Extra-Ordinary History

For centuries the Heritage Area has played host to travelers. Some came through on business, or on their way to settle elsewhere, using the Ashby’s Gap Turnpike and Carolina Road. Farmers drove wagons of produce and herds of livestock to markets across northern Virginia. Coffles of enslaved people were forcibly moved along to auction houses in Alexandria and elsewhere. Soldiers from the French and Indian War to the Civil War have marched to battle along the roads. Today’s tourists have the advantage of speed and comfort as they visit wineries, parks, historic sites, and other attractions. They also have the advantage in accommodations over our fore-bearers, and the area offers a wide variety of places to stay, from luxury resorts to historic B&B’s. For most travelers in the 18th and early 19th century, however, travel accommodations often meant staying at an Ordinary.

The term “ordinary” refers to a specific type of lodging in the historic period. Initially, ordinaries were locations that offered food, drink, and lodging at “ordinary” or set prices. These prices were set by colonial governments, who also promoted the licensing of ordinaries at set intervals. Unlike inns and taverns in larger towns and cities, ordinaries typically offered the barest minimum of services, with basic food and shared sleeping spaces. In some respects, they were similar to modern hostels. Gradually the term came to apply to any sort of inn, and in Virginia the two terms were used interchangeably by the time of the Revolution. Looking at maps of the Heritage Area from the eighteenth century, you’ll quickly notice that the landscape is dotted by a number of Ordinaries.

Ordinaries were located along major travel routes, and were often spaced an easy day’s journey apart, giving travelers a chance to rest themselves and their horses at regular intervals. Two such ordinaries were Nevill’s Ordinary and Watt’s Ordinary. Both were located along the road from Fredericksburg to Winchester – today’s Route 17. George Nevill (or Neavill) established a plot of land along Cedar Run in the 1730s, near today’s village of Auburn. His home was lodging visitors at least as early as 1748, because a young George Washington stayed there with George Fairfax during a journey to the Shenandoah Valley.

Fryday March 11th. 1747/8. Began my Journey in Company with George Fairfax Esqr.; we travell’d this day 40 Miles to Mr. George Neavels in Prince William County.

George Washington, The Diaries of George Washington, vol. 1, 11 March 1748 – 13 November 1765

When Fauquier County was established in 1759, records show that Nevill applied for a license to operate an ordinary at his home, and his license was renewed in 1761 and 1770. Sited as it was at the intersection of the Carolina and Dumfries Roads, it was an ideal location. The ordinary continued to operate after Neavill’s death in 1774, and travelers continued to mention it into the 1780s.

Watts’s Ordinary was located approximately 12 miles north of Nevill’s, in the vicinity of modern Delaplane. Thomas Watts received an ordinary license in 1753, and was in operation by the time of the French and Indian War. A 1755 order from George Washington to his Virginia provincials listed Watts’s Ordinary as one of the stopovers for soldiers marching to Fort Cumberland. Washington’s letter decreed the following:

Fredericksburg, 6 October 1755

Orders to the Ordinary-Keepers, on Captain Woodwards Route to Fort Cumberland.

You are hereby Ordered and strictly Required, to make proper provisions of Meat, Bread, &c. for Sixty men one day: they will be at your House on the [ ] Day of October, on their March to Fort Cumberland: and I will see you paid a reasonable allowance.

George Washington, The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, vol. 2, 14 August 1755 – 15 April 1756

In the late 1750s, it appears that the property passed to Robert Ashby, who continued to operate an ordinary at the site. In 1760, Robert constructed a new home on the land, called Yew Hill, which still stands today. Washington was a frequent visitor throughout the 1760s, as were numerous others heading between the tidewater and the Shenandoah Valley. Yew Hill continued to be a tavern and lodging house well into the 19th century as Shacklett’s Tavern. Civil War artist and correspondent David H. Strother remarked on what he called “Miss Kitty Shacklett’s Quaint Old Fashioned Cottage,” and JEB Stuart and John Mosby rendezvoused there. Visitors continued to stay there until the 1880s.

Washington was also a frequent guest of West’s Ordinary, just outside of Aldie. Like other ordinaries, it was located on a major thoroughfare – in this case the road between Belle Haven (Alexandria) and Winchester.

Tuesday [April] 12th [1748]. We set of from Capt. Hites in order to go over Wms. Gap about 20 Miles and after Riding about 20 Miles we had 20 to go for we had lost ourselves & got up as High as Ashbys Bent. We did get over Wms. Gap that Night and as low as Wm. Wests in Fairfax County 18 Miles from the Top of the Ridge. This day see a Rattled Snake the first we had seen in all our Journey.

George Washington, The Diaries of George Washington, vol. 1, 11 March 1748 – 13 November 1765

The ordinary was established by William West, but by the 1760’s had passed to Charles West. Charles would go on to become a close friend of the future president, and would serve as an officer in the 3rd Virginia Regiment in the Revolutionary War.

Washington didn’t hold quite so high of an opinion of Maidstone, or Floweree’s, Ordinary, located in modern Rectortown. As a young man he had stopped there on occasion, but in the 1790’s he chided his brother-in-law who was looking to buy property in the neighborhood. He wrote bluntly, “Let me ask you what your views were in purchasing a lott in a place which, I presume, originated with and will end in two or three gin shops which probably will exist no longer than they serve to ruin the proprietors?”

Ordinaries not only served as places for weary travelers to rest. They also served as community centers, where locals and strangers alike congregated. In an age before cable news, daily papers, and twitter, the ordinary was a place to exchange news and rumors. Local legend claims that the citizens of Leesburg may have first heard the news of Lexington and Concord at McCabe’s Ordinary. This is probably untrue, as the building likely dates to the 1780s, not the 1760s as originally thought. Citizens did gather there, however, in 1825 to greet the Marquis de Lafayette on his triumphant return tour of America. Graffiti still exists inside on the walls that is attributed to that momentous occasion.

It’s obvious that much of what we know about local ordinaries comes from the letters and papers of people like George Washington, but they were far from the typical crowd at these establishments. As the name suggests, these were places where ordinary travelers would stay as they went about their business. They hearken back to a time when the northern Virginia Piedmont was a busy crossroads where people, goods, and ideas moved through the region. They also represent the beginnings of the hospitality industry that is nearly three centuries strong. We welcome modern visitors (and locals too!) to come and explore our area’s rich heritage!