Our Clarke
Three descriptions, two sources, one site: where the Battletown Inn stood before 1952 is given once as a street address, once as a landmark, and once as a corner, and the three do not resolve to the same place. The 1987 National Register nomination says the site is "where the present Lighthouse Inn now stands" in its narrative and gives "5 W. Main Street" in its account of the automobile era; a 2015 article says "the Virginia Hotel, on the southeast corner of Main and Church". The same nomination inventories the Virginia House / Lighthouse Restaurant at 9-13 W. Main. The descriptions are kept as the sources give them and are not reconciled.
Where the Battletown Inn stood before its 1952 move to 102 W. Main is given three ways in the corpus: once as a street address (5 W. Main), once as a landmark (where the Lighthouse Inn later stood), and once as a corner (Main and Church). The three do not fully reconcile.
The DHR nomination for the Berryville Historic District places a "former Battletown Inn" at 5 W. Main Street in its account of the automobile era, says the Battletown Inn stood where the Lighthouse Inn then stood on the reputed site of an earlier "Old Tavern", and separately inventories the Virginia House — by 1987 the Lighthouse Restaurant and Berryville Variety Store — at 9-13 W. Main as a late-nineteenth-century hotel. The nomination does not reconcile the address 5 with the address 9-131. Two addresses on the same block, referring to what may or may not be the same building — this is the kind of unresolved locational disagreement worth naming rather than papering over.
A 2015 Clarke Monthly feature offers a third description. It says the Battletown Inn "we have known" began in what was then the Virginia Hotel at the southeast corner of Main and Church streets, and that the name moved to 102 W. Main when the earlier inn's proprietors bought that property in 19521. The corner description is not the same as either "5 W. Main" or "9-13 W. Main", though the corner of Main and Church is very close to both.
Two claims from three descriptions of one earlier site. What the corpus knows: the Battletown Inn moved to 102 W. Main in 1952. What the corpus does not confidently know: which address on West Main was the pre-1952 site, and whether the DHR nomination's "5 W. Main" and its "9-13 W. Main" are talking about the same building. The 1952 deed itself, and the Berryville Sanborn map for the relevant years, would resolve the question.
The same nomination places a "former Battletown Inn" at 5 W. Main Street in its account of the automobile era, says the Battletown Inn stood where the Lighthouse Inn then stood on the reputed site of an earlier "Old Tavern", and separately inventories the Virginia House, by 1987 the Lighthouse Restaurant and Berryville Variety Store, at 9-13 W. Main as a late-nineteenth-century hotel; it does not reconcile 5 with 9-13.
That the nomination itself knows a Battletown Inn other than the Sarah Stribling House, and where it puts that earlier inn; and that the address question is the source's, not this site's.
The Old Tavern and Daniel Morgan story is "reputed" in the source and is treated on this site as a retelling (see the Battletown story). The 5 W. Main versus 9-13 W. Main discrepancy is left unresolved. "Lighthouse" is not an alias of the Sarah Stribling House.
Evidence role: supports. The former Battletown Inn at 5 W. Main.
Virginia Division of Historic Landmarks (nomination preparers not individually named in the pages read) · 1987 (creation)
Locator: PDF page 66, historical narrative on the automobile era
Relevant passageThe former Battletown Inn at 5 W. Main Street attracted vacation travelers from Route 7, which runs through the town, and from Route 50, south of Berryville.
Checked: Page text reviewed. Original image not independently inspected.
Open sourceSource family: dhr-berryville. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
Evidence role: supports. The Lighthouse Inn site and the reputed Old Tavern.
Virginia Division of Historic Landmarks (nomination preparers not individually named in the pages read) · 1987 (creation)
Locator: PDF page 63, historical narrative
Relevant passageWhere the present Lighthouse Inn now stands was the Battletown Inn, reputed to be the site of the earlier "Old Tavern", where Daniel Morgan, a local resident and Revolutionary war hero, was known to participate in brawls and fistfights.
Checked: Page text reviewed. Original image not independently inspected.
Open sourceSource family: dhr-berryville. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
Evidence role: contextualizes. The Virginia House / Lighthouse Restaurant inventory at 9-13 W. Main.
Virginia Division of Historic Landmarks (nomination preparers not individually named in the pages read) · 1987 (creation)
Locator: PDF page 37, W. Main Street inventory, 9-13
Relevant passageVirginia House-historic name. Lighthouse Restaurant/Berryville Variety Store-present name. Restaurant/commercial store-present use. Hotel-original use. Victorian Vernacular. Late 19th Century.
Checked: Page text reviewed. Original image not independently inspected.
Open sourceSource family: dhr-berryville. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
AI-assisted source check (Claude Fable 5.1) · 2026-09-10. How this project checks its sources
A 2015 Clarke Monthly feature says the Battletown Inn "we have known" began in what was then the Virginia Hotel at the southeast corner of Main and Church streets, and that the name moved to 102 W. Main when the earlier inn's proprietors bought that property in 1952.
The reported origin of the later inn at another site and the reported 1952 move of the name to the Sarah Stribling House.
A local retrospective naming no proprietors and citing no deed. Its "southeast corner of Main and Church" is not reconciled here with the nomination's 5 W. Main or 9-13 W. Main.
Evidence role: supports. The Virginia Hotel origin and the 1952 transfer.
