As Virginia Moore eloquently stated in her book, Scottsville on the James, “Any town’s present is a constant adjustment between past and future.” Through the 1850’s, Scottsville served as an important transshipping point for the Shenandoah Valley and Piedmont of Virginia. Local businesses thrived. Great numbers of large wagons unloaded freight here for shipment via boat to Richmond. Then they loaded up in Scottsville with groceries, gypsum, coarse cotton, and woolen cloth for the return trip.
In 1835, Scottsville had nine general stores, five grocery stores, one apothecary shop, a boatyard, several warehouses, livery stables, taverns and hotels. By 1841, the town’s streets bustled with out-of-town trade and a local citizenry totaling 1000 people.
In the 1850’s, the Virginia Central Railroad line was built through Charlottesville and drew business away from Scottsville, the river, and the canal. But the worst had not come for the town’s economy. In March 1865, General Philip Sheridan’s Union troops destroyed the canal and local provisions that could support the Confederacy. By the time Sheridan left town, Scottsville’s hotel, flour mill, candle factory, tobacco warehouse, and some stables were burned or destroyed.
Reconstruction took a long time in Scottsville. With the canal damage and deteriorated roads, very little came to Scottsville markets, and bartering took the place of money when produce did come.
Several Scottsville canal boat owners switched to lumbering and provided crews to lay track. A telegraph line was constructed along the entire length of the railroad, connecting Scottsville with the outside world by modern means of transportation and communication. Yet Scottsville remained a small market town and in 1890 was described as a town of population 362 with good schools, six churches, grain and grist mills, a bank, and “all the facilities of a country town.”
Scottsville businesses received a boost in 1907 when the Scottsville bridge over the James River was constructed. Two major highways intersected in town, and the modern era of automobile transportation arrived. Livery stables on Scottsville streets were replaced by three garages.
By 1920, Scottsville’s population numbered about 1500, including the immediate surrounding area just outside the town limits. The town had twenty stores, two large flour mills, an ice plant, a theater, three garages, a braid factory, two large oil companies, two restaurants, one boarding house, two drugstores, three doctors, one dentist, two schools, two dairies, one shoe shop, and and two blacksmith shops.
To learn more about early Scottsville businesses, click on each image below to open the corresponding articles.
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W.F. Paulett and Son, Inc.
In 1914, William F. Paulett bought a Main Street lot in Scottsville where a blacksmith shop once stood and began construction a large building to house his lumber and hardware business. First he poured a concrete floor, one so immense in size that a group of little boys came to marvel at it later that…
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Robert Lee Bryan ~ Printer and Newspaper Man
Robert Lee Bryan was born on 21 January 1909 in Charlottesville, VA, and was the son of William Whitaker Bryan (1880-1930) and Addye (Beattie) Bryan (1886-1955). William Bryan ran a print shop called the Virginia Printing Company, and his son, Robert, started helping his father by running printing errands for him when he was only…
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James Franklin Dorrier ~ Scottsville National Bank
James Franklin Dorrier began his banking career as a cashier at the Scottsville National Bank, an independent organization, when it was started in 1901. In 1919, he left banking for 15 years and engaged in the construction business with Lane Brothers Construction Company in Esmont, and also on his own in West Virginia, Kentucky, and…
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Thomas Ellison Bruce ~ Community Leader
Thomas Ellison Bruce, Sr., owner of Bruce’s Drug Store in Scottsville, was a popular and successful community leader. He served four terms as Mayor of Scottsville (1935-1943) and played an important role in attracting new business to an economically disadvantaged community with a declining population. When more rayon cord was needed for military tires during…
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Pitts Market on Main Street
Shown above in this 2026 photo is the former Pitts Market (operated on the first floor at the left of this building from 1937-1962) and home of the William Robert and Ruth (Kent) Pitts family at right behind the porch and in rooms behind the store. In the 1950’s, Scottsville had four grocery stores. One…
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The Old Apothecary Shop
The Old Apothecary Shop, located at 510 Valley Street, was built ca. 1832. The two-story brick building served as an apothecary where town doctors prepared drugs and medicinal compounds for their patients from 1876 – 1908. As business grew, Dr. Luther R. Stinson and Dr. Benjamin L. Dillard, two practicing physicians in Scottsville, found it…
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The Beal Building
The Beal Building, located at 380-398 Valley Street, was built circa 1841-1850 on Lot 148. In 1850, Joseph Beal purchased the east half of this lot on which this large brick building with a slate roof stands. Mr. Beal began his mercantile business in this building, and many Beal businesses were housed here over the…
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Miss Hannah Moore’s Boarding House
Miss Hannah Moore built her Boarding House (the brick house at the right of this photo) in 1910 on the east side of Valley St. She opened it as a boarding house in 1911, and for years, Miss Willie Hitchcock lived there. Miss Willie, cousin to Wild Bill Hitchcock, taught the Lewis children in the…
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Hatton Post Office
The Hatton Post Office began operation at Brown’s Landing (now called Hatton) in late 1883. The postal facility sat just inside the front door of Brown’s Store and contained walnut mail boxes (shown above) for its customers and a wooden window through which mail and stamps were dispensed. Although a post office most often assumes…
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Scottsville Volunteer Fire Department’s 75th Anniversary
by Marianne Ramsden Scottsville made a concerted effort to keep the town safe from fires since the beginning of the 1900’s. A bucket brigade formed in 1905, and the town fire hydrants were installed in 1916. That same year, the volunteer fire fighters raised enough money to buy two fire hose reel carts. These carts…
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Scottsville Brick Company at Snowden
The Scottsville Brick Company was once located on Snowden’s low grounds, just across the James River from Scottsville. Snowden’s long frontage along the James River contained rich siliceous sand which produced superior quality bricks. The initial company, Scottsville Sand and Silica Co., Inc. was formed on February 21, 1920, and, later that year on December…
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Traveler’s Rest Hotel
The Traveler’s Rest was a wood-framed hotel built about 1909 by Jacinto V. Pereira, who was also the President of Fidelity Nationial Bank on Valley Street. The leading hotel in Scottsville for 67 years, the Traveler’s Rest contained nineteen hotel rooms with two bathrooms on each floor. The dining room sat approximately sixty people at…
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Snowden Dairy
In January 2014, Angela Erickson of Lexington, N.C., contacted Scottsville Museum to tell us that she and her husband had been digging around an old railroad track in the Lexington area. Quite by surprise, they uncovered an old milk bottle, which was slug-plated “Snowden Dairy, Scottsville, VA,” as shown in the above photo. Angela said…
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Main Street Businesses Flooded ~ 1913
A rider on horseback wades through the high flood waters on Main Street. This 1913 flood ranked as the 8th highest recorded flood in Scottsville’s history with flood waters measuring at 25.16 ft. over flood level. Left to Right, these Main Street buildings are: Copyright © 2018 by Scottsville Museum Image Located On: Capturing Our…
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Dr. J.P. Blair’s Dental Office
Dr. Blair operated his dental office on the second floor of this white building, located beside Mink Creek on the south side of Main St. The creek ran under this bridge on Main Street, and, as Mayor Raymon Thacker remembers, everytime Mink Creek flooded, the Blair and Moon (next door) buildings filled with muddy water.…
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Scottsville Town Council ~ 1900
This Scottsville Town Council, like others before and since, was made up of prominent local businessmen. Shown above are the following council members: Top Row (L to R): Dr. Joseph P. Blair, Tom Heath, Jackson Beal, Thomas A. FoxBottom Row (L to R): Jacinto V. Pereira, Peter Foland, W.E. Moon Jacinto V. Pereira was President…
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Jacinto V. Pereira ~ Bank President
Jacinto V. Pereira was an Englishman, who operated the Fidelity Bank in Scottsville. Shown here in his bank office, Mr. Pereira also served on the Scottsville Town Council and built the Travelers’ Rest Hotel on Main Street, where he resided until his death in January 1925. In 1940, the old Fidelity Bank and two other…
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Jefferson Mills
Jefferson Mills, located on the Hardware River approximately three miles northeast of Scottsville, was built about 1800 and is a brick structure with four floors supported by huge handworked wooden beams. The mill originally was run by an overshot wheel that was fed from a stone dam twenty feet above the riverbed. Jefferson Mills’ original…
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Doctor Percy Harris, Sr.
