Instagram story viewer> @virginiacities> Posts

virginiacities

@virginiacities

15.2K

followers

827

following

Your VA captures. Tag us to be featured!

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Today's #VirginiaCities feature: The Red Fox Inn in Middleburg, VA by @adventures_love10

📍 Middleburg, VA

Stone walls, rich history and small-town charm in the heart of Hunt Country 🐎

✨ Did you know?

👉 Middleburg ( @visitmiddleburg ) was founded in 1787 by Leven Powell, a Revolutionary War officer. He named it for its spot midway between Alexandria and Winchester.

👉 Powell bought the land for $2.50 an acre from Joseph Chinn, a relative of George Washington.

👉 In the 1796 presidential election, Powell was the only Virginia elector to vote for John Adams instead of Thomas Jefferson, and his vote along with only one other Southern elector's vote, helped Adams win!

👉 The Red Fox Inn (@redfoxinntavern) traces its roots to 1728, when it opened as Chinn’s Ordinary. It’s billed as one of the oldest inns in America.

👉 Middleburg is known as “The Nation’s Horse and Hunt Capital,” thanks to its fox hunts, steeplechase races and grand estates.

👉 President Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy rented a nearby estate, Glen Ora, as their weekend getaway starting in 1961.

👉 Every December, about 150 riders in hunting coats and dozens of foxhounds parade through town in the Middleburg Hunt Review, a tradition since 1972.

🍂 A tiny town (under 700 residents!) with a big story 🏇❤️

#MiddleburgVA #HuntCountry #LoudounCounty #HorseCountry #RedFoxInn #SmallTownVirginia #VirginiaIsForLovers #VisitVirginia taken in Middleburg, Virginia by @virginiacities

37

0

a day ago

Today's #VirginiaCities feature: The start of #SpookySeason in Staunton, VA, by @kate_simon_photo

📍 Staunton, VA

Victorian charm in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley 🏔️

✨ Did you know?

👉 It’s pronounced “STAN-ton”! The city is named for Lady Rebecca Staunton, wife of colonial Governor William Gooch.

👉 Staunton is known as “The Queen City.” It was the seat of Augusta County, which once stretched all the way to the Mississippi River.

👉 Architect T.J. Collins designed more than 200 buildings in Staunton between 1891 and 1911, which helps explain why downtown looks like a Victorian postcard.

👉 Country music stars The Statler Brothers came from Staunton. In 1970 they started a free Fourth of July concert in Gypsy Hill Park that drew huge crowds for 25 years, and the tradition continues today.

👉 The Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind has been in Staunton since 1839.

👉 At the Frontier Culture Museum (@frontierculturemuseum ), centuries-old farmhouses from England, Ireland and Germany were taken apart overseas and rebuilt here, alongside a West African farm built using traditional methods.

🍂 Come for the history, stay for the views ☕🏛️

@visitstaunton

#StauntonVA #QueenCity #ShenandoahValley #SmallTownVirginia #VirginiaIsForLovers #VisitVirginia taken in Staunton, Virginia by @virginiacities

69

0

2 days ago

Today's #VirginiaCities feature: Blandford Church in Petersburg, VA by @embetts3_photo

📍 Blandford Church & Cemetery, Petersburg, VA

History, artistry and centuries of stories on Petersburg’s highest hill 🍂

✨ Did you know?

👉 Blandford Church was built in the 1730s and is Petersburg’s oldest building.

👉 After a new church opened downtown in the early 1800s, Blandford was abandoned and became an ivy-covered ruin for decades.

👉 Today it’s famous for its Tiffany stained-glass windows, made by Louis Comfort Tiffany’s studio and installed between 1904 and 1912.

👉 The cemetery’s oldest marked grave dates all the way back to 1702.

👉 British Major General William Phillips died in Petersburg during the Revolutionary War in 1781. Benedict Arnold had him buried secretly at night in the churchyard, and his grave was never marked.

