Scottsville Business

As Virginia Moore eloquently stated in her book, Scottsville on the James, "Any town's present is a constant adjustment between past and future." Through the 1850's, Scottsville served as an important transshipping point for the Valley of Virginia and local businesses thrived. Great numbers of large Valley wagons unloaded freight there for shipment via boat to Richmond, and then they loaded up in Scottsville with groceries, gypsum, coarse cotton, and woolen cloth. In 1835, Scottsville had nine general stores, five grocery stores, one apothecary shop, a boatyard, several warehouses and livery stables, taverns and hotels. By 1841, the town's streets bustled with out-of-town trade and a local citizenry totaling 1000 people.

General Philip Henry Sheridan, ca. 1865
In the 1850's, the Virginia Central Railroad line was built through Charlottesville and drew business away from Scottsville and the canal. But the worst had not come for town's economy. In March 1865, General Philip Sheridan's Union troops destroyed the canal and local provisions that might support the Confederacy. By the time Sheridan left town, Scottsville's hotel, flour mill, candle factory, tobacco warehouse, and some stables were burned or destroyed.

J.L. Pitts lumber crews, ca. 1890 Reconstruction took a long time in Scottsville. With the canal damage and deteriorated roads, very little came to Scottsville markets, and bartering took the place of money when produce did come. Several Scottsville canal boat owners switched to lumbering and provided crews to lay track. A telegraph line was constructed along the entire length of the railroad, connecting Scottsville with the outside world by modern means of transportation and communication. Yet Scottsville remained a small market town and in 1890 was described as a town of population 362 with good schools, six churches, grain and grist mills, a bank, and "all the facilities of a country town."

Soda Fountain in Bruce's Drug, 1910 Scottsville businesses received a boost in 1907 when the Scottsville bridge over the James River was constructed. Two major highways intersected in town, and the modern era of automobile transportation arrived. Livery stables on Scottsville streets were replaced by three garages. By 1920, Scottsville's population numbered about 1500, including the immediate surrounding area just outside the town limits. The town had twenty stores, two large flour mills, an ice plant, a theater, three garages, a braid factory, two large oil companies, two restaurants, one boarding house, two drugstores, three doctors, one dentist, two schools, two dairies, one shoe shop, and and two blacksmith shops.

To learn more about early Scottsville businesses, please click on each image below for a larger view and more information.

Valley Street in Scottsville, 1898

Date: ca. 1898

Image Number: RollOneNeg14A

Comments: Willie Burgess took this photo with his camera pointing north up Valley Street and the James River at his back. See the larger image for a guide to the businesses housed along Valley Street in this time period.

Valley Street in Scottsville, 1898

Date: ca. 1898

Image Number: RollTwoNeg22A

Comments: Burgess captured the west side of Valley Street in this photograph, using his panoramic camera with a fisheye lens. Again, see the larger image for more details on these buildings.

Coleman Ball's Blacksmith Shop

Date: ca 1900-1905

Image Number: B64cdB16

Comments: This Burgess stereograph card shows Coleman Ball's Blacksmith Shop at the corner of Ferry and Main Street in Scottsville.

Bruce's Drug Store

Date: ca 1908

Image Number: SD18cdSD1

Comments: Thomas Ellison Bruce began his Scottsville drug store business in 1908 under the name of Scottsville Drug Company. See larger image for more details on the history of Bruce's Drug Store from 1908 to present.

Scottsville Town Council, 1909

Date: ca 1909

Image Number: RollOneNeg2A

Comments: This Town Council, like others before and since, was made up of prominent businessmen. At the time this photo was made, the man in the center of the first row, Peter Foland, was mayor. See the larger image for identities and business roles of each council member.

Philip Palm, Scottsville Carriage and Repair Works

Date: ca. 1910

Image Number: B256cdB25

Comments: Philip Palm, an immigrant from Sweden, ran this Scottsville business the early 1900's. In addition to carriage repair, Palm upholstered furniture, repaired shoes, made coffins, and served as the town's undertaker. Palm's shop was located on Main Street, between today's Methodist Church and the Scottsville Museum.

Miss Hannah Moore's Boarding House

Date: ca. 1911

Image Number: RollOneNeg17A

Comments: Built in 1910 on the east side of Valley Street, Miss Hannah opened this two-storey brick house as a Scottsville boarding house in 1911.

