Welcome to… The Town of Orange

Welcome to… The Town of Orange. Sweet Living, Steady Progress. , town history , Orange was born as one of Virginia's Court House villages on November 24, 1749, when the Gentlemen Justices of Orange County voted to hold County Court sessions in Timothy Crosthwait's tavern alongside "Swift Run Gap Road," the County's main east-west highway. A courthouse and jail were built, followed by law offices, and various "smithies" and stores to attend the needs and desires of persons availing themselves of the services of local government. Dwellings for county officers, merchants and service people, along with their houses of worship created the village of Orange Courthouse.

In 1854 Orange's commercial role was greatly enhanced when the tracks of the Orange and Alexandria railroad were driven literally through the center of the Public Lot, between the courthouse and the jail. With the construction of the present courthouse five years later, governmental functions retreated a block to the west.

The courthouse village grew as Railroad Avenue became the commercial center of Orange County. After several false starts, a state charter was granted and the Town of Orange came into being in 1872. Further physical changes are readily evident at this midpoint of Orange's third century. The railroad now runs "through" rather than "to" the town: highways for cars and trucks have become the primary arteries of commerce. The town continues to grow physically; and has spread its borders to include modern shopping centers and suburban housing developments. Still, Orange's downtown complex continues to serve its two-and-half century old role as the emotional heart and the political center of Orange County.

fire , Welcome to Orange's past, and its future! You are standing in what was the very heart of the town of Orange at the beginning of the 20th century. Before dawn on Sunday morning, November 8, 1908, Towles Terrill, a 78 year-old Civil War veteran, accidentally started a fire in his bachelor room over Gaines saloon on Railroad Avenue , just across the tracks from where you are standing.

By 11:00 A.M. the heart of Orange's business district lay in ashes.

All the buildings on Railroad Avenue were destroyed; so, too, were the structures on both sides of East Main Street between the railroad tracks and Byrd Street along with four buildings west of the tracks on the south side of East Main.

That disaster set the stage for the rebuilding of Orange's railroad centered business district. Every building you now see in this area was constructed between 1909 and 1917 in the style of commercial buildings of that era. While the functions of these buildings have changed many times in nine decades, the facade of each building in this district continues to reflect the architectural style of small town commercial structures during the early years of the twentieth century. Orange leaders are working hard to maintain the early 20th century appearance of these buildings and to keep this late Victorian village commercially viable in the twenty-first century.

civil war , After suffering defeat at the battle of Gettysburg in July, 1863, General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army retreated to Orange County. Here, on the south bank of the Rapidan, the army established a defensive position where it could lick its wounds, regroup and resupply itself during the winter of 1863-64. Consequently, this Orange and Alexandria railroad station became the primary supply depot for the beleaguered Army of Northern Virginia.

During a Virginia winter, Orange's mud becomes notoriously deep and sticky. General Lee is reported to have commented that "Orange County mud and Orange County ladies; each makes an impression quite indelible." To allay the problem of having its supply-wagons stuck in Orange mud at the supply center, Confederate soldiers brought tons and tons of rock to macadamize Orange's main street and the area around the railroad depot.

Throughout the winter, the offices of the Army's Quartermaster Corps and the Provost Marshall were quartered here in the town of Orange. Just as General Washington had refitted his Continental Army at Valley Forge during the Revolutionary War, after the defeat at Gettysburg, General Lee used Orange County as his base for preparing to meet the spring 1864 offensive by General Grant and the Union Army of the Potomac.