Blacksburg is an incorporated town in Montgomery County, Virginia, United States, with a population of 44,826 at the 2020 census. Blacksburg and the surrounding county is dominated economically and demographically by the presence of Virginia Tech.

Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and the city of Radford are the three principal jurisdictions of the Blacksburg-Christiansburg metropolitan area, which encompasses those jurisdictions and all of Montgomery, Pulaski, and Giles counties for statistical purposes. The MSA has an estimated population of 181,863 and is currently one of the faster-growing MSAs in Virginia.

History

European colonization, founding (1671–1771)

In the mid-1600s, English colonists were still uncertain of what lay beyond the Allegheny Mountains, whose topography and possession by native inhabitants, Tutelo-speaking tribes, were a barrier to expanded settlement by the Colony of Virginia. Abraham Wood, who commanded Fort Henry on the frontier (now the site of Petersburg, Virginia), and operated an Indian trading post nearby, organized several expeditions to explore farther west. A passage over the ridge was finally found in 1671 when explorers Batts and Fallam, sent by Wood, reached the present-day location of Blacksburg, Virginia. Their expedition followed Stroubles Creek, through the current locations of the town and campus of Virginia Tech, to what they named Wood's River.

They reported the area as inhabited by the Monacan and Moneton, Siouan-speaking groups, but the Virginian colonial legislature had authorized Wood to claim it. Accordingly, on September 17, 1671, the Batts and Fallam party claimed all of the lands comprising the river's drainage basin for King Charles II. However, the region was not yet open to English patent. In 1700, Seneca warriors of the Iroquois Confederacy based in New York and Pennsylvania, overran the entire area, driving out the other bands. As early as 1718, the Seneca had agreed to sell the parts they had conquered east of the Blue Ridge to the Colony of Virginia. Following another cession at the 1744 Treaty of Lancaster, however, there was a dispute between the tribe and colonists over whether the new boundary was the Alleghenies or the Ohio River. The site of Blacksburg lay just within this disputed zone.

By the 1740s, the Wood's River Land Company, represented by Colonel James Patton, gained a large tract of land within present-day southwest Virginia. Part of the tract became Montgomery County and Pulaski County and was sold to Virginian, Irish, Scots-Irish, and English settlers as a reward for their services during the American Indian Wars and other wars. The Draper and Ingles families were among those who built their homes at Draper's Meadow by 1748; this area was between the present location of the campus and the subdivision of Hethwood.

Because of its strategic location between powerful Indian nations, who alternately allied with the French or British as it suited them, plus its location through gaps into the Alleghenies further west, the area's development was viewed with increasing apprehension by the French and their Indian allies. In July 1755, during the French and Indian War, hostile Shawnee Indians equipped and armed by France attacked the frontier outpost at Draper's Meadow, which then had around twenty pioneer settlers. About four settlers were killed in the attacks, and five were taken captive to Kentucky by the Shawnee, among them Mary Draper Ingles, who later escaped. The memorial to Draper's Meadow massacre was dedicated on a bridge located near Duck Pond. By the end of the war, Draper's Meadow was deserted.

By the Treaty of Easton (1758), and again by the Royal Proclamation of 1763, the British Crown made the Allegheny ridge separating the Mississippi and Chesapeake watersheds the official boundary between their Virginia colony and native peoples. It remained so until 1768, when native claims to the land including Blacksburg were cleared by the Treaty of Hard Labour with the Cherokee, and the Treaty of Fort Stanwix with the Six Nations (Iroquois Confederacy). The Shawnee finally abandoned their claim to this territory in 1774 following Dunmore's War.

The Black family (1772–1797)

Samuel Black, whose family settled in Staunton, Virginia, bought of land in the Draper's Meadow area for his sons John and William in 1772. Smithfield Plantation, built in approximately 1774 by Colonel William Preston, The following August 4, he signed over the deed to the town trustees. lived here, as did two Virginia governors. The cabin was later added to in the mid 19th century to create a Greek Revival farmhouse now known as Solitude, which is the oldest building on the Virginia Tech campus. In 1872, the 250 acre Solitude farm became the central campus of Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, and the house, after the death of its owner in the following decade, served as a college infirmary from 1882 to 1886. It was later used for faculty housing.