👉 Petersburg is one of several places that claim a role in the origins of Memorial Day. In 1868, Mary Logan, the wife of a Union general, saw graves here decorated with flowers and flags, and she shared the idea with her husband.

🕯️ A beautiful and atmospheric spot to visit this fall 🎃

#BlandfordChurch #BlandfordCemetery #PetersburgVA #HistoricPetersburg #TiffanyGlass #StainedGlass #VirginiaHistory #HauntedVirginia #VirginiaIsForLovers taken in Blandford Church by @virginiacities

46

2

6 days ago

Today's #VirginiaCities feature: A train crossing the Copper Creek Trestle near Clinchport, VA by @samuel_phillips1995

📍 Copper Creek Trestle, Clinchport, VA

Trains rolling high above the Clinch River valley 🚂

✨ Did you know?

👉 There are actually two railroad bridges here, one stacked above the other where Copper Creek meets the Clinch River.

👉 The high bridge, the Copper Creek Viaduct, was built in 1908 by the Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio Railway. At about 167 feet high, it was one of the tallest railroad bridges in the eastern U.S. at the time.

👉 The lower bridge is even older. It dates to the 1890s and is owned by Norfolk Southern.

👉 More than a century later, the viaduct is still in use as part of CSX’s network, carrying coal and freight through the mountains.

👉 This bridge and the line’s 55 tunnels opened Virginia and Kentucky coal fields to markets in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida.

👉 Nearby Clinchport is the least-populated town in Virginia, with just 64 residents in the 2020 census.

🌄 Big steel, small town, and mountain views for miles 🛤️💛

#ScottCountyVA #SouthwestVirginia #Trainspotting #RailroadHistory #VirginiaIsForLovers #VisitVirginia taken in Clinchport, Virginia by @virginiacities

98

7

7 days ago

Today's #VirginiaCities feature: Main Street in Front Royal, VA by @creative.bursts

📍 Main Street, Front Royal, VA

Small town charm at the north end of Skyline Drive 🏔️

✨ Did you know?

👉 The town was first known as LeHewtown, after early settler Peter LeHew. It was incorporated as Front Royal in 1788 and has been the Warren County seat since 1836.

👉 In the 1790s it had a rowdier nickname: "Helltown." Cattle drivers and Shenandoah River boatmen stopped there for a drink.

👉 One popular legend says the name comes from a giant "Royal Oak" that stood at the corner of Chester and Main. Militia drill sergeants would call out "Front the Royal Oak!", and the order got shortened to "Front Royal."

👉 Today that same corner is home to the Town Commons gazebo, which hosts free summer concerts and festivals all year.

👉 Downtown is part of the Front Royal Historic District, which has about 470 historic buildings and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.

👉 The Afton Inn, built in the late 1860s at the head of downtown, is believed to be Main Street's oldest remaining commercial building.

🎶 Grab a coffee, stroll Main Street and soak in the history ☕🍂

#FrontRoyal #FrontRoyalVA #MainStreet #WarrenCounty #ShenandoahValley #SmallTownVirginia #HistoricDowntown #VirginiaIsForLovers #VisitVirginia taken in Front Royal, Virginia by @virginiacities

67

4

8 days ago

Today's #VirginiaCities feature: An aerial view of Colonial Beach, VA by @brandon_michael_photography

📍 Colonial Beach, VA

Sun, sand and a surprising past on the Potomac 🌊

✨ Did you know?

👉 Colonial Beach has more than 2 miles of beaches, the second longest stretch in Virginia after Virginia Beach.

👉 The town was laid out in 1882 as a planned resort for Washington, D.C., residents and became a town in 1892.

👉 Its nickname was "The Playground of the Potomac." By the early 1900s, steamboats were bringing thousands of D.C. visitors to its boardwalk and hotels.

👉 From 1949 to 1958, casino piers stretched out into the river. Maryland's border runs right along Virginia's shoreline, and slot machines were legal in Maryland, so gamblers could walk out past the line and play!

