Category: Commerce
Businesses and commercial enterprises.
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Tutwiler’s Boat Yard
The painting above by J.W. Tutwiler depicts the Tutwiler Boat Yard in Scottsville which was owned and operated by Wesley Clark Tutwiler until his death in 1871. After his passing, Wesley’s wife, Amanda Marie (Moon) Tutwiler, operated this boatyard that built and repaired canal boats for use on the James River and Kanawha Canal between…
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Valley Street
Since the colonial era, Vally Street has been the main commercial corridor in Scottsville. A natural ravine led down the high bluffs to the ferry at Scotts Landing, providing access for wagons loaded with goods and passengers to the James River and trade with the outside world. Burgess took the photo above, the oldest in…
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Victory Hall
Victory Hall, later called Victory Theatre, was completed in 1920 on Scottsville’s Valley Street to commemorate the Armistice of World I. It was the dream of Scottsville drama teacher, Marion McKay, to have a setting for dramatic performances and traveling vaudeville and Chautauqua shows. Designed by D. Wiley Anderson, a local architect, the hall was…
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Masonic Lodge
On June 17, 1914, Scottsville Masonic Lodge #45 laid the cornerstone for its current home at 137 Main Street. It was a stirring day in Scottsville with the town band marching down Valley Street, leading Lodge members from their meeting area at Beal’s Hall to the new Lodge site. The first Lodge meeting was held…
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Edith Taggart – Scottsville Central Switchboard Operator
Edith Taggart served as Scottsville’s central telephone operator from 1911 until her retirement in 1950. She was our ‘Central.’ Every Scottsville telephone call outside a subscriber’s party line was placed through her. A caller turned the crank of a magneto telephone and generated a ringing current at Edith’s switchboard. Edith would tap into the calling…
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Dorrier Building
The Dorrier Building, located at 280 Valley Street, was built in 1912 by William Dorrier as a general merchandise and feed-grain store. William’s son, Charles Richard Dorrier (1885-1966), operated this store for fifty years under the name, C.R. Dorrier and Company. The second floor of the building was used as a storage area and apartments.…
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Pitts Building
330 Valley Street Constructed around 1910 by J.L. Pitts, this was the site of the Scottsville Drug Company, started by Thomas Ellison Bruce, the first pharmacist in Scottsville. Many businesses have operated at this location over the past 100 years, including general mercantile and several restaurants. From 2010 to present (2026) it has been home…
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Old Canal Warehouse
Built around 1834-1844, the Canal Warehouse is a large, gambrel-roofed building, located along the former James River & Kanawha Canal bank in Scottsville. While river and canal traffic flourished, the warehouse was full of tobacco, grain, and other produce waiting to be shipped to Richmond markets. Scottsville was an important shipping point on the canal,…
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Tobacco Factory
Built around 1840, this large, three-story brick building at 571 Valley Street was a tobacco factory and warehouse as late as 1880. The tobacco brands produced there included ‘Tuberose’ and ‘Mason’s Select.’ Former Mayor Raymon Thacker remembers playing in the upper story of this building around 1915 and noted there were still several tobacco bales…
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Bruce’s Drug Store
Bruce’s Drug Store began on November 1, 1908, under the name of Scottsville Drug Company. Dr. Luther R. Stinson and Dr. Benjamin L. Dillard, practicing physicians in Scottsville, maintained a small medicine shop in the town’s old apothecary shop on Valley Street (now 510 Valley Street). Finding it inconvenient to keep their shop open as…
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