THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 29, 1996 TAG: 9605250166
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 05 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA McNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ISLE OF WIGHT LENGTH: 58 lines
For nearly 100 years, Boykin's Tavern was the center of social life in the county, a haven for travelers, where judges and lawyers debated legal issues.
Then, Boykin's Tavern was a family home, a place to gather for holidays, to raise children.
But now, Boykin's Tavern, one of just a handful of buildings of its kind left in the state, is fast crumbling into ruin.
The 10-room tavern adjacent to the courthouse complex, for the second year, has been turned down for a federal grant geared toward improving the appeal of major transportation routes throughout the country. Boykin's Tavern qualifies because it stands alongside a major Virginia thoroughfare, U.S. 258.
County officials had hoped that the tavern would qualify this year for money under the Federal Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act. The tavern made it into the top one-third of the projects in the district tapped for funding but came just short of qualifying, Isle of Wight's director of economic development Lynn Harris said.
``The official announcement won't come until early June,'' Harris said. ``They had a total of $40 million in requests, a $6 million budget to work with.''
That amounts to no help for the tavern, a building that already has its chimneys chained to keep them from toppling over. It's suffering from dry rot and neglect, yet it has been called one of the most historically significant buildings in the state and was designated in 1974 a state and national Historic Landmark.
State officials believe it may be one of fewer than 10 such structures remaining in Virginia today, although, in earlier times, a tavern like it stood on nearly every courthouse green. Boykin's Tavern is said to be one of the earliest and largest left.
The tavern was an inn from the late 1700s until the late 1800s. The original two-room house was built in 1698 by Thomas Joyner Sr. In 1780, it was bought by Francis Boykin, a Revolutionary War soldier who served under Patrick Henry and spent a winter at Valley Forge with George Washington.
Boykin was appointed county sheriff after the war. He bought the house, added eight rooms and used it as his residence and as an inn and tavern. It was a place where travelers stopped overnight on their way to Suffolk or North Carolina.
When the county bought it in 1974, few members of the Board of Supervisors knew what a historical jewel they had acquired. When the board considered razing the house, however, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources wrote a letter to the county saying the destruction of Boykin's Tavern would be ``a loss not only to the historical legacy of Isle of Wight but to the commonwealth as a whole.''
Considering the tavern's condition, Harris said, that loss could come at any time. The building is on the verge of being condemned by the county's department of inspections. County employees fear parking their cars nearby because the house is so unstable.
Harris said a complete renovation of the house would cost $480,000. ILLUSTRATION: 1991 FILE PHOTO
The original two-room house was built in 1698 by Thomas Joyner Sr. by CNB