Shown in this 1915 photo, Dr. Percy Harris, Sr. stands beside his Maxwell car on West Main Street with Valley Street behind him. The building just behind his right elbow is W.F. Paulett Lumber and at the photo’s left is a three-storied, white building called the Travelers’ Rest Hotel. Percy enrolled in the Medical College…
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J.B. Tindall’s Groceries
James Benson Tindall, Sr., began his career as a businessman at Brown’s Landing (now Hatton) in 1906 when he rented Brown’s Store and renamed it ‘J. B. Tindall’s Groceries.’ In 1914, Tindall purchased the store from Brown’s descendants and managed it until his death in 1945. This store was built on a strong foundation comprised…
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Scottsville Flour Mills
The Scottsville Flour Mills was a five-story building, located at Main and Ferry Streets in Scottsville. It was a state-of-the-art mill that was built about 1910 and ran with steam. Arthur Thacker managed the mill for Captain John Pitts, its owner, from 1911-1917, until his health worsened due to breathing flour dust in the mill.…
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Butler’s Harness, Coffin, and Casket Store
This photograph shows Butler’s Harness, Coffin, and Casket Store at 440 Valley Street in Scottsville. The building was also known as Butler’s Funeral Home because of its coffin/casket services. John Wesley Butler ran this business and made caskets, harnesses, and other leather goods at his store. The store sign, posted on the tree in front…
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Corner of Valley and Main Streets ~ 1915
Shown here are Scottsville’s tranquil Valley and Main Streets in the early 1900’s before automobiles changed the landscape and traffic patterns. See the image below as a guide to these specific buildings: Copyright © 2018 by Scottsville Museum Image Located On: Capturing Our Heritage, CDB17B72cdB17.tifB72cdB17.jpgB72cdB17.psd
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Coleman Ball’s Blacksmith Shop
This Burgess stereograph shows Coleman Ball’s Blacksmith Shop at the corner of Ferry and Main Street. A stereograph was an almost identical side-by-side set of images of a single scene, viewed simultaneously through an optical device held to the eyes like a pair of binoculars. Each eye looked at a slightly different image, and the…
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William Edward Burgess ~ Scottsville’s Photographer
William Edward Burgess (1871-1935) was a photographer and historian, who lived his adult years in Scottsville, Virginia. He was known to all as ‘Willie’ and worked out of Idylwood, his combination home and photo studio located in the eastern part of Scottsville that lies in Fluvanna County. An avid photographer since his teenaged years, Burgess…
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Valley Street in Scottsville ~ 1912
Burgess took this photo looking northwest up Valley Street from the corner of Main and Valley Streets. The key below identifies these buildings on Valley Street in the photo above: (1) Carlton House – on the corner of Valley Street and West Main. This building housed three businesses in 1912: Dickinson Drugstore at the south…
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Piedmont Berry Grower’s Association
Members of the Piedmont Berry Grower Association pose in front of their headquarters at the northeast corner of Page and West Main in Scottsville. This association marketed their dairy produce and fresh berries (strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries) for about three years, operating out of an old house on Lot 166. After the Association went out…
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Scottsville Carriage and Repair Works
Philip Palm, an immigrant from Sweden, operated the Scottsville Carriage and Repair Works in the early 1900’s. In addition to making and repairing carriages, Palm upholstered furniture, repaired shoes, and made frames. He also made coffins and served as the town’s undertaker. By 1914, Phillip Palm and two business partners, L. Gordon White and Thomas…
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The Old Tavern
The Old Tavern is located on the north side of Scottsville’s Main Street and across the street from the Herndon House and Colonial Cottage. This two-story brick building shows the pioneer split-level composition of a single and double gallery, connected by a covered outside stair. Although the exact date of its construction is unknown, the…
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C. B. Harris and Co.