According to records of the Post Office Department of the National Archives and Records Administration, the post office was established as "BLACKSBURGH" on April 8, 1827. The name was changed to the current spelling (without the "h") in 1893.

The Methodists had built two cabins to worship in since the town's founding, but they did not build a more permanent structure until 1830, when they constructed a brick church. The Presbyterians were the next Christian denomination to build a church within Blacksburg's limits. In 1848 they built their first brick building at 117 South Main Street. Though still standing, this building has not been used as a church for many years. It is also the oldest building on Main Street.

The first bank in Montgomery County, Blacksburg Savings Institution, was established in 1849.

One year later, the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College opened on October 2, 1872, with a faculty of three members. Traffic in Blacksburg increased sufficiently enough that by January 1913 the town voted against allowing cows to continue to roam in town. The first filling station was opened in 1919 and at the time was the only one between Roanoke, Virginia, and Bluefield, West Virginia.

In the spring of 1935, Main Street was strung with ten street lights from Roanoke Street northward to the top of the hill, where it now intersects the Alumni Mall. By October the town's second stoplight was installed on Main Street at Roanoke Street and was synchronized with the original one at Main and College.

The Margaret J. Beeks Elementary School and the Gilbert F. Linkous Elementary School were both completed in 1963 and Harding Avenue Elementary School was built in 1972. About half that amount of time passed before the U.S. Route 460 bypass opened in 1969.

Information age (1993–present)

thumb|right|200px|Market Square Park, home of the Blacksburg Farmers Market since 2009

Blacksburg is the site of the Blacksburg Electronic Village or BEV, conceived as a computer networking project of Virginia Tech in 1991 and officially born in 1993 as a way to link the town together using the Internet. This project quickly ushered the town into what is being called the Information Age.

In 1994, Montgomery County Public Schools completed construction of Kipps Elementary School at 2801 Prices Fork Road. The road is currently closed to the public and used as a research test bed for the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. A National Weather Service office is located in Blacksburg and serves most of southwestern Virginia, southeast West Virginia, and northwest North Carolina.

In 2003, the new building for Blacksburg Middle School students opened on Prices Fork Road adjacent to the property housing Kipps Elementary School.

On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho shot 32 people dead and injured an additional 17 in the Virginia Tech shooting before committing suicide. The massacre is the deadliest mass shooting on a college campus since the University of Texas tower shooting in 1966.

On January 21, 2009, Zhu Haiyang decapitated Yang Xin at Virginia Tech in the first campus murder since the Virginia Tech shooting.

On February 13, 2010, following a snowstorm that dropped two feet of snow on the area, the gymnasium roof on the previously occupied Blacksburg High School suffered a catastrophic structural failure and collapsed, causing structural damage to other areas of the school. The school building was condemned and students attended night school on a split schedule with the Blacksburg Middle School students at their school for the remainder of the year. It was determined that repair costs would exceed $18 million and would not be feasible given the age of the school; it was decided not to repair the building. Before the school year of 2013-14 Blacksburg High School was operating on a normal schedule out of the Blacksburg Middle School building on 3109 Prices Fork Road, and the middle schoolers were going to school in the old Christiansburg Middle School. The original Blacksburg High School building was vacant until it was demolished in the Summer of 2011. The newly constructed school building of Blacksburg High School which opened for the 2013 fall semester is located at 3401 Bruin Lane, behind the current Blacksburg Middle School and Bill Brown Football Stadium.

Government

Blacksburg is governed by a Town Council of six members and a mayor. Elections take place in November of odd-numbered years. Council members are elected for four-year terms.

The town’s mayor is an elected office.

By tradition, the town's vice-mayor is the councilperson who received the highest number of votes in the most recent election and is formally elected by council at the first meeting of the new year.

