Blacksburg, Virginia Blacksburg, Virginia Town of Blacksburg Blacksburg is positioned in Shenandoah Valley Blacksburg - Blacksburg Blacksburg is an incorporated town in Montgomery County, Virginia, United States, with a populace of 42,620 at the 2010 census.
Blacksburg is dominated economically and demographically by the existence of Virginia Tech (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University).
Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and Radford are the three principal jurisdictions of the Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford Metropolitan Travel Destination which encompasses those jurisdictions and all of Montgomery, Pulaski, and Giles counties for statistical purposes.
The town and Virginia Tech ground have a long tradition of safety and residing satisfaction, despite the Virginia Tech gun crimes that occurred on April 16, 2007.
In 2011, Business - Week titled Blacksburg the "Best Place in the U.S.
To Raise Kids". Also in 2011, readers of Southern Living titled Blacksburg the "Best College Town in the South". Its enhance transit system, Blacksburg Transit, which also joins to the neighboring town of Christiansburg, has repeatedly received recognition for the character of its service. Blacksburg High School, which in 2013 unveiled its new state-of-the-art building, is often ranked among the top schools of the country for its academics and its Soccer, Track, and Cross Country squads are also among the top in the state.
A passage over the ridge was finally found in 1671 when explorers Batts and Fallam, sent by Wood, reached the present-day locale of Blacksburg, Virginia.
Their expedition followed Stroubles Creek, through the current locations of the town and ground of Virginia Tech to what they titled Wood's River.
It remained so until 1768, when indigenous claims to the territory including Blacksburg were cleared by the Treaty of Hard Labour with the Cherokee, and the Treaty of Fort Stanwix with the Six Nations.
Samuel Black, whose family settled in Staunton, Virginia, bought 600 acres (2.4 km2) of territory in the Draper's Meadow region for his sons John and William in 1772.
William Preston, sits on the initial Draper's Meadow site, which is near the Duck Pond on the Virginia Tech campus.
John Black's property veiled the majority of the central ground of Virginia Tech, and William Black's property became most of the central downtown region of modern-day Blacksburg.
The initial town was limited to the region bounded by present-day Draper Road, Jackson Street, Wharton Street, and Clay Street. The town logo includes 16 small squares that problematic a larger square, representing the initial 16 square blocks that were a part of Black's design.
Blacksburg's old town hall After Black petitioned the state council to establish a town at the site, the official establishment and beginning of Blacksburg, Virginia was January 13, 1798 on the thirty-eight and three-quarter acre tract that he laid out. The following August 4, he signed over the deed to the town trustees. The town was titled after him in his honor.
In 1801, a log cabin was built, which went on to be the home of the future colonel of the 28th Virginia Infantry, Robert Preston and two Virginia governors.
The cabin, now known as "Solitude," is the earliest building on the Virginia Tech campus. Even though the Methodists had assembled two cabins to worship in since the town's founding, they did not build a more permanent structure until 1830, when a brick church was constructed. The Presbyterians were the next Christian denomination to build a church inside Blacksburg's limits.
One of the first educational establishments started here was the Blacksburg Female Academy in 1840. The Olin and Preston Institute (re-charted as Preston and Olin Institute in 1869) was a Methodist-sponsored academy established in 1851. The first bank in Montgomery County, Blacksburg Savings Institution, was established in 1849. The first journal presented in Blacksburg was the Montgomery Messenger.
Coal Breaker of the Virginia Anthracite Coal Company at Merrimac Mines near Blacksburg, 1904 One year later, the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College opened its doors on October 2, 1872 with a faculty of three members. The college interval and became known as Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, which shortly afterward became informally alluded to as Virginia Tech.
A fire-fighting unit was ordered inside the college in 1899. The town bought its first fire truck 43 years later. The Blacksburg First Aid and Life Saving Crew was established in 1951 and retitled Blacksburg Volunteer Rescue Squad in another addition to the burgeoning amount of emergency services. Three years later the train entered Blacksburg from Christiansburg using the Virginia Anthracite & Coal Railroad, which later became known as the "Huckleberry." 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. The town's first landing strip was assembled in 1929 and was 1,800 feet (548.64 m) in length.
