Scottsville Historic District

Scottsville is a river town on the north bank of the James River at Horseshoe Bend, mostly in Albemarle County with a small eastern section in Fluvanna County. The district covers the whole town, 115 acres, and contains roughly 51 to 53 buildings of historic or architectural interest. They range from early frame cottages and warehouses on Main Street to brick commercial rows on Valley Street and Greek Revival houses and churches on Harrison Street. The town began with Edward Scott's 1732 land patent and served briefly as Albemarle County's seat. It was a Revolutionary War supply depot, and it prospered as a flour market after the James River and Kanawha Canal opened through it in 1840. Sheridan's cavalry destroyed the canal section and many mills in 1865, and later the railroad took over the towpath. Floods in 1969 and 1972 and fires in 1976 caused damage, yet the town kept its nineteenth-century character, which is the basis for its listing.