Editing Stuart, Virginia (section)

===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]]