Dr. J. P. Blair's Dental Office on Main Street

Date: ca. 1912

Image Number: RollOneNeg9A

Comments: Dr. Joseph P. Blair operated his dental office on the second floor of this white building, located beside Mink Creek which ran under this bridge on Scottsville's Main Street. In this photo, Dr. Blair stands to the left of the doorway. In 1912, a little grocery operated on this building's first floor.

Scottsville's Valley Street, 1912

Date: August 5, 1912

Image Number: B406cdB27

Comments: Burgess took this photo facing northwest up Valley Street from the corner of Main and Valley Street. See larger image for identities of buildings in this photo.

Main Street Businesses Flooded, 1913

Date: March 1913

Image Number: RollTwoNeg13A

Comments: A rider on horseback wades through the high flood waters on Main Street. This 1913 flood ranked as the 8th highest recorded flood in Scottsville's history; its flood waters measured at 25.16 feet over flood level. See the larger image for identities of these water-logged Main Street buildings.

The Corner of Valley and Main Streets

Date: ca. 1913-1915

Image Number: B72cdB17

Comments: Shown here are Scottsville's tranquil Valley and Main Streets in the early 1900's before automobiles changed the landscape and traffic patterns. On the corner stands S. Phillips Livery and just to its right on north Main Street, the Traveler's Rest Hotel. See the larger image for identities of other town buildings.

Scottsville's Post Office, 1915

Date: ca 1915

Image Number: B01CDB12

Comments: (L to R) U.S. Postmaster Samuel R. Gault and his assistant, Ashby Mayo, stand in front of the Scottsville Post Office located in the Masonic Building on Main Street. The Masonic Building was built in 1914 and hosted the town's post office on the bottom floor until 1964 when the post office moved to its current location on West Main Street. Sam Gault served as Scottsville's postmaster from 1893 to 1932; he was succeeded by Ashby Mayo, who retired as postmaster in 1958.

Tending the Bank Books

Date: ca. 1915

Image Number: B05cdB12

Comments: Susie (Powers) Blair and her sister, Lucy Powers, tend the books in the bank vault at Scottsville's Fidelity Bank on Valley Street.

Dr. Percy Harris, Sr.

Date: 1915

Image Number: RM11ccdRM02

Comments: Dr. Percy Harris, Sr., served nearly fifty years as a general practitioner in Scottsville and a doctor for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. Shown in this 1915 photo, Dr. Harris stands beside his Maxwell car on West Main Street with Valley Street behind him. He used this car to make house calls early in his Scottsville medical career. Dr. Harris made house calls until 1950 and continued with his office practice until the day he died on February 4, 1955.

Edith Taggart, Scottsville Central

Date: ca. 1915

Image Number: B264cdB25

Comments: Edith Taggart served as Scottsville's telephone operator for thirty-nine years until her retirement in 1950. She was born in 1898 and crippled by polio when she was only eight years old. Homebound with an active mind, Edith watched her mother, Nella, operate the Scottsville switchboard and soon became a proficient switchboard operator herself. From age 13 years, Edith worked the town switchboard as our central telephone operator. She was our 'Central' and fondly referred to as the 'Voice of Scottsville' because she knew more about the town than most.

Jacinto V. Pereira, Bank President

Date: ca. 1920

Image Number: Roll13Neg12A

Comments: Jacinto V. Pereira operated the Fidelity Bank on the east side of Valley Street near the corner of Main Street. Shown here in his bank office, Mr. Pereira served on the Scottsville Town Council and built the Travelers' Rest Hotel on Main Street, where he resided until his death in January 1925.

William Edward Burgess, Scottsville's Photographer

Date: ca. 1920

Image Number: B419cdB28

Comments: William Edward Burgess (1871-1935) was a photographer and historian, who lived his adult years in Scottsville, Virginia. He was known to all as 'Willie' and worked out of Idylwood, his combination home and photo studio in the eastern part of Scottsville that lies in Fluvanna County. An avid photographer since his teenaged years, Burgess carried his large box camera and tripod everywhere. He seemed determined to photograph everything he encountered, often appearing as if from thin air to take a family portrait or record a town event. See larger photo for more details about his work and family.

C.B. Harris and Co.

