Shenandoah Stories
A project by Shenandoah County LibraryJoin us in our efforts to explore the history and culture of Shenandoah County Virginia through our web based tour platform Shenandoah Stories. Click a site on the map, select a tour, or view a random story to begin. Read more About Us
Featured Stories
New Market Observation Tower
After Pearl Harbor Americans feared that their communities could be targeted by the enemy, so a civil defense organization was created. Though officials realized the risk of attack was slight, they…
Lantz Mills Community
In 1747, Hans George Lantz left Germany and eventually settled on 470 acres along Stoney Creek in Shenandoah County. The area he arrived in had been occupied by Native Americans for several centuries.…
Columbia Furnace Stables
Columbia Furnace Stables are one of the original buildings associated with that industrial complex. Though the exact date when they were built is unrecorded, architectural evidence and oral history…
Featured Tours
African Americans in Shenandoah County
13 Locations ~ Curated by Shenandoah County LibrarySpirits, Stills, and Temperance: Tracing the History of Alcohol in Shenandoah County
20 Locations ~ Curated by Shenandoah County LibraryFarms, Factories, and the Frontlines: Shenandoah County in the World Wars
10 Locations ~ Curated by The Shenandoah Stories TeamRandom Stories
Strasburg Emporium
In 1907 the Strasburg Textile Manufacturing Company opened on this site. The company manufactured various finished silk products. In 1934 Charles Platt and his son Nathan Platt purchased the company and focused on producing silk casket linings using…
St. Luke
The village of St. Luke emerged around the local Lutheran Congregation in the late 19th century. By 1879, there was a separate Lutheran Church, school house, and Union Church in the community. Five years later, Lake’s Atlas indicates the village had…
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…
Union Forge Church
In 1815 Augustine Hollar deed land for the Union Forge Church and cemetery near Edinburg Virginia. This congregation, associated with the Methodist Denomination, drew most of its membership from the workers at the nearby iron furnaces. They regularly…
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…
St. Luke School
The first school in the St. Luke community dates to before 1841. That year the school building, and a parcel of land, was deeded to a group of school trustees who agreed to use the building and land as a Union Church and school.
This original…