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(Virginia Department of Historic Resources)
Standing a scant twenty feet from VA 40 is one of the most idiosyncratic taverns in Virginia. The recessed porch, which may be a twentieth-century addition, is so deep that it makes the steep gabled roof appear startlingly large. This two-and-a-half-story frame building's original chimney of ferrous-stained rock provided only a single first-floor fireplace, so its square stack as it passes the unheated upper story and attic is straight and exaggerated in height. Both inside and within the porch, there are beaded joists and sheathed walls. The original wall sheathing and exposed framing of the interior have never been painted. The first floor is two rooms deep, above is a full-height second floor, and an attic reached from the knee-wall space above the front porch. A rear ell was added in the early twentieth century. The tavern is named for Daniel DeJarnette, who is reputed to have won it in an early-nineteenth-century arm wrestling match. It has been used as a tavern, stagecoach stop, and mustering place for Civil War soldiers. In 1802, the tavern was the site of an aborted slave rebellion. Historians at Colonial Williamsburg consider that the building is the most unaltered eighteenth-century tavern in Virginia.