Frontier Culture Museum

This museum is an open air demonstration of living history, telling the story of the people who migrated from Europe to America and the life they created in the Shenandoah Valley. The museum is made up of original or reproduced examples of traditional buildings from the Old World and America. The Old World exhibits include a West African farm, an English farm, an Irish farm and forge and a German farm. On site interpreters help bring the sets to life in much the same way as is done at colonial Williamsburg. The American exhibits comprise a 1740s American settlement, an 1820s American farm, an 1850s American farm, and an early American schoolhouse. 540.332.7850. Located just 1/4 mile west of I-81 at exit 222.

Statler Brothers, Native Sons

The Statler Brothers, famed country and gospel singers, share Staunton as their home town. Only two were brothers (Don and Harold Reid), and none had the surname Statler. They named themselves after a brand of facial tissue. Their career began in 1955 and ended in retirement in 2002, during which time they released 40 albums. Phil Balsley sang baritone and Jimmy Fortune sang tenor from the early 1980s, due to the ill health of original Statler tenor Lew DeWitt. A heavy dose of humor was always incorporated into their live performances. The Statler Brothers were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008 and the Gospel Hall of Fame in 2007.

Three of the singers still reside in Staunton, but Jimmy Fortune has relocated to Nashville to pursue a solo career. The group maintains a gift shop in Staunton at 1409 N. Augusta Street. Videos, recordings and memorabilia. Open Mon-Fri 11:00a to 3:00p. 540-885-7297.

Camera & Palette Museum

This privately owned enterprise includes daguerreotypes, view cameras, spy cameras, a large Leica collection and area historical photos. Highlights are a camera used by the Japanese during the Pearl Harbor attack and an official Nazi documentation camera.

Hours: 9:00 am-5:00 pm Mom-Fri; 9:00 am-2:00 pm Sat. Free. 540-886-7291. Located within a retail camera store at 1 W. Beverley Street.

Temple House of Israel

When they outgrew their meeting place on Kalaroma Street, the local Reform Jewish congregation (founded 1876) purchased a lot on North Market Street from Mary Baldwin College and engaged Sam Collins, nephew of T.J. Collins, to design a new house of worship. The cornerstone, dated 1925, was set by the local Masonic lodge. Since that time, this unique building has been in continuous use by the local Jewish community.

The building’s design is in Moorish style, rare among synagogues in the United States. The building itself, the treasured Connick stained glass windows, the Mercer ceramic tiles and other architectural details of the bima contribute to the structure’s historic and architectural significance. The stained glass windows, lights, and entry glass were designed and constructed by Charles Connick Associates of Boston. Connick, who was also responsible for the rose windows of St. Patrick's Cathedral and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, is considered second only to Tiffany in importance. Staunton’s Temple House of Israel is one of very few structures that still has the full complement of original glass as it was installed.

Rabbi Joe Blair, of Temple House of Israel, was appointed adjunct professor of religion at Mary Baldwin College in 2004. He also serves as Rabbi of Harrisonburg's Beth El Congregation.

Photo below: the architecturally distinctive ark that holds the Torah.



The former school (below) that served as home for Temple House of Israel's congregation from 1876 until 1925. It still stands, now somewhat derelict, diagonally across from the Stonewall Jackson Hotel, at the corner of Kalorama and South Market Streets.

Wait! There's more. Click on "Older Posts" to continue.

Time Warp 1952: Wright's Dairy Rite

Wright’s Dairy Rite is among the last curb-service drive-in burger eateries in the state. F. A. Wright opened his Dairy Rite in 1952 and established high standards in his kitchen. He created a tradition in Staunton that has lasted for nearly sixty years. To this day Wright’s is still family-owned – these days by his son-in-law James E. Cash and his grandson, James R. Cash. This is where the Statler Brothers used to hang out in their youth.

On the menu is the popular Superburger – two patties of ground beef, melted cheese, shredded lettuce, and their own special sauce, served on the specially baked three-decker bun – BigMac, eat your heart out (Wright’s opened three years before Ray Croc started his McDonald’s empire). Other specialties are ice cream and dairy treats. Make a step back into time to 1952 with a visit to Wright’s Dairy Rite. Free WiFi. 346 Greenville Avenue (Rt. 11), just south of downtown Staunton. 540.886.0435

Note: For the past 23 years Wright’s has hosted two “Cruise-In” events on the Sunday afternoons before Memorial Day and Labor Day. On average 200 classic and antique car owners register to make an appearance. Winners receive special dash plaques.

