Harrisonburg, VA

Harrisonburg combines the functions of a Virginia independent city and the county seat of surrounding Rockingham County, although they are separate jurisdictions. The 2020 census recorded 51,814 residents. James Madison University and Eastern Mennonite University both occupy campuses in the city. The settlement traces to Thomas Harrison, who arrived in 1737 and claimed land at the junction of the Spotswood Trail and a major Native American road through the Shenandoah Valley. Downtown became a National Register historic district in 2004, and adjacent Old Town followed in 2007. The Hardesty-Higgins House, begun in 1848, later served as an inn and housed Virginia Craftsman furniture makers from the 1920s to the 1980s.