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Position !! Member !! First elected !! Term Expires

|-

| Mayor || Leslie Hager-Smith || 2008 (Mayor since 2017) || 2025

|-

| Vice-Mayor || Michael Sutphin || 2011 (Vice-Mayor since 2023) || 2027

|-

| Councilwoman || Susan Anderson || 2006 || 2025

|-

| Councilwoman || Lauren Colliver || 2017 || 2025

|-

| Councilman || Jerry R. Ford, Jr || 2018 || 2027

|-

| Councilwoman || Susan Mattingly || 2021 || 2025

|-

| Councilman || Liam J. Watson || 2023 || 2027

|}

Geography

thumb|200px|right|Overlooking Blacksburg

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of of which is land and , or 0.10%, is water. At 2,080 feet (634 m) above sea level, Blacksburg is located in the New River Valley and also sits astride the Eastern Continental Divide. It is the 15th largest municipality The Eastern Continental Divide traverses the Virginia Tech Montgomery Executive Airport.

The tallest building in Blacksburg is Slusher Tower, a twelve-story residence hall on the Virginia Tech campus. The building with the highest elevation is actually Hoge Hall (formerly Lee Hall), another residence hall, which until May 17, 2009, was home to the transmitter of campus radio station WUVT. The tower for WUVT now sits atop Price Mountain.

Climate

Due to its elevation, the climate of Blacksburg is a hot-summer humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification: Dfa), being cooled down from the lowland areas of Virginia, all of which possess a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfa). Summers are humid with warm to hot temperatures, although the area sees significantly cooler temperatures than places of lower elevation at the same latitude, with only 5 days of + highs annually.

Transportation

Roads

Blacksburg is served primarily by US 460, a four-lane highway that connects I-81 at Christiansburg, 10 miles to the south, and to I-77 in Princeton, West Virginia. Driving from Blacksburg to its larger metro neighbor, Roanoke, via US 460 and I-81, usually requires less than an hour.

Public transportation

Blacksburg Transit provides bus transportation primarily to and from the campus of Virginia Tech. Since 2020, all passengers can ride BT fare-free. Virginia Tech subsidizes BT for this service. Blacksburg Transit also offers shuttle service on Virginia Tech Football game days free of charge from outlying parking areas to the stadium.

The Smart Way Bus, a regional commuter bus service operated by Valley Metro (Roanoke), provides connecting service between Virginia Tech, downtown Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Roanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport, and Roanoke, where riders can transfer to an Amtrak train.

Air

At nearby Roanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport, there are scheduled commercial flights to Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago–O'Hare, New York–LaGuardia, Orlando/Sanford, Philadelphia, St. Petersburg/Clearwater, and Washington–Dulles, and there are seasonal charter flights to Atlantic City.

Virginia Tech Montgomery Executive Airport, located in the Town of Blacksburg, has general aviation, air taxi, and military flights.

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, Blacksburg had a population of 44,826. The median age was 21.7 years. 10.5% of residents were under the age of 18 and 6.2% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 118.8 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 120.1 males age 18 and over.

There were 15,000 households in Blacksburg, of which 17.1% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 24.7% were married-couple households, 38.4% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 32.2% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 30.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

! Race !! Number !! Percent

|-

| White || 31,792 || 70.9%

|-

| Black or African American || 2,014 || 4.5%

|-

| American Indian and Alaska Native || 67 || 0.1%

|-

| Asian || 7,307 || 16.3%

|-

| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander || 26 || 0.1%

|-

| Some other race || 723 || 1.6%

|-

| Two or more races || 2,897 || 6.5%

|-

| Hispanic or Latino (of any race) || 2,612 || 5.8%

|}

2000 census

As of the 2000 census, Eighty-five percent of the community has a college education, the top employers in the town are:

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! #

! Employer

! # of Employees

|-

|1

| Virginia Tech

|>5,000

|-

|2

| Moog

|>1,000

|-

|3

| HCA Montgomery Regional Hospital

|500 to 999

|-

|4

| NRV Community Services

|250 to 499

|-

|5

| Town of Blacksburg

|250 to 499

|-

|6

| Eaglepicher Wolverine LLC

|250 to 499

|-

|7

| Spectrum (Tetra)

|100 to 249

|-

|8

| Federal-Mogul Corporation

|100 to 249

|-

|9

| Virginia Tech Services, Inc.

