Scottsville’s post office opened in 1850, and 51% of its homes were built before 1940
5 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 156 buildings between them. Below: 13 old photos and papers, maps from 1943 on, and the census since 1870.
From Scottsville’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers
How Scottsville began
When was Scottsville founded?
1850
The Scottsville post office opened in 1850, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Scotts Ferry (1814), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 388 in 18702020 census: 524176 years
Founding year: the first Scottsville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Scottsville’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
According to Scottsville's website, the town "served as Virginia's westernmost center of government and commerce during the 1700s, when rivers were the primary means of travel in the new American wilderness." During the late 18th and the 19th centuries attempts were made to improve navigability along the James, as well as other central Virginian rivers. Part of this was the construction of a canal running roughly parallel with the James west from Richmond. Scottsville was the largest port town along this route, called the James River and Kanawha Canal. The ultimate goal of this project was to connect the Atlantic with the Ohio River via the Kanawha River. These aims were not achieved, due to interruption by the American Civil War and the efficiency of the railroads. It did however succeed in making Scottsville a busy, prominent town. In fact, thanks to a wagon road connecting Staunton t…
Passages that mention Scottsville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Albemarle County (Virginia) A hand book giving a description of its topography, climate, geology, minerals, fruits, plants, history, educational, agricultural and manufacturing advantages, and inducements the county offers the industrious and intelligent1888 · page 108Read the page →
Read the text
The town of Scottsville is situated on the north bank of the James, and whilst it is in the county of Albemarle, it is on the borders of Fluvanna, and Buckingham is on the other side of the river, both of these counties contributing to the trade of Scottsville.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Albemarle County (Virginia) A hand book giving a description of its topography, climate, geology, minerals, fruits, plants, history, educational, agricultural and manufacturing advantages, and inducements the county offers the industrious and intelligent1888 · page 20Read the page →
Read the text
of the Greene Mountains to Hardware river, which it crosses at the plantations of Messrs. Moon and Barksdale, quickly retreats towards the south, by a very roughly defined line to near the north-western part of the town of Scottsville, from thence south-westerly to the James. Its western border is marked by a very coarse conglomerate, which most likely rests upon the underlying Archaean rocks throughout the Mesozoic area, for it comes to the surface at
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.
Timeline
Scottsville, 1814 to 2010
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Scottsville post office opened in 1850, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
What is on the National Register in Scottsville?
5 listings: 3 buildings and 2 historic districts, the Scottsville Historic District and the Scottsville Tire Cord Plant, with 156 contributing buildings. 162 historic buildings in all.
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 (18), the Library of Congress (11), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (5), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.
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