Editing Stuart, Virginia (section)

==History==

===Incorporation (1753–1830)===
[[Image:Stuart va 1800'sb.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Stuart Train Depot, ca 1895]]
The Town of Stuart was first incorporated as Taylorsville, Virginia, in 1792, in honor of early settler George Taylor. Stuart has been the [[county seat]] of [[Patrick County]] since 1791, when the county was organized from territory of [[Henry County, Virginia|Henry County]]. Captain Eliphaz Shelton of the Patrick County Revolutionary War Militia donated the land for the construction of a new courthouse and town subdivided from his plantation.  The [[Patrick County Courthouse]] was built in the center of the town. What is now designated as the Stuart Uptown Historic District encompasses the historic core of the county seat. It includes government, financial, religious, and commercial buildings dating from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries.

===Antebellum (1831–1860)===
By 1850, Taylorsville had grown to include approximately 50 dwellings and businesses. The [[1850 United States census|1850 census]] reported 18 households with 50 adults (including 29 boarders) and 60 children living in the area of the courthouse. Occupations listed included four [[farmer]]s, two [[innkeeper]]s, three [[merchant]]s, [[Lawyer|attorneys]], two [[physician]]s, two [[cabinetmaker]]s, two [[saddle]]rs, one [[Horse tack#Harness|harness maker]], three [[tailor]]s, one [[bricklayer]], nine [[laborer]]s, a [[Clerk (position)|clerk]], a [[mail carrier]], and a [[sheriff]] with two deputies. The [[Danville and Wytheville Turnpike]], the predecessor to the present-day [[U.S. Route 58 in Virginia|U.S. Route 58]], was established in the 1850s. In 1848, the [[Richmond and Danville Railroad]] was chartered, and tracks were completed to [[Danville, Virginia|Danville]] by 1856.

===Civil War, reconstruction and growth (1860–1916)===
[[File:Danville and Western Railway.jpg|thumb|left|175px|Engine, Danville and Western Railway, ca. 1900]]
Following the economic difficulties of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], the residents of Taylorsville focused their energies on expanding [[railroad]]s to connect to markets and boost the economy. The [[Danville and New River Railroad]] was chartered in 1873, with the line completed to [[Martinsville, Virginia]] in nearby Henry County by 1881. In 1883, citizens of Patrick County approved a bond of $150,000 to expand the line. The first train pulled into Taylorsville in August 1884. With the growth associated with the railroad, Taylorsville was incorporated as a town in 1884 and was renamed Stuart in honor of Confederate [[Major General]] [[J.E.B. Stuart]], who was born 20 miles west of town in [[Ararat, Virginia]].

Following the completion of the railroad, the town of Stuart continued to grow steadily. The population increased 25% from 300 in 1884 to 371 in 1900. While occupations continued to center around the courthouse functions and the typical needs of a trading center, the [[1900 United States census|1900 census]] reflects the influence of the railroad by recording four railroad employees, eight salesmen, one [[insurance agent]], one [[mining engineer]], and one timber dealer. Five teachers, three hotels, two druggists, and two bartenders also indicate the growth of the town. The construction of the railroad led to the distinction of "uptown" and "downtown" Stuart. The original courthouse village was situated at the crest of a hill. An industrial and commercial area developed adjacent to the railroad, which was located further downhill along the flats of the [[Mayo River (Dan River)|Mayo River]]. "Uptown" continued to serve as the center of the town with the courthouse, churches, school, attorneys' offices, banks, hotels, and stores. The two areas, however, were closely related and interdependent; the town's first [[telephone]] line at the turn of the twentieth century was run between the railroad depot downtown and the Hotel Perkins uptown.
[[File:J. Gurney & Son - J.E.B. Stuart.jpg|thumb|right|175px|General J. E. B. Stuart, namesake of Stuart, Virginia]]

===World War I to World War II (1917–1945)===
Before 1915, no [[Public water system|public water]] or [[sanitary sewer|sewer system]] was available. People gained their drinking water from private [[Water well|well]]s or from nearby [[Spring (hydrosphere)|spring]]s. There were no [[streetlight]]s, and [[oil lamp]]s were used for interior [[lighting]], the roads were [[Road surface|unpaved]] and the [[sidewalk]]s were wooden. After the water system was installed, it was well received. By 1926 the population of the town had increased so much that improvements needed to be made.

In 1916, the Clark Power and Light Company established the first [[electric light]] system in Stuart. Each customer was charged a flat rate of $1.25 per month, and if 300 citizens bought into the system, Clark would allow the lights to burn all night. The Stuart Power and Light Company bought them out, and they were sold to the Virginia East Coast Utilities Company. In 1938, during the Great Depression, the Appalachian Electric Power Company bought them out. Joseph H. Vipperman, a Stuart native, was the president of this company when its name was changed to [[American Electric Power]]. The first [[telegraph]] was installed in Stuart with completion of the railroad here in 1884.

Reportedly the first telephone was operated at the Hotel Perkins. By 1923, ten lines served the county, each with a central; the Stuart central was located in the home of Walter S. Gilbert. In 1937, the Lee Telephone Company acquired all the private lines. In 1974, the [[Central Telephone Company of Virginia]] bought out the Lee Company. Years later [[Sprint Nextel|Sprint]]/[[Centel]] bought them out and now [[Centurylink]] serves Patrick County.

Travel to Stuart was difficult until the first hard-paved road reached Stuart from Martinsville in 1925. In 1929, a nine-mile stretch from Stuart to the [[North Carolina]] state line south was paved and improved. In 1930, the three miles to Cruzes (Cruises) Store was paved, and in 1932, the road was extended to [[Hillsville, Virginia]]. Today, State Routes 8 and [[U.S. Route 58]] serve the town and the county, and other counties along its east-to-west stretch. Route 58 is a four-lane divided highway, crossing the entire [[Commonwealth (U.S. state)|Commonwealth]], as well as Patrick County.
[[File:Stuart Virginia historic marker.JPG|thumb|left|220px|Virginia state historic marker, Stuart]]
By [[1940 United States census|1940]], the population of Stuart had increased to 600 and the majority of the buildings standing today had been constructed. The Patrick County Bank (established in 1890 and later merged with the Bank of Stuart in 1926) constructed its large [[Neoclassical architecture|Classical building]] directly across from the courthouse in 1911. The two uptown churches, Stuart [[United Methodist Church]] and the Stuart [[Baptist Church]], constructed their present-day structures in the early twentieth-century.

[[File:Stuart Mountains.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Stuart nestled within the Blue Ridge Mountains]]
[[File:Downtown Stuart Street.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Historical Street in Downtown Stuart]]

===Present day===

Stuart is a town for all age groups. It has a burgeoning downtown and recent retail developments along the Highway 58 corridor. New additions include the downtown rail trail along the Mayo River, a new Farmer's Market located within the heart of town, and new sidewalk and infrastructure improvements along Main Street.

The [[Stuart Uptown Historic District]], [[Goblintown Mill]], and [[Patrick County Courthouse]] are listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref>