The new Greenlee Tavern at Mountain Run Winery provides a friendly, warm stopping place for travelers along Virginia’s Blue Ridge and for our local Culpeper friends and residents. 250 years ago, a Greenlee Tavern along the James River in Rockbridge County offered bare accommodations and perhaps a strong beverage to the pioneering inhabitants of the southern Shenandoah Valley.

The tavern keepers of both these establishments are directly related, and their stories and those of the generations between them paint a picture of Virginia’s role in the settlement of the American West. The story involves farmers, soldiers, explorers, a witch, a preacher, a governor, a general, a president, and a journey of over 1200 miles traveled on foot, horseback and wagon spanning five pioneering generations.

This presentation at Mountain Run Winery by descendant John Foster will discuss the stories and legends surrounding the early family, fortune and misfortune on the frontier, routes of immigration, architectural landmarks, the American Revolution, early religion, colonization and more.