Hillsboro is a rural town in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. The population was 114 at the 2020 census. at the eastern end of Hillsboro Gap, where the North Fork of Catoctin Creek breaks through Short Hill Mountain, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. The town is east of the West Virginia border and northwest of Leesburg, the Loudoun county seat.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all land.
As of the census<blockquote>Although there were mills and houses in the Gap in the late 1700s, the town of Hillsboro (spelled Hillsborough until its 1880 incorporation) was not formally established until December 31, 1802 by an act passed by the Virginia General Assembly. The trustees of Hillsboro named in the act were Mahlon Hough, Samuel Purcell, Jr., Thomas Leslie, Josiah White, Jr., Edward Cunard, Mahlon Roach, and Thomas D. Stevens. By June 20, 1811, when Henry Griffin bought lot No. 12 on the town plat at auction for $88.50 paid to the trustees, he was required to build ‘a House thereon Twelve feet Square or equal thereto with a Stone or Brick Chimney to the same and a Shingle Roof on it within Four years of the Day of the Sale of the said lott.’ Due to its favorable location on the Vestal's Gap Road, the town grew quickly and in the early 1800s was one of the leading trade centers of western Loudoun, along with Snickerville (Bluemont) and Woodgrove, which has since disappeared. Much of Hillsboro's activity was due to its mills, with as many as five operating at one time, all on Catoctin Creek or its nearby branches.</blockquote>thumb|left|A row of nineteenth century houses in Hillsboro
During this period there typically were three or four doctors in town, five or six general stores, a large tanyard and cooper shop, two shoemakers and three taverns. Two blacksmiths, two saddle and harness makers, two wagon makers and a livery stable tended to the needs found in the horsepowered era. Seamstresses and tailors made clothes from the yarn goods produced by the Gaver woolen mill.
However, the newly constructed railroads and turnpikes bypassed Hillsboro, drawing trade and commerce away from the town. The Civil War events, including the Burning Raid of 1864, devastated the area. During the post-Civil War period, Hillsboro began its transformation from a busy commercial center to a primarily residential community. Homes formerly housing taverns, shops and stores gradually became residences. With the turn of the 20th century, virtually all of the currently existing structures within the town had been built and little has been altered in the majority of the structures since then.
The Hillsboro Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 7, 1979.
In 2015, Hillsboro was the third smallest town in Virginia in population.
On December 28, 2016, the town limits officially tripled to . The zoning change brought the Old Stone School inside the town limits for the first time.
In June 2021, Hillsboro completed ReThink9, a $30 million infrastructure project which included creating two roundabouts on State Route 9 east and west of the town, traffic-calming streetscaping, burial of all overhead utilities, a new safe drinking water system, wastewater management infrastructure as well as an underground stormwater management system.
Notable people
thumb|Susan Koerner Wright plaque on Charles Town Pike in Hillsboro
- Byron Farwell was mayor of the town for three terms from 1976 to 1982; other mayors included Sandy Muir and Alix Spaith.
- John B. Funk (1905–1993), Maryland state politician and secretary of state of Maryland.
- The family of Mary Virginia Gaver, a leader in library science, owned and operated Gaver Woolen Mill in Hillsboro in the 1800s.
- Susan Koerner Wright, the mother of the Wright brothers, was born near Hillsboro.