Gypsy Hill Park

Painting of the bandstand in Gypsy Hill Park by Staunton resident Mary Ann Vessey
540-885-1891

Gypsy Hill Park is a 214 acre recreational destination adjacent to the northwest edge of downtown. The park began as the site of Staunton's water supply in the mid 1800s, when several springs dispensed water to the city via a pumping station. In 1876 the city purchased 30 acres of land around the springs to protect the water supply; by 1890 the city had acquired 90 acres and established a recreational tract known as Gypsy Hill Park, named for the wandering gypsies who camped near the springs. Throughout the 20th century expansion of the park, residents and visitors have been able to experience much of its original Victorian character and charm. For 25 years the Statler Brothers gave Independence Day concerts here to an audience of 100,000 fans. Facilities include a bandstand, golf course, swimming pool, barbecue areas, baseball fields, basketball courts, bicycle paths, duck pond, fishing, fitness station, football and soccer fields, horseshoes, mini-train, picnic shelters, playgrounds, running tracks, action skate park, tennis and volleyball courts.

Trivia (swear I'm not making this stuff up!):

There is a German made medium field Howitzer 8.8 ton cannon aimed at a row of houses behind a line of trees near the duck pond. Hmmm. It seems this was WW II "booty" shipped home by our armed forces. Great! A 17,600 pound souvenir.

Hollywood comes to Shenandoah! Portions of Evan Almighty were filmed in Staunton and nearby Waynesboro in the spring of 2006. In this still, Evan Baxter (portrayed by Steve Carell) is on the campaign trail (in Gypsy Hill Park).

Free Trolley Service

"Lady Libby" stopped in front of the Amtrak station.

Staunton offers a free trolley service to assist visitors in getting around downtown. The green trolleys stop at the Staunton Visitors Center for pickup at 15 minutes and 45 minutes after every hour, making a continuous loop around downtown and out to Thornrose Cemetery and Gypsy Hill Park, once every 30 minutes. Daily except Sundays: 10:00a-10:00p May-Dec, until 6:00p Jan-Apr.

Sunspots Studios Glass Blowing

Sunspots glass blowing studio is housed in a historic c. 1899 building in downtown Staunton. Their studio, art glass showroom and gift shop are open seven days a week, with live glass blowing demonstrations nearly every day. Vases, bird feeders, garden art, oil candles, perfume bottles, decorative wine stoppers, gazing globes, glass bead jewelry and more. Visitors are welcome to stop by and feel the furnaces blazing!



Sunspots Studios
202 S. Lewis St; 540.885.0678
Glass blowing demonstrations until 4:00p
Mon-Sat 10:00a-6:00p; Sun 11:30a-5:00p

Firefighting Museum

The Staunton Fire and Rescue Department, founded in 1790, is the oldest continuously operated fire company in the state, with 220 years of tradition. All are welcome to come see "Jumbo", the oldest motorized fire engine in Virginia and the only extant 1911 Robinson chemical fire truck. It is housed in a museum (founded 1982) located inside the modern station at 500 N. Augusta Street. Billy Thompson’s White Post Restorations did the meticulous restoration work at a cost of over $140,000. The Robinson company, based in St. Louis, Missouri, manufactured firefighting equipment between 1908 and 1923, but the Staunton Fire Department’s “Jumbo” remained operational until 1971, nearly 50 years after Robinson closed up shop. Also on display are items relating to fire fighting, some going back to the Civil War. 540-332-3886. Free, 9:00a to 10:00p.

Dixie: Vaudeville & Silent Films

The Dixie Theater, designed in Italian Renaissance Revival style by architect T.J. Collins and sons, opened in June, 1913. Then called the "New Theatre", it offered vaudeville shows and silent movies and was renowned for its elaborate, effusive decor. It was here that the locals cheered on the hometown boy, William Haines, who became the nation’s biggest silent screen star in 1930. Haines, born just a few blocks away in 1900, had spent many a thrilling time as a teenager in this brand new entertainment venue, never dreaming that he would someday appear larger than life on that very screen. After filming "Brown of Harvard," Billy Haines returned to Staunton for a visit in 1926, and a large crowd attended a screening of two of his silent films. After a disastrous fire in 1936, the theater reopened solely as a movie house with a new name, the Dixie Theatre. The exterior was greatly simplified, and the pre-fire third story was not rebuilt. The Dixie continues to screen films today. 125 East Beverley St., at the corner of Market Street.

