Rapidan Historic District

Rapidan is a small crossroads village on both sides of the Rapidan River, in Culpeper and Orange Counties, Virginia. Its historic district takes in 38 buildings: churches, a post office, stores, a meeting hall, two railroad depots, houses and outbuildings. The settlement began in the late 18th century as Waugh's Ford, with a grist mill built around 1772. The Orange and Alexandria Railroad arrived in 1854 and turned the village into a shipping point for lumber and wood products. Several Civil War raids destroyed the mill and most of the buildings. Most of what survives dates from the late 19th and early 20th centuries and ranges from simple frame dwellings to Italianate and Queen Anne houses. Local builder George Q. Peyton built many of them, including most of the houses on Gospel Hill. The two Carpenter Gothic churches of 1874 are the best-known buildings, one designed by Richmond architect J. B. Danforth. Together the buildings preserve the look of a railroad and milling town.