Middlebrook Historic District

Middlebrook is a small village in the Valley of Virginia, ten miles southwest of Staunton, platted in 1799 along the road to Lexington. The road became a turnpike by 1851, and the village grew into the largest in Augusta County by 1882, with 274 residents. Two rows of closely spaced log and frame houses, brick "I"-houses, stores, churches and an Odd Fellows Hall still line the main street much as they did in the 1880s. When the Valley Turnpike and railroads favored neighboring Greenville, Middlebrook declined, and little was built or remodeled afterward. That preserved the original lot pattern and its vernacular buildings. The district also contains archaeological sites of shops, factories, tanyards and homes. Among them are the remains of a black community that developed on the west side of town in the late 19th century, which could show how life changed after emancipation. A 1925 garage and two early 20th-century school buildings add later layers.