Virginia’s most mispronounced city has Shakespeare, free concerts, and Skyline Drive next door

They call it “STAN-ton” around here

Staunton sits right where Interstates 81 and 64 cross in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, and about 25,750 people call it home. Say it wrong and you’ll get corrected fast.

It’s “STAN-ton,” not “STAWN-ton.” Locals know it as the Queen City of the Valley, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation once named it a Distinctive Destination.

Six historic districts, a presidential birthplace, live glassblowing, and 214 acres of parkland with free summer concerts all fit inside this small, walkable city, and you can reach Skyline Drive in 20 minutes.

A frontier family arrived in 1732 and started it all

John Lewis and his family settled this stretch of the Shenandoah Valley in 1732. For over a century, the town stayed small.

Then the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike went through in the 1840s and turned the place into a center of commerce. The Virginia Central Railroad followed in 1854, and growth came fast after that.

Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president, was born here on Dec. 28, 1856.

And in 1908, Staunton became the first city in America to adopt the city manager form of government.

Six historic districts line the red brick sidewalks

Downtown Staunton holds six nationally registered historic districts: Beverley, Wharf, Newtown, Stuart Addition, Gospel Hill, and The Villages.

Most of the buildings date from the 1870s to the 1920s, and the styles run from Italianate and Queen Anne to Beaux-Arts and Colonial Revival. One architect shaped much of what you see today.

T.J. Collins moved to town in 1891 and designed or remodeled over 200 buildings, including the Augusta County Courthouse, St. Francis Catholic Church, and the Romanesque Revival Marquis Building where he kept his offices.

Old warehouses turned into art galleries and glass studios

The Wharf Historic District grew up around the train depot after the railroad arrived in 1854. Warehouses, hotels, and liveries once lined these streets, handling merchandise and housing passengers.

Fire, flood, war, and abandonment hit the area hard, but a good stretch of historic architecture survived. The Historic Staunton Foundation started restoring buildings here in 1989.

Now you’ll find art galleries, shops, and Sunspots Studios glassblowing where freight wagons once rolled through.

Watch Shakespeare the way the Elizabethans did

The Blackfriars Playhouse opened in September 2001 on South Market Street, and it’s the world’s only re-creation of Shakespeare’s original indoor theater in London.

The 300-seat house was built inside a brick shell using Virginia oak, wood-pegged and post-and-beam, topped with a hammerbeam roof. The whole project cost $3.7 million.

During performances, the same light hits the actors and the audience, just like it did in Elizabethan England.

The American Shakespeare Center, a nonprofit, produces shows year-round, from Shakespeare to contemporary works.

Step into a colonial farmstead from the 1600s

The Frontier Culture Museum is an open-air living history site that tells the story of people who migrated to colonial America during the 1600s and 1700s.

You walk through traditional rural buildings moved or reproduced from England, Germany, Ireland, West Africa, and America. Costumed interpreters farm, cook, and demonstrate craftsmanship at each homesite.

You can also visit an Eastern Woodlands Indian community, a log church built by African Americans before 1850, and portrayals of Valley life across different decades.

The museum is open daily, and free shuttles run across the property.

The president’s birthplace still has his 1919 limousine

Woodrow Wilson was born in a Greek Revival home called the Manse, built in 1846 for the pastors of Staunton’s First Presbyterian Church. His father took the pulpit in 1855, and Woodrow arrived the following year.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the house as a museum in 1941, and it became a National Historic Landmark in 1964.

Inside, you’ll find seven galleries, a World War I trench exhibit, and Wilson’s restored 1919 Pierce-Arrow presidential limousine.

Guided tours take you through the Manse, and a research library next door holds one of the largest collections of Wilson’s papers.

Sit close enough to feel the furnace heat

Sunspots Studios has been blowing glass in the Wharf District for over 25 years.

Four glassblowers rotate through the studios, and you can watch them work Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Pull up a seat close enough to feel the heat coming off the furnaces and ask whatever you want.

If you’re up for it, the “Blow Your Own Ornament” experience lets you create a keepsake with a glassblower guiding your hands.

The gallery sells everything made on-site, from vases and bird feeders to drinkware and ornaments.

Free concerts nearly every night all summer long

Gypsy Hill Park covers 214 acres right in town and packs in a duck pond, playgrounds, a public pool, a golf course, baseball fields, tennis courts, and a mini-train called the Gypsy Express.

A 1.3-mile loop road called Constitution Drive runs through the center, and walkers, joggers, and cyclists use it all day. In summer, the park hosts free concerts almost every night.

Monday performances come from the Stonewall Brigade Band, a community band with roots going back to the Civil War era. A monument in the park honors the Statler Brothers, the famous country music group from Staunton.

Over 6,000 cameras dating back to the 1840s

The Camera Heritage Museum on West Beverley Street holds more than 6,000 cameras and accessories, making it the largest camera museum open to the public in the country.

You’ll see antique daguerreotypes, spy cameras, Kodak Brownies, and over 2,000 historic photographs of Staunton and Augusta County.

The building itself served as a camera and art supply shop for 70 years before the museum moved in. It’s a nonprofit, and admission is free, so you can walk right in and spend as long as you want.

Skyline Drive is 20 minutes from your hotel room

Shenandoah National Park’s 105-mile Skyline Drive starts at Rockfish Gap, about 20 minutes east of Staunton. The drive has 75 overlooks with views of the Shenandoah Valley and the Piedmont.

At Rockfish Gap, Skyline Drive connects to the northern end of the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway, which runs south toward the Great Smoky Mountains.

Minutes from town along the Parkway, Humpback Rocks Recreation Area has hiking trails and one of the Parkway’s most popular overlooks at a 3,080-foot rock formation.

Nearby Sherando Lake Recreation Area has a 25-acre spring-fed lake with trails, campsites, and a sandy swimming beach.

Red brick sidewalks and a 1930s movie house

Staunton’s compact downtown runs along the Beverley Street corridor, lined with locally owned boutiques, art galleries, and antique shops. You can cover most of it on foot in an afternoon.

The Staunton Farmers’ Market sets up on Saturdays from April through November, and the Visulite Cinema, a restored 1930s movie house, still shows films in the heart of downtown.

If you want a plan, pick up a free self-guided walking tour map at the Staunton Visitor Center on South New Street and follow it at your own pace.

Explore Staunton’s Shenandoah Valley in Virginia

You can reach Staunton in about 2.5 hours from Washington, D.C., roughly 160 miles west on Interstate 64. Charlottesville is about 45 minutes east, and Richmond is under two hours away.

If you’d rather skip the drive, Staunton has an Amtrak station with rail service right into town. The nearest commercial airport is Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport in Weyers Cave, just a short drive north.

Once you arrive, most of what you’ll want to see is within walking distance of downtown.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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