A steady supply of waterpower and the surrounding fertile farms of the Quaker settlers within Loudoun County made Taylorstown an ideal site for milling operations. The first mill was established here in the 1730s by Richard Brown, whose stone house, Hunting Hill, survives in the tiny hamlet. The present stone mill was erected by Thomas Taylor ca. 1784. Also in the Taylorstown Historic District is an 18th-century stone cottage known as Foxton, an example of Loudoun County’s oldest vernacular buildings. The other buildings include an early 19th-century store building; a rusticated concrete store of 1904; and two late-Victorian dwellings. Free from modern intrusions save for a new concrete bridge across Catoctin Creek, Taylorstown has been a sleepy crossroads since milling operations ceased in 1958. The mill, one of the few remaining in a county once noted for its many mills, is now a private residence.
In 2005 an updated nomination also expanded the boundaries of the Taylorstown Historic District to the east and the west, adding five properties, including two that date from the late 18th century, and a late 19th-century general store. The social and architectural history of the amended district is analogous to the original district and retains sufficient integrity to warrant the expansion of the Taylorstown Historic District.
[VLR Listed: 3/16/2005; NRHP Listed: 5/26/2005]
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia