Woodstock Virginia
A tour of historic sites within the Town of Woodstock.
Woodstock is the fourth oldest town in Virginia. Steeped in history, the town was home to the famed Revolutionary Peter Muhlenberg, who came in 1772 to serve as a Lutheran pastor. He is most remembered for his fiery 1776 sermon in which he called his congregation to arms casting away his robes to reveal his uniform for the Continental Army proclaiming there is “a time to pray and a time to fight and now is a time to fight”.
The town features various historic sites from the Revolution, Antebellum period, Civil War, and the early 20th century. The majority of these are located inside the old town boundaries which extend from North to South Street, and from Commerce to Water Streets. Notable among these is the area surrounding Court Square which for decades was the town, and county's, commercial center.
Locations for Tour
Historic Courthouse
In April 1795 county justices ordered construction of a new stone courthouse on this lot. It would be constructed of native valley limestone. Courthouses served as a symbol of law and order. For this reason, county leaders designed the building to be…
Shenandoah County Jail
Constructed in 1906, this building replaced a stone jail that had been built 100 years earlier. That structure featured a jail yard, wooden fence, and small, dark cells that were called the “dungeon.”
This new jail was designed to improve prisoner’s…
Woodstock School
In the summer of 1908 the Woodstock School Trustees completed this new, brick High School to serve as the area’s Graded and High School. Plans for it were started in 1906 and construction began the following year. A private donation of $3,000 from…
Woodstock Fire Department
Founded in 1823 after a disastrous fire, the Woodstock Fire Department is an all-volunteer organization that serves the residents of Woodstock and Shenandoah County.
From approximately 1883 until today the fire department has been located on Court…
Mt. Zion Methodist Church
On July 4, 1867 a "Dr. Brown" visited Woodstock and preached at a “colored” camp meeting. This meeting laid the foundation of what is today Mt. Zion Methodist Church.
The following year members of Woodstock’s African American community had…
Massanutten Military Academy
Massanutten Academy began in September of 1899 when the Virginia Classis of the Reformed Church opened the school in the residence of former US Senator H.H. Riddleberger which had been enlarged to serve as classrooms and the boy’s dormitory.
The…
Wickham House
In 1777 public records show that a house on this lot was willed to Anthony Knicely’s wife upon his death. This is most likely the first reference to the structure that is now known as the Wickham House.
The original portion of this house is on the…
The Woodstock Museum of Shenandoah County
Around 1772 the front portion of this house, made of dressed limestone, was built on Muhlenberg Street in Woodstock. It was one of the few houses in town that was not a log structure. This fact highlights the wealth and privilege associated with the…
Schmitt's Drug Store
In 1834 Dr. John G. Schmitt, a Swiss immigrant, arrived in Woodstock Virginia. Schmitt, who was physician, soon opened a drug store on Main Street. In those days, before modern medical practices, a doctor often served as both your doctor and…
Woodstock Depot
Trains belong to the Manassas Gap Railroad first arrived in Woodstock on August 27, 1856. The following year, a two stall engine house was constructed near this site. This structure would be destroyed during the Civil War.
In 1885 a depot was built…
Woodstock Freight Depot
Despite the attention given to passenger service and its depots, the main railroad business in Woodstock and Shenandoah County was freight. The region exported hundreds of carloads of agricultural products each year while importing heavy machinery,…
Emmanuel Episcopal Church
In November 1769 the Governor, Council, and Burgesses of the Colony of Virginia approved an act that created the Beckford Parish of the Episcopal, then Anglican Church. As defined, Beckford covered what is now Shenandoah County Virginia. Since the…
St. John Bosco Catholic Church
St. John’s Bosco is a product of the influx of Irish immigrants who came to Shenandoah County in the mid to late 19th century to work on the local railroads. Two of these individuals, Michael Geary and Patrick Reiley, organized and built the original…
Woodstock Methodist Church
Methodist Francis Ausbury, one of the first two Methodist Bishops in the United States, visited this area numerous times between 1790 and 1809. At the time, Methodist ministers and pastors from other denominations spent most of their time on…
Emanuel Lutheran Church
The first Lutheran Church in Woodstock predated the arrival of the town’s founder Jacob Mueller. Local German residents had felt the need for a place to practice their Lutheran faith and had therefore constructed a modest wooden structure in the…
Riverview Cemetery
As early as 1906, Woodstock’s African American community was using this land as a burial site. Prior to this, most African Americans had been buried in the town’s slave cemeteries where many of their ancestors rested.