👉 Alexander Graham Bell inherited a house in town from his father in 1907. Local legend says he flew kites from its balcony.

👉 Today it's colloquially known as "Golf Cart Town," because so many locals get around downtown by golf cart.

🏖️ Small town charm with big river views ☀️⛵

#ColonialBeach #ColonialBeachVA #WestmorelandCounty #NorthernNeck #PotomacRiver #VirginiaBeaches #SmallTownVirginia #VirginiaIsForLovers #VisitVirginia taken in Colonial Beach, Virginia by @virginiacities

43

1

10 days ago

Today's #VirginiaCities feature: Oak Spring Garden in Upperville VA by @dclensman

📍 Oak Spring Garden, Upperville, VA

Hidden in Virginia's hunt country is a garden designed by one of America's most influential gardeners 🌿

✨ Did you know?

👉 Oak Spring was the country home of Rachel "Bunny" Mellon and her husband, the philanthropist Paul Mellon.

👉 Bunny Mellon redesigned the White House Rose Garden for President Kennedy in the early 1960s.

👉 She began gardening at age 7, and by age 10 she already had a significant collection of gardening books.

👉 Her collection grew into the Oak Spring Garden Library, with more than 19,000 rare books, manuscripts and works of art about plants, some dating back to the 1300s.

👉 The library was designed by architect Edward Larrabee Barnes and finished in 1981.

👉 One highlight is an arbor of about 60 Mary Potter crabapple trees that leads from the walled garden to the glasshouse.

👉 The Oak Spring Garden Foundation looks after the roughly 700-acre property and opens it to the public several times a year for tours by registration.

🌸 A quiet corner of Fauquier County with a story fit for the White House 🏛️💚

#OakSpringGarden #UppervilleVA #FauquierCounty #VirginiaGardens #GardenLovers #VirginiaIsForLovers #VAPlaces #VisitVirginia taken in Oak Spring Garden by @virginiacities

69

5

11 days ago

Today's #VirginiaCities Feature: Braehead Farm in Fredericksburg, VA by @mardi_antosh

📍 Braehead Farm, Fredericksburg, VA

A working family farm, still growing right in the middle of the city. 🌾🎃

✨ Did you know?

👉 Braehead is the last working farm left inside the historic City of Fredericksburg, and the city and an industrial park have grown up all around it

👉 The farm takes its name from Braehead, a nearby brick manor house finished in 1859 for John Howison, and the Snead family bought 200 acres of the old estate in 1937

👉 Both Confederate and Union troops occupied the manor during the Civil War, and the walnut tree where Robert E. Lee is said to have tied his horse still stands today

👉 The historic manor house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000

👉 The Sneads ran the land as a dairy for years, and the old dairy barn is now the farm market

👉 Each fall, the farm hosts festival weekends with hayrides, a corn maze, a sunflower walk, and pick-your-own pumpkins

Over 160 years of history, and still growing something new every season. 🌻🚜

#BraeheadFarm #FredericksburgVA #FamilyFarm #FallFestival #HistoricVirginia #VirginiaIsForLovers taken in Braehead Farm by @virginiacities

64

5

16 days ago

Today's #VirginiaCities feature: The Hoskin Creek Bridge in Tappahannock VA by @illi_photography

📍 Hoskins Creek Bridge, Tappahannock, VA

A quiet crossing into one of Virginia's oldest river towns. 🌉🌊

✨ Did you know?

