Staunton, Virginia

Area Code: 540
Zip Codes: 24401, 24402, 24407
Lat. 38.160
Long. -79.067

History

In 1746, the surveyor Thomas Lewis laid out the first town plat of Staunton for landowner William Beverley. Staunton was founded in 1747, incorporated in 1871, and became an independent city on July 10, 1902. In 1908, Staunton was the first city in the world to adopt a city manager form of government.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 19.7 square miles (51.0 km²). Staunton is located in the Shenandoah Valley between the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains of the Appalachian Mountains.

Media

The News Leader is Staunton’s local newspaper.
WHSV in Harrisonburg maintains a newsroom in Staunton and has a 5:00 news program which focuses on the city.

Staunton Education Facilities:

Staunton campus of the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind
Mary Baldwin College
Stuart Hall School: prep school
Robert E. Lee High School: public high school
Shelburne Middle School: public middle school
C.F. Richards Jr. Academy: coed Seventh-Day Adventist school

Arts and culture

Staunton is home to the American Shakespeare Center, a theatrical company centered at the Blackfriars Playhouse, the only existing replica of Shakespeare’s Blackfriars Theatre. The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library is open for visitors, as well as the Museum of American Frontier Culture, an insider’s look at life in early America. Often called the “Queen City” of the Shenandoah Valley, Staunton has five separate historic districts.

Staunton is the official home of country music legends the Statler Brothers.

Film

The city maintains strict building codes in the historic downtown, which makes the city attractive as a location for period films. Downtown Staunton and Sherwood Avenue were used in the American Civil War film Gods and Generals. The local Shenandoah Valley Railroad as well as a number of nearby houses were used in filming of Hearts in Atlantis. In 1993, The Showtime production of Assault at West Point: The Court-Martial of Johnson Whittaker was filmed here. In the summer of 2006, some scenes for the movie Evan Almighty were also filmed in Staunton.