Small Towns of Virginia Series - White Post, Virginia

Sometimes town or village names are named after people like the family that first settled there or the first postmaster, etc. Other places are named for a feature in the area. Then there is White Post, Virginia which is literally named after the white post that has stood near or at the intersection of White Post Road and Berrys Ferry Road for over 250 years.

The White Post in July 2002. The four locations marked on the post are Battletown, Berry's Ferry, Greenway Court, and Stephens City.

Legend has it that in 1750, Lord Farifax directed George Washington to erect a white post near Ashby Gap-Winchester Road to direct travelers to nearby Greenway Court, home of Fairfax's Library. Obviously, the post is not the original. It has been knocked down numerous times by unsuspecting motorists.

When I made a return visit in 2012, the four towns on the white post were no longer standing.

White Post is an unincorporated village off of US 340 in Clarke County. Like many nearby areas, there are a number of Bed & Breakfasts within the town. Also nearby is a classic roadside attraction, Dinosaurland. This family friendly has been over for 50 years and features over 50 different dinosaurs.

The Messilla Farm Shop dates back to 1928 when it was a service station.

Site Navigation:

Return to Small Towns of Virginia Series Index

Comments

Did Caltrans just kill the G26 cutout US Route shields?

The US Route System was formally created by the American Association of State Highway Officials during November 1926. Through the history of the system the only state to which has elected to maintain cutout US Route shields has been California. The G26 series cutout US Route shields have become a favorite in the road enthusiast hobby and are generally considered to be much more visually pleasing than the standard Federal Highway Administration variant. However, the G26 shield series appears to have been killed off on January 18, 2026, when Caltrans updated their Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices. This blog will examine the history of the US Route shield specifications in California and what is happening with the 2026 changes. The blog cover photo is facing towards the terminus of California State Route 136 and at a G26-2 specification US Route 395 shield. In the background Mount Whitney can be seen in the Sierra Nevada range. ...

May 2023 Ontario Trip (Part 3 of 3)

Over the years, I have made plenty of trips to Ontario, crisscrossing the southern, central and eastern parts of the province. Living in Upstate New York, it's pretty easy to visit our neighbor to the north, or is that our neighbor to the west? Ottawa is one of my favorite cities to visit anywhere in the world, plus I've discovered the charm of Kingston, the waterfalls of Hamilton (which is on the same Niagara Escarpment that brings us Niagara Falls), the sheer beauty of the Bruce Peninsula, and more. But I hadn't explored much of Cottage Country. So I decided to change that, and what better time to go than over Memorial Day weekend, when the daylight is long and I have an extra day to explore. On the third and final day of my trip, I started in Huntsville and made my way through Muskoka District and Haliburton County, passing by many lakes along the way. I stopped in towns such as Dorset, Haliburton and Bancroft before making a beeline down to Belleville and then over th...

Ghost Town Tuesday; Nichols, FL

A couple years ago I spent a lot of spare time exploring phosphate mining ghost towns in the Bone Valley of Polk County, Florida. One ghost town in particular called Nichols on Polk County Route 676 west of Mulberry caught my eye due to a relative lack of documentation on ghosttowns.com. Nichols was created in 1905 during the early phosphate mining boom in the Bone Valley region. For the time Nichols was unusual since it had company housing in the Nichols Mine site and private residences outside the gate. Nichols is only about two miles west of Mulberry which probably made it a somewhat reasonable commute even by the wonky standards of the early 20th Century. Most of the Bone Valley region was relatively remote which made commuting or homesteading impractical which is why there are so many ghost towns in the area. The company housing section of Nichols was phased out and abandoned by 1950. The Nichols town site is largely abandoned and could "possibl...

Gribblenation

Search This Blog