Date: ca. 1920

Image Number: B11cdB12

Comments: The C.B. Harris Co. was a men's clothing store in Scottsville, located in the old Harris Merchandise building on Main Street. Charles Bascom Harris, Jr. operated this store, which had been under Harris family ownership since it was purchased in 1860 by his grandfather, Miletus Harris.

Piedmont Berry Grower's Association

Date: ca. 1924

Image Number: B34cdB14

Comments: Members of the Piedmont Berry Grower Association pose in front of their headquarters at the northeast corner of Page Street and West Main in Scottsville. This group marketed their dairy produce and fresh berries for about three years, operating out of an old house on Lot 166. After the Association went out of business, this lot was purchased by Dr. Percy Harris, who tore the old house down. See the larger image for names of Association members.

Victory Hall

Date: ca. 1925

Image Number: Roll3Neg20A

Comments: Victory Hall, later called Victory Theatre, was completed in 1920 to commemorate the Armistice of World I. It became Scottsville's cultural center for over four decades.

Old Canal Warehouse

Date: ca. 1925-1930

Image Number: B35cdB14

Comments: Built around 1830, the Canal Warehouse is a large, gambrel-roofed building, located along the former James River-Kanawha canal bank in Scottsville. While river and canal traffic flourished, the warehouse was full of tobacco, grain, and other produce waiting to be shipped to Richmond markets. Scottsville used this building on South Street for many different purposes after the canal's demise in 1880. During the 1940's, the old Canal Warehouse even served as a much-loved social center for Scottsville.

Traveler's Rest Hotel

Date: ca. 1930

Image Number: VL03cdVL01

Comments: This wood-framed hotel was built about 1909 by Jacinto V. Perira on Main Street. It was the leading hotel in town for 67 years and contained 19 hotel rooms with two bathrooms on each floor. The hotel's dining room sat approximately 60 people and with its family style service was a favorite with locals and travlers, too. A disastrous fire in February 1976 burned the Traveler's Rest to the ground.

Jefferson Mills

Date: ca. 1940

Image Number: RM02cdRM01

Comments: Jefferson Mills, located on the Hardware River approximately 3 miles northeast of Scottsville, was built about 1800. It is a brick structure, four stories high, and the mill originally was run by an overshot wheel that was fed from a stone dam twenty feet above the riverbed. Previously known as Albemarle Mills, it was sold to Peter Fields Jefferson on January 28, 1857. It was purchased by William Thomas Moulton in May 1919 and was a working mill until 1945 when the last miller, William Williams, retired.

Thomas Ellison Bruce,Sr. -- Community Leader

Date: ca. 1945

Image Number: SD341cdSD18

Comments: Thomas Ellison Bruce, Sr., was a popular and successful community leader, serving four terms as Mayor of Scottsville (1935-1943). During WWII, he played an important role in attracting such new business as the U.S. Rubber Company to Scottsville, which invigorated the local economy and doubled an otherwise declining population over the next eight years.

J.B. Tindall's Groceries

Date: ca. 1950

Image Number: JT04cdJT01

Comments: J.B. Tindall's Groceries was a small general merchandise store, located at Hatton and a little over three miles southwest of Scottsville. James Benson Tindall, Sr., operated the store from 1906 until his death in 1945; his son, Jim, Jr., took over store management duties until his retirement in 1973.

The Tavern

Date: ca. 1969

Image Number: B250cdB25

Comments: The Old Tavern is located on the north side of Scottsville's Main Street and across from the Herndon House and Colonial Cottage. This two-story brick building shows the pioneer split-level composition of a single and double gallery, connected by a covered outside stair. Although the exact date of its construction is unknown, the Old Tavern probably was built in the late 1700's to early 1800's.

Hatton Post Office

Date: 2004

Image Number: cg25cdCG02

Comments: In late 1883, Hatton Post Office began operation at Brown's Landing, a site located three and one-fourth miles southwest of Scottsville. Shown here are the original Hatton postal mail boxes that were in use from 1883 to 1975. Two of the longest serving postmasters of Hatton were James Benson Tindall, Sr. (1909-1945), and his son, James, Jr.(1945-1975).

Museum Archive Business Cemeteries Church Events Floods Homes Portraits Postcards School Transportation Civil War WWII

Search Policy

Scottsville Museum · 290 Main Street · Scottsville, Virginia 24590 · 434-286-2247