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History · St. Charles

St. Charles’s history is
mostly unwritten

The public archives hold no old photos of St. Charles. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.

0old images & papers
12recent photos

The story

from WikipediaRead it all ↗

A post office was established at Saint Charles in 1908. The town was incorporated by the Lee County, Virginia Circuit Court on January 10, 1914. The community was named for Charles Bondurant, a coal mining official.

Historically, the town served about ten nearby coal mines, however as of 2025 only one remained open at Bonny Blue, and all the town's stores and bars had closed.

In 2022, the Virginia General Assembly passed a bill to terminate the town's charter, citing that nobody had run for town office in the past two elections.

Disincorporation

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

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The first neighbors to add old photos shape how St. Charles’s history is told.

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Famous people from St. Charles

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DNDon NewtonWriting & Arts
By decade

St. Charles, decade by decade

Before
2000
No old photos in the archives yetWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
📷 Add from your album
Today12 photos
UMWA-sign-st-charles-vaCommonsUMWA-sign-st-charles-va2017UMWA-building-st-charles-vaCommonsUMWA-building-st-charles-va2017St-Charles-post-office-vaCommonsSt-Charles-post-office-va2017St-Charles-mining-monument-vaCommonsSt-Charles-mining-monument-va2017St-Charles-United-Methodist-Church-vaCommonsSt-Charles-United-Methodist-Church-va2017St-Charles-Town-Hall-vaCommonsSt-Charles-Town-Hall-va2017St-Charles-RR-tracksCommonsSt-Charles-RR-tracks2017St-Charles-636-cc-vaCommonsSt-Charles-636-cc-va2017St-Charles-636-buildings-vaCommonsSt-Charles-636-buildings-va2017St-Charles-636-block-vaCommonsSt-Charles-636-block-va2017St-Charles-352-buildings-vaCommonsSt-Charles-352-buildings-va2017Earl Carter in AppalachiaCommonsEarl Carter in Appalachia2015
National Register of Historic Places

Nothing in St. Charles is on the National Register yet

That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean St. Charles has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Pennington Gap Commercial Historic District in Pennington Gap, 3.6 miles away.

St. Charles and the nearest listed places

Dashed line = St. Charles. Tap a dot.
Pennington Gap Commercial Historic DistrictDickinson-Milbourn HouseJonesville Methodist CampgroundKeokee Store No. 1Duff Mansion HousePine Mountain Settlement School

Closest to St. Charles

Pennington Gap Commercial Historic DistrictPennington Gap · District3.6miDickinson-Milbourn HouseJonesville · Building9miJonesville Methodist CampgroundJonesville · Building9.7miKeokee Store No. 1Keokee · Building9.7miDuff Mansion HouseDuffield · Building12mi

How a place gets listed

1Talk to the stateEvery nomination goes through the State Historic Preservation Office. Owners, towns and historical societies can start one.
2Try a local or state list firstMany states keep their own register with a shorter form, a common first step for old barns, halls and schoolhouses.
3Write it upA nomination covers the history, photos and a map. Pennington Gap Commercial Historic District’s page links to a real one.
Know an old place in St. Charles?A mill, a schoolhouse, a cellar hole, a church: add a photo of it to St. Charles’s story, or a memory of it.
📷 Add a photo of an old place
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places · photos from Wikimedia Commons

Then & now

When neighbors add old photos, retakes from the same spot appear here side by side.

Stories next door

nearby towns’ history
📜 Pennington Gap📜 Evarts📜 Jonesville📜 Benham

From Wikimedia Commons (12). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.

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Boundary source: https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services/TIGERweb/Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD/MapServer/19 · 2025-01-01
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