Stewartsville, VA

Stewartsville is a Bedford County census-designated place in southwestern Virginia, strung along State Route 24 between Vinton and Chamblissburg. The 2020 census counted 533 residents. Bedford County Public Schools serve the area through Stewartsville Elementary, Staunton River Middle, and Staunton River High, with Route 24 carrying residents toward the Roanoke side of the county and Bedford for bigger errands. The community is made up mostly of homes, farms, churches, and crossroads roads rather than a separate municipal downtown.

Local schooling goes back to 1850, when Cross Roads School operated in a one-room log building. A two-story school with an auditorium rose on the present site in 1912, and the school expanded as Bedford County consolidated smaller schools during the 1930s and 1940s. Stewartsville became an elementary community after the county opened Staunton River High in 1964, but the school grounds still carry the older regional role. These days the place runs on the school calendar, Route 24, volunteer services, and the steady movement between rural Bedford County and nearby Roanoke.