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,…

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…

Throughout the county’s history communities have been conducting parades and festivals. One type of this event was the ever popular May Day. Traditionally held on May 1st, this festival dates to early European efforts to celebrate the start of…

In 1806 the Bishop Asbury, a noted Methodist circuit rider, preached his first sermon in Strasburg. He and other traveling ministers would visit the town numerous times over the next several decades until the number of Methodist congregants was large…

In 1944 the Holler family of Edinburg Virginia founded a small poultry processing plant along Stoney Creek west of Edinburg. Over time this operation grew to become Blue Ridge Poultry and Egg Company, a regional poultry processor. In 1971 Rocco…

Around 1886 this building was constructed in the center of Mt. Jackson. It was designed as a typical downtown structure, with commercial space on the first floor and apartments on the second. Eventually it became the Hawkins restaurant, operated by…