Craigsville, VA

Craigsville begins with a farm: William and Jeanette Craig received a 1721 land grant, and the area stayed agricultural until the 1850s. Then the Central Virginia Railroad bought right-of-way through the Craig land in 1853, turning the settlement into a rail stop and giving the town a reason to grow beyond the farm. Craigsville incorporated in 1960, but the older road from farm to railroad is still the easiest way to understand its shape. The town’s streets still carry the names and distances of a place once organized around a stop on the line.

The town’s physical past is legible in Craigsville School, a 1917 building listed on the National Register. A fully equipped high school arrived in 1932; later, the old high-school building became an elementary school and was eventually converted to apartments. Lehigh Portland Cement and Stillwater Worsted Mill both closed in 1968, leaving Craigsville with an industrial layer alongside its current water, sewer, street-light, and community services.