Skip to main content

Small Towns of Virginia Series - Millwood

Quiet Store and Homefronts in Millwood
Hidden away from the modern highway that carries routes 17 and 50 sits the small community of Millwood, a community that dates for over 200 years.  Millwood's lifeblood for numerous decades was the Burwell-Morgan Mill completed in 1785 by Colonel Nathaniel Burwell and Daniel Morgan.   The mill ran as a commercial operation until 1953.  The mill served as a merchant mill providing various milled goods to local residents. The mill is open to visitors Thursdays through Sundays from May to October.  Besides being a museum of the mill's past, the mill also serves as the location of artwork and art shows for local artisans.  This program is known as "Art at the Mill".

The Burwell-Morgan Mill has recently been restored to 1780s conditions and machinery.
Millwood is known for its many antique shops, bed-and-breakfast's, and general stores.  Many of the structures in Millwood are old frame houses with various stone facades and lined with limestone fences.  The Clark House, built in 1842, was a meeting place during the negotiations of Confederate Colonel John Mosby's surrender.

One of the many centuries old stone buildings in Millwood
Millwood is located in Clarke County.  It can be reached easily from Winchester and Washington.  From the East or West via US 17/50, Millwood is easily reached via VA Route 255.  From the North or South via US 340, Millwood can be reached from Route 723 in Boyce.

Site Navigation:

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I-40 rockslide uncovers old debates on highway

The Asheville Citizen-Times continues to do a great job covering all the angles of the Interstate 40 Haywood County rock slide. An article in Sunday's edition provides a strong historical perspective on how the Pigeon River routing of Interstate 40 came about. And perhaps most strikingly, in an article that ran just prior to the highway's opening in the fall of 1968, how engineers from both Tennessee and North Carolina warned "...that slides would probably be a major problem along the route for many years." On February 12, 1969, not long after the Interstate opened, the first rock slide that would close I-40 occurred. Like many other Interstates within North Carolina, Interstate 40 through the mountains has a history prior to formation of the Interstate Highway System and was also a heated political battle between local communities. The discussion for a road that would eventually become Interstate 40 dates back to the 1940's as the idea for interregional high

Mines Road

Mines Road is an approximately twenty-eight-mile highway located in the rural parts of the Diablo Range east of the San Francisco Bay Area.  Mines Road begins in San Antonio Valley in Santa Clara County and terminates at Tesla Road near Livermore of Alameda County.  The highway essentially is a modern overlay of the 1840s Mexican haul trail up Arroyo Mocho known as La Vereda del Monte.  The modern corridor of Mines Road took shape in the early twentieth century following development of San Antonio Valley amid a magnesite mining boom.  Part 1; the history of Mines Road Modern Mines Road partially overlays the historic corridor used by La Vereda del Monte (Mountain Trail).  La Vereda del Monte was part of a remote overland route through the Diablo Range primarily used to drive cattle from Alta California to Sonora.  The trail was most heavily used during the latter days of Alta California during the 1840s. La Vereda del Monte originated at Point of Timber between modern day Byron and Bre

Former California State Route 41 past Bates Station

When California State Route 41 was commissioned during August 1934 it was aligned along the then existing Fresno-Yosemite Road north of the San Joaquin River.  Within the Sierra Nevada foothills of Madera County, the original highway alignment ran past Bates Station via what is now Madera County Road 209, part of eastern Road 406 and Road 207.   Bates Station was a stage station plotted during the early 1880s at what was the intersection of the Coarsegold Road and Stockton-Los Angeles Road.   The modern alignment bypassing Bates Station to the east would be reopened to traffic during late 1939.   Part 1; the history of California State Route 41 past Bates Station Bates Station was featured as one of the many 1875-1899 Madera County era towns in the May 21, 1968, Madera Tribune .  Post Office Service at Bates Station is noted to have been established on November 23, 1883 and ran continuously until October 31, 1903.  The postal name was sourced from Bates Station owner/operator George Ba