Stanardsville, VA

Stanardsville is Greene County’s seat, a Virginia courthouse town that grew at the foot of the Blue Ridge. William Stanard laid out the first lots in 1794, and when Greene County split from Orange County in 1838, Stanardsville became the seat. In the nineteenth century it was the last stop before travelers crossed the mountains at Swift Run Gap, so hotels, taverns, shops, and the courthouse all gathered along the same routes. The 1839 courthouse, Lafayette Inn, Gibbons Store, and other buildings now sit inside the Stanardsville Historic District, designated in 2004. The county library, schools, and historical society museum keep the civic side moving. Stanardsville is still a gateway town, just with fewer stagecoaches and more Blue Ridge back roads.