|100 to 249

|-

|10

| Luna Innovations

|100 to 249

|}

Notable people

  • Frank Beamer, former Head Football Coach at Virginia Tech
  • James M. Buchanan, Nobel laureate
  • Jack Champion, actor
  • James Conrad, professional disc golfer, 2021 PDGA World Champion
  • Thomas Nelson Conrad, Confederate spy
  • Virginia Allen Crockford, school board educationalist
  • Marc Edwards, civil engineering/environmental engineer and professor
  • John B. Floyd, Governor of Virginia, U.S. Secretary of War, and Confederate general in the American Civil War
  • Patri Friedman, activist and theorist of political economy
  • Nikki Giovanni, poet
  • Marjorie Glicksman Grene, philosopher
  • Lanto Griffin, PGA Tour Golfer
  • Kevin Jones, football player, highest recruit in Virginia Tech history
  • Josh Kaufman, Season 6 winner of NBC's vocal competition show The Voice
  • Henry Lee Lucas, serial killer
  • William Morva, murderer, last inmate executed by Commonwealth of Virginia
  • Col. James Patton, early settler and first Augusta County Sheriff
  • James Patton Preston, Governor of Virginia
  • Col. William Preston, Burgess, Revolutionary War Colonel
  • Thomas M. Price, American architect
  • James I. Robertson Jr., historian and Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Virginia Tech
  • Bob Roop, American heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestler
  • Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO
  • Ross Scott, YouTuber and activist
  • Brandon Stokley, professional football player
  • Wild Nothing, indie dream pop act

Points of interest

thumb|200px|right|Blacksburg is the home of [[Virginia Tech]]

  • 16 Squares
  • Alexander Black House
  • Armory Art Gallery
  • Blacksburg Farmers Market
  • Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine
  • Hahn Horticulture Garden
  • Huckleberry Trail
  • Lyric Theatre
  • Moss Arts Center
  • Municipal (Caboose) Park
  • Smithfield Plantation
  • Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech)

Annual town events

alt=Steppin Out Festival in Downtown Blacksburg, Virginia 2012|thumb|200x200px|Downtown Blacksburg during Steppin' Out.

  • The International Street Fair held in downtown Blacksburg and on the Virginia Tech campus takes place in spring. Over 110 countries are represented by the student body of Virginia Tech and individuals from the community during the festival. There are food trucks, country booths, and the stage features an eclectic mix of melodies and musical performances from around the world.
  • Steppin' Out, the town's first annual street festival, has taken place on the first Friday and Saturday of every August since 1976 when it was known as the Deadwood Days Summer Festival. Because of a murder associated with the final Deadwood Days in August 1979, the festival's name was changed in 1980 and Steppin' Out began in 1981. Steppin' Out features over 150 artists and crafts people from around the United States selling unique handcrafted items, local merchants holding final clearance sidewalk sales, local restaurants selling food through outdoor vending, multiple stages for live performances, and fun for the entire family. The area from North Main Street and Alumni Mall (sometimes even more to the north) to South Main Street and Roanoke Street and Draper Road and Lee Street is designated for the festival. The Draper Mile Run, which was started in 1982, is a one-mile (1.6 km) road race for runners of all ages that is held annually during the first evening of the festival.
  • Summer Solstice Fest takes place on the Saturday afternoon/evening closest to the solstice. Downtown Blacksburg Inc. organizes the event, which includes live music, vendors, a dog parade and 5k race.
  • Sustainability Week is held in mid-September and is a collaboration between Sustainable Blacksburg, the Town of Blacksburg, and Virginia Tech's Office of Energy & Sustainability. First held in 2007, the tagline, "Celebrate. Educate. Motivate." The events emphasize how to become a more sustainable community.
  • The Winter Lights Festival is held the first Friday in December. College Avenue is closed for caroling, vendors, Santa at the Lyric, and the tree lighting on Virginia Tech's Henderson Lawn. The evening ends with the annual Holiday Parade which goes from Virginia Tech's campus to Eheart Street.

Sister City

Blacksburg's sister city is San José de Bocay, in the mountains of northern Nicaragua.

References

  • Town of Blacksburg
  • A Guide to Researching Blacksburg, Virginia, History, Virginia Tech Special Collections
  • Blacksburg's Bicentennial, 1798–1998, Virginia Tech Special Collections