Emory, VA

Emory is a Washington County census-designated place of 1,237 people at the 2020 census, named for Bishop John Emory and known for Emory & Henry University. The post office opened in 1847, and the college's first campus buildings rose in 1836, with classes beginning in 1838. The university's historic district is the community's most distinctive landmark: a cluster of old academic buildings and wooded grounds set among the roads of Southwest Virginia's Appalachian highlands.

Emory & Henry's history reaches into the village in several directions. Tobias Smyth's log house, dating to about 1770, is preserved on campus, and the college administration building served as a Confederate hospital during the Civil War after classes were suspended. Women first enrolled in 1899, and the school later merged its administration with Martha Washington College in Abingdon. Today the campus, post office, local roads, and nearby Washington County communities make Emory feel like a college place with a small village wrapped around it, connected to the Tri-Cities region beyond.