Wytheville - Black Lick - Rural Retreat - New Hope - Max Meadows - Piney - Ivanhoe - Driving Tour Home
Wytheville
In 1790, Wythe County
was named in honor of George Wythe, the famous Virginia lawyer
and signer of the Declaration of Independence. In that same year,
the first town lots were laid off and the town was named Evansham.
In 1839, the name of the town was changed to Wytheville to reflect
the fact that it was the county seat. Main Street is located on
The Great Road that originated in Philadelphia and became one
of the major routes for settlers traveling through Virginia to
the Western frontier.
The following seven sites are all within
the town limits of Wytheville.
Points of Interest:
1 Bethlehem
Baptist Church
1300 West Monroe Street
No photo available.
2 Old Bethlehem
Church
West Spring Street between 8th and 10th Streets. The church is
no longer in service.
No photo available.
- 3 Bethel
A.M.E. Church
635 East Main Street
The first African American Methodist Episcopal Church was located
on Tazewell Street in front of the present Spiller School after
the reconstruction period. Tradition states that the church was
very active and the services quite spirited, much to the annoyance
of their neighbor, William H. Spiller. Mr. Spiller, a prominent
business- man, struck a deal with the congregation and traded
the property on which the old church stood for the present location
on Main Street. Between the years of 1891 and 1892, the construction
of the new church was completed. It is one of two frame churches
within the town to have survived from the 19th century.
-
- 4 Franklin
Street M.E. Church
430 East Franklin Street between 5th and 7th
Streets. African Americans, free to worship as they pleased after
the Civil War, organized the Franklin Street Methodist Church
in 1866. The first church building on Tazewell Street was sold
in 1883 to the Evansham School district, and the present site
for the church at the corner of 5th and Franklin Streets was
purchased. The cornerstone for the new brick church was laid
in 1888.
5 Morning Star
Church of God
400 East Franklin Street between 5th and 7th Streets. LOCATED:
One mile east of Wytheville on Monroe Street / Peppers Ferry Road.
No photo available.
- 6 Old Wytheville
Training School
410 East Franklin Street between 5th and 7th Streets. African
American education in Wythe County began after the Civil War
with the Freedmen's Bureau schools for freed slaves and their
families. In 1876, the Freedmen's Bureau schools were replaced
by a young Negro educator, Richard Henry Scott, who moved here
from Chesterfield County, VA. Dr. Scott first taught in the county
schools, later holding classes in the basement of the Franklin
Street Methodist Church. A school for Negro students was started
in a frame building, no longer standing, at the corner of Franklin
and 5th Streets and was later replaced by the present building
which housed the Wytheville Training School. Negro children from
Wythe and surrounding counties attended this school until a new
facility, named in honor of Dr. Scott, was built in 1952. The
site of the Wytheville Training School includes the small frame
building in the rear which was the fourth grade class room. This
structure, which has been renovated and preserved for future
generations by a private owner, is one of Wytheville's most important
historic sites.
7 Oakwood Memorial
Garden Cemetery
LOCATED: One mile east of Wytheville on Monroe Street / Peppers
Ferry Road.
No photo available.
Wytheville - Black Lick - Rural Retreat - New Hope - Max Meadows - Piney - Ivanhoe - Driving Tour Home
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- Wytheville
Convention and Visitors Bureau
- PO Box
533, 975 Tazewell Street, Wytheville, VA 24382
- General
Office: 276-223-3355 - Fax: 276-223-3443
- http://www.visitwytheville.org
- cvb@wytheville.org
- Toll-Free:
1-877-347-8307
- Main
Exit: I-81, Exit 70