Wendy Gooditis, Clarke Monthly · 2015-06-17 (publication)
Locator: Paragraph on the earlier inn and the name transfer
Relevant passageThe Battletown Inn we have known actually started a couple of blocks down in what was then the Virginia Hotel, on the southeast corner of Main and Church streets. ... The name moved over to the current location when it was bought by the erstwhile Battletown Inn proprietors in 1952.
Checked: Page text reviewed. Original image not independently inspected.
Open sourceSource family: clarke-monthly-battletown. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
AI-assisted source check (Claude Fable 5.1) · 2026-09-10. How this project checks its sources
The same nomination places a "former Battletown Inn" at 5 W. Main Street in its account of the automobile era, says the Battletown Inn stood where the Lighthouse Inn then stood on the reputed site of an earlier "Old Tavern", and separately inventories the Virginia House, by 1987 the Lighthouse Restaurant and Berryville Variety Store, at 9-13 W. Main as a late-nineteenth-century hotel; it does not reconcile 5 with 9-13.
The same nomination places a "former Battletown Inn" at 5 W. Main Street in its account of the automobile era, says the Battletown Inn stood where the Lighthouse Inn then stood on the reputed site of an earlier "Old Tavern", and separately inventories the Virginia House, by 1987 the Lighthouse Restaurant and Berryville Variety Store, at 9-13 W. Main as a late-nineteenth-century hotel; it does not reconcile 5 with 9-13.
That the nomination itself knows a Battletown Inn other than the Sarah Stribling House, and where it puts that earlier inn; and that the address question is the source's, not this site's.
The Old Tavern and Daniel Morgan story is "reputed" in the source and is treated on this site as a retelling (see the Battletown story). The 5 W. Main versus 9-13 W. Main discrepancy is left unresolved. "Lighthouse" is not an alias of the Sarah Stribling House.
Evidence role: supports. The former Battletown Inn at 5 W. Main.
Virginia Division of Historic Landmarks (nomination preparers not individually named in the pages read) · 1987 (creation)
Locator: PDF page 66, historical narrative on the automobile era
Relevant passageThe former Battletown Inn at 5 W. Main Street attracted vacation travelers from Route 7, which runs through the town, and from Route 50, south of Berryville.
Checked: Page text reviewed. Original image not independently inspected.
Open sourceSource family: dhr-berryville. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
Evidence role: supports. The Lighthouse Inn site and the reputed Old Tavern.
Virginia Division of Historic Landmarks (nomination preparers not individually named in the pages read) · 1987 (creation)
Locator: PDF page 63, historical narrative
Relevant passageWhere the present Lighthouse Inn now stands was the Battletown Inn, reputed to be the site of the earlier "Old Tavern", where Daniel Morgan, a local resident and Revolutionary war hero, was known to participate in brawls and fistfights.
Checked: Page text reviewed. Original image not independently inspected.
Open sourceSource family: dhr-berryville. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
Evidence role: contextualizes. The Virginia House / Lighthouse Restaurant inventory at 9-13 W. Main.
Virginia Division of Historic Landmarks (nomination preparers not individually named in the pages read) · 1987 (creation)
Locator: PDF page 37, W. Main Street inventory, 9-13
Relevant passageVirginia House-historic name. Lighthouse Restaurant/Berryville Variety Store-present name. Restaurant/commercial store-present use. Hotel-original use. Victorian Vernacular. Late 19th Century.
Checked: Page text reviewed. Original image not independently inspected.
Open sourceSource family: dhr-berryville. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
AI-assisted source check (Claude Fable 5.1) · 2026-09-10. How this project checks its sources
A 2015 Clarke Monthly feature says the Battletown Inn "we have known" began in what was then the Virginia Hotel at the southeast corner of Main and Church streets, and that the name moved to 102 W. Main when the earlier inn's proprietors bought that property in 1952.
A 2015 Clarke Monthly feature says the Battletown Inn "we have known" began in what was then the Virginia Hotel at the southeast corner of Main and Church streets, and that the name moved to 102 W. Main when the earlier inn's proprietors bought that property in 1952.
The reported origin of the later inn at another site and the reported 1952 move of the name to the Sarah Stribling House.
A local retrospective naming no proprietors and citing no deed. Its "southeast corner of Main and Church" is not reconciled here with the nomination's 5 W. Main or 9-13 W. Main.
Evidence role: supports. The Virginia Hotel origin and the 1952 transfer.
Wendy Gooditis, Clarke Monthly · 2015-06-17 (publication)
Locator: Paragraph on the earlier inn and the name transfer
Relevant passageThe Battletown Inn we have known actually started a couple of blocks down in what was then the Virginia Hotel, on the southeast corner of Main and Church streets. ... The name moved over to the current location when it was bought by the erstwhile Battletown Inn proprietors in 1952.
Checked: Page text reviewed. Original image not independently inspected.
Open sourceSource family: clarke-monthly-battletown. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
AI-assisted source check (Claude Fable 5.1) · 2026-09-10. How this project checks its sources
Also indexed as: Virginia Hotel site; Lighthouse Inn site.
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A hospitality name that traveled along West Main Street, and the Federal-period house it settled in for sixty years.
What the evidence says Building documented; name transfer reported; closure reported; earlier site unresolved.