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History · Montross

Montross’ post office opened in 1852, and 18% of its homes were built before 1940

1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 121 buildings. Below: old-book passages.

1852first post office
1on the National Register
18%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Ser Amantio di Nicolao at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0
Quick answers

How Montross began

When was Montross founded?

1852

The Montross post office opened in 1852, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 333174 years
Founding year: the first Montross post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Montross’ past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A historic districtThe Montross Historic District takes in 121 historic buildings.A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Montross are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Montross’ homes were built before 1963.
★ What stands out · On the National Register

1 listing protects 121 historic buildings

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
121
each building in a district counts
first listed
2023
Montross Historic District
Montross Historic District
Districts
All 1 listings
Montross Historic DistrictDistrict · listed 2023

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Help out

Start Montross’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Montross’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Montross came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Montross.

Read it all →

The Old Westmoreland Court House in Montross was the site of notable events in 1774–1775 connected with the Revolutionary War. According to a historic marker at the courthouse, a resolution was introduced by Richard Henry Lee and adopted at a meeting there on June 22, 1774, providing aid to Boston, Massachusetts, following a blockade of that beleaguered port city by Great Britain. The seizure in 1775 of the Virginia Colony's gunpowder supply in Williamsburg on orders of the Royal Governor, in what became known as the Gunpowder Incident, prompted the Westmoreland Committee of Safety to convene at the Court House on May 23, 1775. The committee passed a resolution denouncing the governor, Lord Dunmore, for his actions.

ChaptersLerty

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Montross in 1912

Passages that mention Montross, cut from the printed page as they were published.

tributaries, furnishing water power for finest manufacturies and plants and transportation facilities; churches, public schools, banks: Bank of Westmoreland at Colonial Beach, Bank of Kinsale at Kinsale, and Bank of Montross at Montross, with deposits, resources, and financial earnings of the peopl…
Westmoreland County, Virginia1912 · page 112Read the page →
Read the text

tributaries, furnishing water power for finest manufacturies and plants and transportation facilities; churches, public schools, banks: Bank of Westmoreland at Colonial Beach, Bank of Kinsale at Kinsale, and Bank of Montross at Montross, with deposits, resources, and financial earnings of the people generally — figures that speak volumes for soundness of local business conditions. Westmoreland Enquirer and Colonial Beach Becord, newspaper, at Colonial Beach ; good telephone communication; accessible to the markets of Bal-

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

By decade

Montross, decade by decade

Today6 recent
Fencepost with peeling paint and moss on the bricks2013Fencepost with peeling paint and moss on the bricksMontross courthouse 22009Montross courthouse 2Westmoreland County Museum2008Westmoreland County MuseumMontross courthouse2008Montross courthouseDowntown2008DowntownVAMap-doton-Montross2005VAMap-doton-Montross

Questions about Montross’ history

What year was Montross founded?

The Montross post office opened in 1852, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Montross?

One place: the Montross Historic District (listed 2023).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (6), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.