In September 1959, the Shenandoah County School Board opened three new high schools to address an increase in the student population. One of these schools was the new Strasburg High School, which combined the student bodies of Toms Brook High School…

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…

The first railroad bridge to cross the Narrow Passage Creek, at what was then called Willow Grove, was built in 1855 by the Manassas Gap Railroad. Its life would be short. The bridge was burned by Turner Ashby in 1862 to delay Union forces. In…

In the late 1700s, Shenandoah County residents who were members of the Lutheran and Reformed denominations banded together to form Frieden’s Union Church west of Toms Brook. This served the needs of Toms Brook’s residents until the mid-1800s when…

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. Though some Europeans had already come here,…

This structure was built around 1749 by Jacob Rinker, an immigrant. The building tops a spring and was most likely designed to protect residents from Native American war parties who were fighting European encroachment. Rinker’s son, also named Jacob,…