This new site, named Riverview,…
Woodstock Presbtyerian Church
In 1822 the Rev. William H. Foote, a Presbyterian, began preaching in Shenandoah County. He noted that when he arrived there were three members of that denomination in the county, one in Woodstock and two in Strasburg.
That number would grow…
Woodstock Christian Church
Members of the Christian Church, also called the Disciples of Christ, have worshiped in Woodstock since the mid-19th century. Though few records exist, we do know they held their first meetings in the Courthouse alongside the Episcopalians and…
Shenandoah County Memorial Hospital
On September 16, 1951 the Shenandoah County Memorial Hospital was dedicated in Woodstock Virginia. This was the result of a massive fundraising campaign that lasted just over five years.
Prior to the completion of the hospital, individual doctors…
Shenandoah County Fair
In 1886 a group of local businessmen, farmers, and community leaders banded together to form the Shenandoah County Agricultural Society. This organization was designed to promote the area’s agricultural, commercial, and industrial products to locals…
Gatewood Building
This building in downtown Woodstock has been used for many purposes. Though no evidence exists to show when the structure was built, we do know that it was in existence in 1845 when the Gatewood family occupied the house.
At the time John Gatewood…
Shenandoah Business College
In 1928 Mr. F.E. Palmer came to Woodstock from Connecticut to begin teaching business classes at what is now Massanutten Military Academy. After 12 years of teaching Palmer founded his own Business School in Woodstock. Over time it would grow to…
JR Miller Tailor Shop
Sometime in the late 19th century Joseph Russell Miller opened a tailor shop on Main Street in Woodstock. A native of Hardy County West Virginia, Miller had moved to Woodstock as a child and was trained as a tailor in a Frederick County shop.…
Woodstock in 1926
These photographs, taken in September and December of 1926, show various scenes from Woodstock and surrounding areas. Some of the places shown are:
-The Woodstock Passenger Depot on Court Street. Constructed in 1885 this ornate, limestone structure…
Walton and Smoot Drug Store
Sometime in the 1880s Lin Irwin's Drug Store opened on the first floor of the Irwin Opera House located at the corner of Main and Court Street in Woodstock.
In 1906 Clyde E. Walton and Dr. James H. Smoot purchased the drug store and changed…
Geary's Hotel
In 1875, Mike Geary purchased this lot in downtown Woodstock and opened Geary's Hotel. What existed before is unknown.
The three-story brick hotel featured accommodations for travelers, large front portions over looking the valley turnpike, a…
Casey Jones/Woodstock Brew House
Starting in the 1920s, clothing and textile manufacturing became prominent industries in the Shenandoah Valley. One group that operated in the area was the Casey Jones Work-Clothes Company. They opened plants in Woodstock, Mt. Jackson, Shenandoah,…
Holtzman Hotel
The 1885 Lake's Atlas of Shenandoah and Page Counties notes the "Shenandoah House" stood on this site. It would have served travelers on the Valley Turnpike and from the nearby rail line.
Sometime in the last decade of the 19th…
Community Theatre
In 1940 William Dalke and his family completed a new movie theatre on this site in Woodstock. At the time it was one of two theatres operated by the Dalkes in Woodstock and one of several in their chain of movie houses in Shenandoah County.
When it…
Chapin and Sachs Manufacturing
Chapin and Sachs, sometimes known as Chapin and Sacks, Manufacturing opened a plant in Woodstock Virginia in 1910 following the purchase of the A.W. Nicodemus & Sons Creamery building on what is now East Court Street which had opened in 1903.…