Golden Ball Tavern

Golden Ball Tavern is a Virginia historical marker in southeast corner, Petersburg County, dedicated 2002.

Old and Market Streets, southeast corner

Get directions ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

Here stood a dwelling house, constructed about 1764 by prosperous tobacco merchant, Richard Hanson, who, as a fervent Loyalist, fled Virginia in 1776. During the latter part of the Revolution, the structure became known as the Golden Ball Tavern. According to tradition, British officers serving under Cornwallis were quartered here in 1781. When Petersburg was incorporated as a town in 1784, the town council and the courts used the tavern as their first meeting place. The structure was enlarged by 1820 and utilized as a hotel until after the Civil War when it was used for a number of retail ventures. The building was demolished in 1944.

Maps this old were drawn largely by eye, so places on them can sit miles from where they really are. The pin is ours and marks the marker's location today.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1755 · Virginie, Maryland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1778 · Il Maryland, il Jersey Meridionale, la Delaware. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1781 · MARCH of the ARMY under Lieut:t General EARL CORNWALLIS in VIRGINIA, from the JUNCTION at… (Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library)
1794 · Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1807 · Map Of Virginia (lower right sheet) (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Virginie, Maryland, 1755, covering the location of Golden Ball Tavern, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Virginie, Maryland, 1755, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

Example

For example, one family's tree showed the Articles of Confederation marker in Pennsylvania standing under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s.

What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

Upload your family tree and TreeAlive finds the markers near where your own ancestors lived.

See your family's markers

Start with a tree file, a FamilySearch sign in, or a WikiTree ID.

Report a problem with this page

The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyThat would be an error, and we can pass it to the program.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

We may pass what you report to the state's marker program. Please don't include personal details.

Marker program managed by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

More markers nearby

Readjuster Partyunder 1 mi
Lt. Col. Howard Baugh, Tuskegee Airmanunder 1 mi
Early English Explorationunder 1 mi
Corling's Cornerunder 1 mi