The C.B. Harris Co. was a men’s clothing store operated by Charles Bascom Harris, Jr. in Scottsville. Charles (1883-1959) was the grandson of Miletus Harris, a merchant and wheelwright, who owned this three-storied Harris Building by 1860. Miletus also operated a mercantile store in this building, located across the street from the Scottsville Methodist Church…
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Tending the Bank Books
Susie was the wife of Dr. Joseph P. Blair, a Scottsville dentist and Town Council member. Lucy was the youngest of the four Power sisters and never married. For many years the Powers family ran the Scottsville Hotel on Valley Street. Copyright © 2018 by Scottsville Museum Image Located On: Capturing Our Heritage, CDB12B05cdB12.tifB05cdB12.jpgB05cdB12.psd
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Scottsville’s Post Office and Postmasters
The Masonic Building was built in 1914 and hosted the town’s post office on the bottom floor from 1915 until 1964 when the post office moved to its next location on West Main Street. Sam Gault served as Scottsville’s postmaster from 1893 to 1939. He was succeeded by Ashby Mayo in 1939, who retired as…
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Times Dispatch Touts Scottsville for New Industry ~ 1909
Date: April 11, 1909 Road Material in Great Abundance Local Capital Ready to Take Pot Luck With Outside Cash, An Old-Time Canal Town That Has Taken on New Life By Frank S. Woodson, Industrial Editor Scottsville, VA, April 10 – The town from which I am writing is not quite as old as Jamestown nor…
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Scottsville Courier
Details of Business and Social Life ~ 1897 Date: August 12, 1897 The Scottsville Courier was published beginning in 1877 and ceased publication in 1906. The August 12, 1897 edition of this newspaper listed its Editor and Manager as Frank T. Hill, with Frank C. Moon the associate editor and solicitor. This old newspaper listed…
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The Dew Drop Inn
by Evelyn Edson The Dew Drop Inn went through a number of different owners. John Pearce remembers when it was a high school hangout in the 1950’s with plenty of loud rock n’ roll blaring from the jukeboxes. He used to get a Dixie cup of ice cream that he ate with a wooden spoon.…
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Opening Day at Scottsville Creamery
Shown above is the crowd standing in front of the Scottsville Creamery on West Main Street during its 1910 opening day celebrations. This business venture evolved in 1909 as Scottsville sought new industries in their town, which they felt was geographically situated so as to command good trade from all of Virginia if it produced…
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Charles Thomas Moon’s Grocery Store
The Charles Thomas Moon grocery store sat between the Masonic Lodge and the very edge of Mink Creek on Scottsville’s Main Street. On its first floor was the small store owned by Mr. Moon, Charles T. Moon Grocery, and this building’s second floor hosted a small apartment. Mr. Moon operated his grocery roughly between 1900-1920.…
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Bottles Tell Scottsville’s History
by Ruth KlippsteinScottsville MonthlySept. 15-Oct. 13, 2016 I have returned to talk to two of the important keepers of Scottsville memories, whose efforts to build and consolidate the historical record of our town have of our town have helped so much. Jack Hamner, who lives in the area, was born in Scottsville, became a collector…
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Little’s White Oil ~ Scottsville, VA, 1837-1866
Shown above are two bottles that were once filled with Little’s White Oil, a patent horse liniment compounded and patented by Theodore Wallis Little of Wayne County, NY. This liniment was manufactured and sold by the drug business established by Theodore with his brother, Charles Ebenezer Little, between 1837-1866. During this time period, Theodore also…
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Bank of Scottsville ~ 1852-1865
by Robert Tharpe The Virginia General Assembly passed an Act to establish the Bank of Scottsville in the County of Albemarle on March 12, 1849. James W. Mason, a notable Scottsville resident and builder of “Old Hall” was listed as a director. The Bank was not established then, however. Three years later, the Bank was…
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Arson Suspected in Two Destructive Fires on Main Street in 1976
