Gordonsville Va. Real Estate

Gordonsville Virginia History

The assemblage of 19th and early 20th century residential, commercial, and church buildings forming this quiet historic Piedmont community reflects the vicissitudes of a Virginia railroad town.

It was named for Nathaniel Gordon, a late 18th-century innkeeper here, whose tavern was frequented by such prominent statesmen as Thomas Jefferson and Major General the Marquis de Lafayette.

The hamlet exploded into a thriving transportation hub with the arrival in the 1840s and early 1850s of two railroads and two major turnpikes.

Dr. Charles Beale, Gordon’s' son-in-law, foresaw the arrival of the railroad and essentially planned the Gordonsville of today.

During the Civil War, Gordonsville was of vital importance to Robert E. Lee and his Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the transportation of troops and supplies.

In 1862, Major General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson had his headquarters at the old Gordon Tavern for several days.

Wounded soldiers were brought to Gordonsville to be cared for at the Gordonsville Receiving Hospital (centered on the Exchange Hotel) and in churches and private homes.

In 1860, Gordonsville's Exchange Hotel offered a welcome stopping place for weary passengers on the Virginia Central Railway.

Waist-coated gentlemen and hoop-skirted ladies were treated to the sight of the hotel's handsome architecture of wide verandas and stately columns.

Inside, guests received a warm greeting and gracious hospitality that was the hallmark of the South, but the leisurely pace of life belied a worsening political situation that would soon become the War Between the States.

This Gordonsville landmark is a forerunner of the large railroad hotels that played an important role in the transportation history of late 19th and early 20th century America.

The galleried structure was built in 1860 for Richard F. Omohundro next to an important railroad junction, when the Exchange Hotel offered a welcome stopping place for weary passengers on the Virginia Central Railway.

Waist-coated gentlemen and hoop-skirted ladies were treated to the sight of the hotel's handsome architecture of wide verandas and stately columns.

In March 1862, because of its strategic location, the Exchange Hotel became part of the Gordonsville Receiving Hospital, admitting more than 23,000 sick and wounded in less than a year.

Countless descriptions of the Wilderness by the soldiers paint a picture of the difficulty in fighting there.

Union Major General Winfield Hancock wrote: "The undergrowth was so heavy that it was scarcely possible to see more than one hundred paces in any direction.

The movements of the enemy could not be observed until the lines were almost in collision. Only the roar of the musketry disclosed the position of the combatants to those who were at any distance."

The wounded and dying from nearby battlefields such as Cedar Mountain, Chancellorsville, Trevilian Station, Mine Run, Brandy Station, and the Wilderness were brought by the trainloads.

Although this was primarily a Confederate facility, the hospital treated the wounded from both sides. Twenty-six Union soldiers died here.

By war's end more than 70,000 men had been treated at the Gordonsville Receiving Hospital and just over 700 would be buried on its surrounding grounds.

The scene of untold agony and death, the building survived the conflict.

It again became a hotel after the war and enjoyed a fine reputation until the 1940s when it went into decline.

Historic Gordonsville, Inc., acquired and restored the hotel in the 1970s.

It now serves as the Exchange Hotel Civil War Museum.

The verdant farmlands of central Virginia became a vast battleground.

In March of 1862, the Army of the Confederacy transformed the Exchange Hotel into the Gordonsville Receiving Hospital.

The wounded and dying from nearby battlefields such as Cedar Mountain, Chancellorsville, Trevilian Station, Mine Run, Brandy Station, and Wilderness were brought by the trainloads.

The town of Gordonsville was chartered in 1870. The town is roughly one-square mile in size and is home to nearly 1,300 people.

Gordonsville's growth, which reached its peak after the Civil War, ended suddenly with completion in the early 1880s of a north-south railroad bypassing the town to the west.

The district centers on a 3/4-mile stretch of Main Street leading south past tree-shaded 19th century residences and churches to the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway overpass.

The solid row of brick commercial structures forming the town’s business district was built up following fires in 1916 and 1920.

A six-member town council and an elected mayor govern the town.

The council members are elected to four-year staggered terms.

The last election was November 2006.

The mayor is elected to a four-year term.

Gordonsville's current real estate tax is $.17/$100 assessed value.

There's a local theater group called the FOUR COUNTY PLAYERS in neighboring Barboursville, VA. They are superb.

The Four County Players put on several plays and shows throughout the year in the Barboursville Community Center.

Thanks for visiting...

Gordonsville Virginia Real Estate

Your Gordonsville Realtors

877-855-7913