The grass landing strip was given airport status in 1931 and later became Virginia Tech Airport.
By October the town's second stoplight was installed on Main Street at Roanoke Street and was synchronized with the initial one at Main and College. The establishment of official law enforcement began in 1937 when Officer Dave "Highpockets" Sumner became the first Blacksburg police officer.
Even though there had been a place for secondary education somewhere in town since 1906, it was not until 1952 when the first official locale for Blacksburg High School was assembled on South Main and Eheart Streets which became the eventual site of Blacksburg Middle School.
That same year, all high schools in Montgomery County began operating on a twelve-grade basis which is still county policy to this day. Linkous Elementary School were both instead of in 1963 and Harding Avenue Elementary School was assembled in 1972. Two years later, in 1974, Blacksburg High School moved its locale to Patrick Henry Drive after 20 years of issues with overcrowding in its previous location. Jack Goodwin was assigned the first chief of police by the Blacksburg Town Council in 1954.
Within 24 hours, the depot was closed, the empty cars were picked up, and the tracks were immediately removed. After years of accomplishment by the people of the town a trail was constructed on the former barns right-of-way and, after years of construction, financing and planning issues the Huckleberry Trail was opened to the enhance on December 1, 1998.
An meaningful opening that occurred was the Corning Glass Works (now called Corning Incorporated) facility in 1964 which is positioned south of Blacksburg.
The Blacksburg Municipal Building on South Main Street was constructed in 1969. Terrace View apartements, the first large pupil complex, was assembled in 1970.
The Blacksburg Branch of the Montgomery County Library was opened the same year.
Ten years later, it was moved into the facility that used to home the Blacksburg Lumber Company on Draper Road.
In 1971, Blacksburg ratified a new charter and Montgomery Regional Hospital was built.
During 1981, the Blacksburg Community Center opened.
It cost the town $1.2 million to build. By 1988, the New River Valley Mall, positioned in the neighboring town of Christiansburg, was opened and the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center had its first ground-breaking ceremony. After assembly of Virginia's portion of Interstate 81 began in 1957, nine years passed before the Christiansburg-area segment was opened. About half that amount of time passed before the U.S.
In the 1970s, Virginia Tech was took in into the town and other territory area was also brought in.
Blacksburg is the site of the Blacksburg Electronic Village or BEV, conceived as a computer networking universal of Virginia Tech in 1991 and officially born in 1993 as a way to link the town together using the Internet.
In 1994, Montgomery County Public Schools instead of assembly of Kipps Elementary School at 2801 Prices Fork Road. By this time, Blacksburg had five elementary schools, a middle school, and a high school. A newly renovated Blacksburg branch library was opened in 1996. The second phase of assembly was instead of in 2002. The road is presently closed to the enhance and used as a research test bed for the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.
A National Weather Service office is positioned in Blacksburg and serves most of southwestern Virginia, southeast West Virginia, and northwest North Carolina.
In 2003, the new building for Blacksburg Middle School pupils opened on Prices Fork Road contiguous to the property housing Kipps Elementary School.
On February 13, 2010 following a snowstorm which 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 pupils visited evening school on a split schedule with the Blacksburg Middle School pupils at their school for the remainder of the year.
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 initial Blacksburg High School building was vacant until it was completed in the Summer of 2011.
The newly constructed school building of Blacksburg High School which opened for the 2013 fall semester is positioned at 3401 Bruin Lane, behind the current Blacksburg Middle School and Bill Brown Football Stadium. According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town has a total region of 19.89 square miles (51.5 km2) of which 19.89 square miles (51.5 km2) is territory and 0.04 square miles (0.10 km2), or 0.10%, is water.
It is the 15th biggest municipality and the biggest town in the commonwealth of Virginia. 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.
