A history of Front Royal,
since 1788
Postcards, papers and photographs of Front Royal from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The entire Shenandoah Valley including the area to become Front Royal was annexed and claimed for hunting by the Iroquois Confederation during the later Beaver Wars, by 1672. Some bands of the Shawnee settled in the area as client groups to the Iroquois and alternately to the Cherokee after 1721. The Iroquois formally sold their entire claim east of the Alleghenies to the Virginia Colony at the Treaty of Lancaster in 1744. Front Royal, originally settled in 1754, had been known to European explorers as early as the 1670s, and the nearby settlement of Chester's Ferry was in existence by 1736. The town also had a well-known nickname by the 1790s, "Helltown," due to the many livestock wranglers and boatmen on the Shenandoah coming through the area, who came into town looking for alcohol. It was incorporated as "Front Royal" in 1788.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Front Royal’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
3 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old view"Getting Stamp Cancelled in Front…, 1951: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Front Royal
See all 17 →
Front Royal, decade by decade
1990s
11 historic places in Front Royal
Front Royal has 11 listings on the National Register, and they protect 85 historic buildings, because Riverton Historic District alone counts 66.
Where they are
When they were listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as "Getting Stamp Cancelled in Front Royal, Virginia" (1951) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (11) and the National Register (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.