11 Best Places To Live In Virginia
Staunton is the only place in the world where Shakespeare is staged in a working modern recreation of the 1599 Blackfriars Playhouse. Abingdon's Barter Theatre, Virginia's official state theater, has been running professional productions year-round since 1933. Smithfield's downtown holds 290 contributing historic buildings on the National Register, and Smithfield Foods is still headquartered in town. Pearisburg sits on the Appalachian Trail with the New River cutting through, one of the standard resupply points for thru-hikers. The eleven Virginia towns below each work as a small place to live for different reasons, and they are not interchangeable.
Staunton
Staunton is an independent city in the Shenandoah Valley, the seat of Augusta County in everything but legal status. Woodrow Wilson was born here in 1856; the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum sits in the manse where the future president spent his first year. The American Shakespeare Center's Blackfriars Playhouse, two blocks away, is the only working modern recreation of Shakespeare's indoor theater (built in 2001 from documentary research on the original Blackfriars). Mary Baldwin University, founded in 1842, occupies a hilltop campus above the historic district. Gypsy Hill Park covers 214 acres in the city's center with a pond, gardens, walking paths, and a miniature train. The median home price runs around $345,000.
Amherst
Amherst is the county seat of Amherst County, about an hour southwest of Charlottesville and 15 minutes north of Lynchburg. The town sits in the Blue Ridge foothills with the Pedlar District of George Washington National Forest 30 minutes west. The Amherst County Museum and Historical Society occupies a 1907 brick Georgian-style house and runs local history exhibits and an archive. Sweet Briar College, ten miles south, is one of the more visible institutions in the area. Local cost of living runs lower than most of the state, with median home prices around $295,000.
Buena Vista
Buena Vista is a small independent city on the Maury River in the central Shenandoah Valley, just east of Lexington. The town was founded in 1889 as a mining and manufacturing center; many of the late-19th-century commercial buildings survive. Glen Maury Park covers 315 acres along the Maury with hiking, mountain biking, camping, a public swimming pool, and the annual Maury River Fiddlers' Convention each August. Southern Virginia University occupies a hilltop campus above downtown. Median home prices sit around $285,000.
Pearisburg
Pearisburg is the seat of Giles County in southwestern Virginia. The Appalachian Trail crosses the New River at Pearisburg, making the town one of the standard resupply stops for thru-hikers (the Holy Family Hostel near downtown has been a long-running trail hostel). The New River, despite the name one of the older rivers in North America, runs through the county with several public access points for kayaking, canoeing, and tubing. The Andrew Johnston House Museum on Tazewell Street occupies an 1829 Georgian-style home and serves as the Giles County Historical Society's headquarters. JBR Vineyards, in the foothills nearby, runs tastings of wines made from estate-grown grapes. Median home prices run around $260,000.
Warsaw
Warsaw is the seat of Richmond County (an entirely separate jurisdiction from the city of Richmond) on Virginia's Northern Neck, the peninsula between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers. Menokin, ten minutes north, preserves the ruins of the 1769 Georgian house of Francis Lightfoot Lee, signer of the Declaration of Independence; the Menokin Foundation has stabilized the ruins inside a contemporary glass envelope as an unusual conservation project. Warsaw Town Park has picnic areas, a playground, and a dog park. Richmond is about an hour southwest. Median home prices in Warsaw run around $342,500.
Woodstock
Woodstock is the seat of Shenandoah County in the northern Shenandoah Valley. The 1795 Shenandoah County Courthouse downtown is the oldest courthouse west of the Blue Ridge still in continuous use. The Woodstock Tower, a fire lookout on Massanutten Mountain east of town, gives a view of the Shenandoah River's seven horseshoe bends (one of the most photographed natural landmarks in the valley). Seven Bends State Park, on the river inside town limits, has 1,066 acres of riverfront with paddling access, hiking, and primitive camping. The Saturday farmers' markets and the South Street Barn Market keep the downtown active. Median home prices run around $385,000.
Abingdon
Abingdon is the seat of Washington County in far southwestern Virginia. The Barter Theatre, founded in 1933 during the Depression when audiences bartered produce for tickets, is Virginia's official state theater and runs year-round professional productions. The William King Museum of Art occupies a 1913 Beaux-Arts schoolhouse on a hilltop overlooking downtown. The Virginia Creeper Trail (a 34-mile rail-trail that climbs from Abingdon to Whitetop Mountain near the North Carolina border) starts at the trailhead in town and is the most popular biking trail in the region. The Abingdon Farmers Market runs Saturdays from April through November. Virginia Highlands Community College serves the regional educational base. Median home prices run around $350,000.
West Point
West Point sits at the confluence of the Mattaponi and Pamunkey Rivers in King William County, where the two rivers form the York. The town's three sides are water, and the Mattaponi and Pamunkey Indian reservations (two of the oldest Indigenous reservations in the country, dating to 17th-century treaties with the Virginia colony) sit on the rivers immediately upstream. The West Point River Walk Trail runs along the Mattaponi waterfront. The Historical Society of West Point covers local history including the town's WestRock paper mill, the largest single employer in the area for over a century. Norfolk is about 90 minutes southeast. Median home prices run around $330,000.
Smithfield
Smithfield is an Isle of Wight County town on the Pagan River, one of Virginia's best-preserved colonial seaports, with a historic district of nearly 290 contributing buildings dating back to the 1700s. The town is known as the Ham Capital of the World thanks to a meatpacking heritage that goes back centuries; Smithfield Foods is still headquartered in town. The Isle of Wight County Museum on Main Street walks visitors through that history, including a famous century-old Smithfield ham on display. Windsor Castle Park, within walking distance of downtown, covers more than 200 acres along the river with walking trails, kayak access, and a dog park. Riverside and Sentara facilities are reachable nearby in the Hampton Roads area. Median home prices run around $315,000, and Smithfield sits about 30 minutes from Norfolk for residents who want a major city within reach.
Strasburg
Strasburg is a small town in northern Shenandoah County, the gateway to the upper Shenandoah Valley from the north. The Strasburg Museum, in a former pottery factory, holds local Civil War, Native American, and 19th-century industrial history. Hupp's Hill Civil War Park preserves earthworks from the October 1864 Battle of Cedar Creek; the larger Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park sits adjacent. The Strasburg Emporium, in a Civil War-era warehouse downtown, is one of the largest antique malls in the state with around 100 dealers. Median home prices run around $350,000.
Winchester
Winchester sits at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley, the largest town on this list at about 28,000 residents. George Washington's surveying office (a small log building from 1748) survives on Cork Street as one of the oldest commercial buildings in the country. The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley occupies a 100,000-square-foot complex around the 1794 Glen Burnie Historic House and 7 acres of formal gardens. Old Town Winchester's pedestrian mall runs four blocks of restaurants, shops, and the Bright Box Theater. Jim Barnett Park covers 173 acres on the city's west side with an indoor pool, ball fields, and trails. Apple Blossom Festival each May draws regional crowds. Median home prices run around $425,000.
Final Thought
Virginia's best small towns make sense when you stop trying to compare them. Staunton is built around a Shakespeare playhouse and a presidential birthplace; Pearisburg is built around the Appalachian Trail and the New River; West Point is built around the meeting of two tidal rivers and an Indigenous reservation system that predates the United States. The eleven above each give a different version of small-town Virginia, and the price points still allow most of them to function as places people actually live rather than just visit.