Architectural interest (photo above): looking at the exterior along Beverley St., in the center of the second floor are three arches inlaid with terra cotta mosaic tiles. Above and centered between the arches are four theatrical laughing faces. Click photos to enlarge.





















A photo of the original building, prior to the rebuilding after the 1936 fire. The third story was not rebuilt, and the glass in the second story windows was replaced with Art-Deco tile work.

Augusta County Historical Society

Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Cyrus McCormick, Woodrow Wilson, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson all played important roles in the history of Augusta County, but so did Grandma Moses and Kate Smith and the Statler Brothers. Frontiersman Daniel Boone visited kinfolk here and Charles Lindbergh landed here. Even history's great names like Eisenhower and Lincoln traced their ancestral homes to this county. And, truth be told – George Washington slept here.

Here you can learn more about the historic significance of August County. Located in the R.R. Smith Center for History and Art, housed in a restored 19th-century railroad hotel formerly known as the Eakleton Hotel, designed in 1893 by noted local architect T. J. Collins.
20 S. New Street, opposite the Tourist Office.

Va. School for the Deaf and Blind

A state boarding school created by an act of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1838 for the purpose of educating deaf and blind children, it is the second oldest school of its type in the nation. The magnificent brick main building with Greek portico was completed in 1846 and is still in use (also shown below in a vintage engraving). Baltimore architect Robert Cary Long Jr. was hired as architect, and the grounds surrounding his structure became a park for the community of Staunton.

Deaf and blind children were housed and taught in separate wings, due to the differences in educating the two exceptionalities, and each school had its own principal until 1852, when Dr. Jean Merilatt, originally from Alsace, France, took over the entire facility. Students were taught a trade by which they could support themselves upon graduating.

The school’s buildings were taken for use as a Confederate hospital in 1861, the same year that the 52nd Virginia Infantry made camp and trained here before heading off to war. The school housed as many as 500 sick and wounded soldiers, many of whom had been engaged in the Battle of Gettysburg. During this time the students were removed to another local school to make room for the war patients.

In 2007 the School for the Deaf, Blind and Multi-disabled at Hampton, VA, was consolidated into the Staunton School for the Deaf and Blind. $75 million in new projects and renovations are currently underway.

Thornrose Cemetery

Bronze door of an elaborate mausoleum.

The graveyard surrounding Trinity Church had served as the town cemetery since 1760, even for those who were not Episcopalian. With the Trinity Church cemetery full a hundred years later, the town purchased acreage at the far western extreme of Beverley Street for use as a new community cemetery. The first burial took place in 1853. Tourist brochures will tell you that 1,700 civil war soldiers are buried there, that T.J. Collins designed magnificent tombs, a bridge, gatehouse --- blah, blah, blah.

None of that stuff is as interesting as the stories about the less than famous interred there. For years a circus band entered the cemetery and played at the grave of Eva Clark, a trapeze artist who was shot when caught up in a love triangle. Thornrose is also the final resting place of a female Confederate spy, a Charlottesville madam and a twice widowed woman recently buried between her two husbands; before her death in 1988 she would go to the cemetery each day and read the newspaper out loud to her husbands.

Museum of Bank History

Adjoining the handsome 1903 Beaux-Arts style banking hall of SunTrust Bank is a display of objects that were once used by the National Valley Bank as well as memorabilia associated with the banking industry. They showcase money printed in Staunton and even original spittoons that used to be placed throughout the bank. Prominent is a portrait of native son Woodrow Wilson signing the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.

National Valley Bank was started in 1856 by General John Echols as a local enterprise. The interior of the 1903 T. J. Collins building boasts a magnificent oval stained glass skylight, original teller stations and elaborate pilasters and stucco work. The Beaux-Arts exterior was inspired by the Roman Arch of Titus. His son Sam Collins designed the 1920s Art-Deco addition that extends to the corner of Beverley and S. Lewis Streets.

Museum open during banking hours: M-Th 9:00a-5:00p, F 9:00a-6:00p. 540-887-0174