Arrive Magazine - July/August, 2010

Clockwise from top: Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library; American Shakespeare Center; two examples of Staunton Grocery’s farm-to-fork fare.

Townsfolk boast that a large part of Staunton survives on “cultural manufacturing”—the work of specialty craftspeople who have launched businesses producing handcrafted products. Around town are fabricators of local wood furniture, clocks, guitars and jewelry. There’s even a microbrewery where folks brew and bottle their own ale. Rachel’s Quilt Patch on Middlebrook Avenue has instituted a retro resurgence of quilting, especially among hipsters. Sunspots, a dazzling handblown-glass studio and gallery, resides in a neighborhood called the Wharf, near the Amtrak station, which comprises refurbished warehouses-turned-galleries, restaurants and music clubs.

All this fresh creative energy is packaged into painstakingly restored buildings. Staunton was established in 1747 and, unlike many Southern cities, it didn’t burn during the Civil War, so most of its architecture dates from Staunton’s building boom, from the mid-1800s through 1920. Especially stunning is the circa 1855 Trinity Church, which features a spectacular collection of stained glass, including 12 authentic Tiffany windows.

There is a free city trolley providing guided tours through Staunton’s five National Historic Registry neighborhoods—the Wharf, Beverley, Gospel Hill, Newtown and Stuart Addition. The full experience takes about 25 minutes and riders are permitted to debark or enter at any stop. But Staunton also is walkable. Every Saturday at 10 a.m., free guided walking tours convene at the R.R. Smith Center for History and Art, home to the town’s two historic organizations and several art galleries. The tour includes the new Red Brick district, which is filled with venerated museums, galleries, live performance theaters, music venues and such highbrow historic sites as the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library.