A history of Blacksburg,
since 1798
Postcards, papers and photographs of Blacksburg from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗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.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Blacksburg’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewVIRGINIA P.I. BAND, 1905: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Blacksburg
See all 14 →
Blacksburg, decade by decade
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as VIRGINIA P.I. BAND (1905) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Historic places
National Register · via Wikidata
From the Library of Congress (5) and the National Register (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.