👉 Hoskins Creek gets its name from Bartholomew Hoskins, who patented the surrounding land back in 1645

👉 During the Civil War, a Federal gunboat attacked Tappahannock in March 1865, destroying boats, the ferry, and a bridge over one of the town's creeks

👉 Tappahannock itself was formally established by the Virginia Legislature in 1682, making it one of the oldest towns in the state

👉 The name "Tappahannock" comes from the Rappahannock word "Topahanocke," meaning "town on the rise and fall of water," a nod to the tidal river it sits on

👉 The town grew for centuries as a busy river port, with much of its historic core, including an 1848 courthouse, still preserved today

Water has shaped this town for hundreds of years, one crossing at a time. 🚤🏘️

#TappahannockVA #EssexCountyVA #RappahannockRiver #HistoricVirginia #VirginiaIsForLovers taken in Tappahanock, Virginia by @virginiacities

74

4

17 days ago

Today's #VirginiaCities feature: Sunset over Fairfax, VA by @alexchin_photos

📍 Fairfax, VA

✨ Did you know?

👉 Fairfax grew up around its 1799 courthouse, built right at the junction of two major roads, Little River Turnpike and Ox Road, now Routes 236 and 123

👉 The town was officially established in 1805 as the "Town of Providence," though everyone just called it "Fairfax Court House" until the name became official in 1874

👉 George Washington and George Mason both lived in the area and co-authored the Fairfax Resolves in 1774, an early declaration of colonial rights

👉 The Battle of Fairfax Court House on June 1, 1861, was the first land battle of the Civil War

👉 During the war, George Washington's will was removed from the courthouse for safekeeping, but Martha Washington's will was taken by a Union officer, sold to financier J.P. Morgan, and wasn't returned until 1915

👉 Fairfax became an independent city in 1961

A city where the roads have been busy since before there was a country to drive through. 🛣️🌇

#FairfaxVA #HistoricVirginia #VirginiaIsForLovers #NorthernVirginia #SunsetOverVA taken in Fairfax, Virginia by @virginiacities

100

2

20 days ago

Today's #VirginiaCities feature: A stormy day in Marion, VA by @prettiestwreckk

📍 Marion, VA

✨ Did you know?

👉 Marion became the county seat of Smyth County when the county was formed in 1832, and the town was named for Revolutionary War hero General Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox"

👉 The railroad arrived in 1856, helping the small mountain town grow into a regional hub

👉 Marion is home to the Lincoln Theatre, ( @thelincolntheatre ) built in 1929, one of only three Mayan Revival-style theatres left in the entire country, complete with carved gods, mythological creatures, and Mayan-inspired calligraphy inside

👉 Mountain Dew was actually invented right here in Marion in the 1960s by Bill Jones of the Tip Corporation, before he sold the formula to PepsiCo

👉 A Civil War cavalry skirmish was fought here in December 1864 during Stoneman's Raid

A small Appalachian town, a soda that conquered America, and a theatre unlike almost any other in the country. 🎭🥤

#MarionVA #SmythCountyVA #SouthwestVirginia #VirginiaIsForLovers #HistoricVirginia #StormyVA taken in Marion, Virginia by @virginiacities

179

14

21 days ago

Today's #VirginiaCities feature: The Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly VA by @jg.romero

📍 Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly, VA

An airplane hangar the size of several football fields, filled with some of the most iconic flying machines ever built. ✈️🚀

✨ Did you know?

🚀 The center opened on December 15, 2003, as a companion facility to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall

🚀 At 760,000 square feet, it was the largest construction project in Smithsonian ( @smithsonian ) history, and it's the only Smithsonian museum building ever built entirely with private funds

🚀 It's named for Steven F. Udvar-Hazy, a Hungarian immigrant who built model airplanes as a child before going on to help create the multi-billion-dollar airplane leasing industry in the U.S.

🚀 The center houses Space Shuttle Discovery, which spent 365 days in space across 39 missions

🚀 It's also home to the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that dropped the first atomic bomb in 1945, and the SR-71 Blackbird, the fastest jet-powered aircraft ever built

🚀 In total, the facility holds around 3,000 artifacts, including 200 full aircraft and spacecraft

History, speed, and space exploration, all under one very big roof. 🛩️🌌

#UdvarHazyCenter #ChantillyVA #SmithsonianInstitution #VirginiaIsForLovers #AviationHistory #SpaceExploration taken in Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum by @virginiacities

32

0

23 days ago