Climate data for Blacksburg, Virginia (1981 2010 normals, extremes 1952 present) Average snowy days ( 0.1 in) 3.6 4.2 2.0 0.6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.7 2.6 13.7 The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute is presently working with the Virginia Department of Transportation to build the Virginia Smart Road which will connect Blacksburg directly to I-81, thus decidedly decreasing the travel time between Blacksburg and its larger metro neighbor, Roanoke.
The road, together with the current US 460, will problematic a loop around Blacksburg, thus alleviating current traffic congestion on US 460 and aiding further evolution of the area.
Blacksburg Transit (BT) provides bus transit primarily to and from the ground of Virginia Tech.
Virginia Tech subsidizes BT for this service.
Blacksburg Transit also offers shuttle service to non-students on Virginia Tech Football game days for a $5.00 fee to be transported from outlying parking areas to the stadium. The Smart Way Bus, a county-wide commuter bus service directed by Valley Metro (Roanoke), provides connecting service between Virginia Tech, downtown Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Virginia, the Roanoke Regional Airport, Roanoke, Virginia, and Lynchburg, Virginia where riders can transfer to Amtrak.
Uhaul Car Share, a subsidiary of U-Haul, offers a carsharing service around the Virginia Tech campus.
The Virginia Tech Montgomery Executive Airport serves Blacksburg and the Virginia Tech ground for general aviation.
In the town, the populace was spread out with 9.7% under the age of 18, 57.4% from 18 to 24, 18.9% from 25 to 44, 9.2% from 45 to 64, and 4.9% who were 65 years of age or older.
The Metropolitan Travel Destination (MSA), which contains the town of Christiansburg, the autonomous town/city of Radford, and all of Montgomery, Pulaski, and Giles counties has an estimated populace of 157,614 and is presently one of the faster-growing MSAs in Virginia.
About 87% of the town's inhabitants have in-home Internet access with 65% using a broadband connection. Eighty-five percent of the improve has a college education, seventy percent of which were graduates of Virginia Tech.
The Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center is home to a several companies of varying sizes including Honeywell, and the National Weather Service which maintains its Southwestern Virginia command posts there.
Due to its close adjacency to Virginia Tech and Radford University, Blacksburg is an ideal locale for developing high tech industry.
1 Virginia Tech 14,688 2 Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center 2,200 Blacksburg is the home of Virginia Tech Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) Downtown Blacksburg amid the annual Gobblerfest street fair.
The International Street Fair & Parade held in Blacksburg takes place on the first Saturday of every April.
The region 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.
Enumeration Bureau, State & County Quick - Facts: Blacksburg (town), Virginia".
"Virginia Town is Best Place in the U.S.
"Around the College Town: Blacksburg Southern Pigskin: The Leading Name in Southern College Football Coverage".
"Blacksburg High School Dedication".
"Blacksburg: A Brief Early History | Virginia Tech".
A Special Place for 200 Years: A History of Blacksburg, Virginia.
"Virginia Tech's 125th Anniversary: Blacksburg Was Incorporated Year Before Virginia Tech Opened Doors".
"A Special Place for 200 Years: Blacksburg Social Life and Customs".
Blacksburg Presbyterian: BPC History.
"Blacksburg Bicentennial: Timeline".
"New River Valley Dining Guide Blacksburg Restaurants in Blacksburg Virginia".
"A Special Place for 200 Years: Blacksburg's Mayors and the Evolution of Town Government".
"A Special Place For 200 Years: Blacksburg Transported".
"A Special Place for 200 Years: Blacksburg Educates Its Children".
"Blacksburg Transit BT History".
Campus & Town Guide: Virginia Tech and the Town of Blacksburg.
"Welcome to Blacksburg! "Station Name: VA BLACKSBURG NWSO".
"Town of Blacksburg, VA : Game Day Service: Football".
"Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2015".
City of Blacksburg CAFR "Blacksburg renovates its farmers market".
Town of Blacksburg, Virginia.
Town of Blacksburg A Guide to Resources for the History of Blacksburg, Virginia Municipalities and communities of Montgomery County, Virginia, United States Virginia Towns in Virginia
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