Halifax, VA

Halifax is a town of 1,118 people at the 2020 census, sitting along the Banister River in Southside Virginia. It has been Halifax County's seat since 1777, so the courthouse square, county offices, Main Street businesses, and older residential roads all belong to the same long-running civic story. The town's name is younger than the settlement: it began as Banister, became Houston in 1890, and took the name Halifax in 1920.

The river and Banister Lake frame the town's northern side, while U.S. Route 501 runs through Main Street toward South Boston five miles south and Lynchburg 55 miles north. The Town of Halifax Court House Historic District centers on a Greek Revival courthouse built in 1839 by Dabney Cosby, and the Mountain Road Historic District stretches west from the square through older houses and tree-lined roads. Pleasant Grove and other listed properties add more pieces to the county-seat landscape. Halifax still works as a rural service center, with the courthouse, shops, churches, offices, and Banister waterway all within the same small-town orbit.