Two Large Fires Raged On Scottsville’s Main Street in February 1976, destroying a church and four businesses at the center of town. They appeared to be the work of an arsonist who was never found. The photo above of the intersection of Valley Street (left) and Main Street (right) shows the Esso Station, run by…
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Life of a James River Batteauman
Text and photos by Barry Long The James River has been a watery highway of boat transportation since before John Smith sailed into its mouth in 1607, whereupon he was greeted by people traveling in dugout canoes. It remained the single most important avenue of transportation in the Colonies for hundreds of years, not only…
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Laying Cornerstone of Scottsville Plant
Date: May 24, 1944 Image Number: RT01cdRT02 Scottsville Plant was built in 1944 by the Defense Plant Corporation to help the nation’s war effort. It was designed and constructed to provide tire fabric and was operated by the Textile Division of the U.S. Rubber Company. The cornerstone-laying ceremony for this plant was sponsored by the…
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The Harris Sisters
The Harris Sisters – Florence, Nannie, and Etta – were the daughters of Martha J. (Minor) Harris and Lafayette Harris. After Lafayette died in 1856, Martha supported the family by operating a millinery and dry-goods shop in what is now known as the Harris Building, at 474–476 Valley Street. The building, constructed about 1840 with commercial…
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The Harris Building
The Harris Building, located at 474-476 Valley Street, was built circa 1840 as a commercial building with living quarters on the second floor. When her husband, Lafayette Harris, died in 1856, Martha J. (Minor) Harris began a millinery and dry goods store here to support herself and her three daughters, Florence, Nannie, and Etta. The…
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Let’s Roll a Hogshead!
by William E. Trout, III,Virginia Canal Museum, Madison Heights, VA A picturesque phase of tobacco marketing in the Colonial and Early National period in Virginia was the practice of rolling the hogshead of tobacco from the plantation to the place of inspection and sale. Transportation of tobacco in this manner was considered by William Tatham…
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Boyd, Edmond, and Davenport Packet Boats
Scottsvillian Jack Hamner, an experienced ‘dirt fisherman’ (relic hunter), unearthed this packet boat baggage tag near an old stone chimney between Keene and Esmont. The tag’s front reads “BE&D Packet, 8.” Engraved on the tag’s back is “John Robbins, Boston.” In the mid-1800’s, such small metal tags were attached to a traveler’s personal luggage and…
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1865 Report to Stockholders of James River and Kanawha Canal
In the above photo, mules pulled a canal boat along the James River and Kanawha Canal near Richmond, Virginia, in the early 1860’s. The canal served as a very successful means of transporting produce from the Lynchburg area all the way to Richmond during the 1840-1880 time period. However, bad weather impacted the canal’s operation…
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The Hatton Ferry
Photo above, Hatton Ferry, ca. 1910 Hatton Ferry is a poled ferry that crosses the James River at a site named Hatton about three and one-fourth miles south west of Scottsville, Virginia. James A. Brown, a storekeeper, began operating a ferry at this location in the late 1870’s. In 1906, James Benson Tindall of Buckingham…
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Dr. Stinson Attends to His Practice
Born across the James River in Buckingham County, Virginia, Dr. Luther R. Stinson graduated from the University College of Medicine in Richmond (later called Medical College of Virginia) in 1900. He set up his practice in Scottsville, and wishing to succeed, Dr. Stinson asked Sam Gault, Scottsville’s postmaster, “Sam, how can I show’em I’m a…
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Biking Through Albemarle with John Jones in the 1800s
Linda Listmann of Santa Cruz, CA, is transcribing her great grandfather’s journals, which began in 1875. His name was John Jones. In the summer of 1882, John was one of two astronomers, who came with Ormond Stone from the Cincinnati Observatory to oversee the building of McCormick Observatory at the University of Virginia. Stone became…
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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…