.

In 2006, a rezoning project in Louisa threatened the future of the tavern, so a couple stepped in offering $20,000 dollars to save the building from demolition.

If walls could talk, they would speak of the many people who walked through the doors of the historic tavern.

"Who knows you know who had dinner there and who watered their horse and u know who had a drink and what they were talking about at the time," project coordinator, Diane Manning said.

The tavern was originally located along three notch road, which connected Charlottesville to Richmond.

"A lot of our founding fathers traveled that route," Manning said.

Builders helping to study the interior will work to restore and maintain the original structure.

"You can't find a piece of wood that's 22 inches wide so that dates back quite a while. It was all done by hand they didn't have the saws and the nail gun," builder, Sean Durkin said.

Project coordinators are surprised to find some of the woodwork and flooring is still intact.

"It's kind of like Christmas. You start opening things and once you look behind things, it's like opening a present; you just don't know what you're going to find," Manning said.

Manning says it's the element of surprise that helps to make the difficult project worth while.

"You can't get history back," Manning said.

The tavern will rest on the Manning's property in Louisa's Green Springs National Historic Landmark District.

The project is expected to take at least a year, when completed the Manning's hope to open the tavern to the public for tours.