The story below is from our January/February 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
The Roanoke region’s towns come in various sizes, armed with considerable creativity.
Dan Smith
The Bedford Museum is just one important piece of Bedford’s history and future.
Virginia’s sometimes-difficult-to-understand tiered government structure comes in three distinct levels: cities, towns and counties. Cities are totally independent with no county connection. Towns are an additional service tier to counties and have their own governing bodies.
People who live in towns pay taxes to the county and to the town, for those additional services like water and sewer, curb and gutter, planning, trash and police protection, among others.
It is often in the planning that towns distinguish themselves. Some—like Bedford, Rocky Mount and Vinton— think big. Others, like Buchanan—are more limited in their ambitions, preferring to maintain a historic neighborhood feel.
Even with their limits, towns are often at the front edge of creativity in Virginia. Here is how four of them near Roanoke work:
Buchanan
Dan Smith
Downtown Buchanan
This Botetourt County town has been around since 1811, but the mention of its name most often conjures the flood of 1985 when it was nearly erased, or its thriving antiques stores, which get visitors from up and down the East Coast. Buchanan had a solid manufacturing presence in the past (Virginia Forge and Groendyk) and remains home to Carmeuse Lime & Stone, but the emphasis has changed notably.
Dan Smith
Buchanan, which covers 2.5 miles and has 1,230 residents, is rapidly developing its recreational attraction, centered on the James River, which runs smack through its middle. One of the most notable businesses in the center of town is Twin River Outfitters, a canoe and kayaking enterprise that served 15,000 paddlers between Memorial and Labor Days of 2024, half of all those recreating on the river in the warm months. “The river has the potential to be a great way toward our growth,” says new Town Manager Angela Lawrence.
A 2023 grant from the Recreation Economy for Rural Communities program—part of the Environmental Protection Agency—has been at the center of recent initiatives. Buchanan is four miles from the Blue Ridge Parkway and another half mile to the Appalachian Trail. That proximity has huge potential for the town, says Lawrence.
Much of Buchanan’s attention in recent years has centered on the seven-acre Town Park, just off Main Street, and resting at the foot of Purgatory Mountain. The town has actively promoted a variety of festivals from reggae to fall colors, and an annual carnival. “Entertainment brings people in,” says Lawrence.
The former button factory in town now has 22 units of apartments, the movie theatre is thriving with renovation and the Old Goats brewery has established its second location (first is in Roanoke) in town. “We have a couple of business buildings we’re marketing,” says Lawrence, but that is not a huge priority. “We have some spaces for light industry, but we want to grow organically.”
Mostly, though, “People just want to remain small,” says Lawrence.
Bedford
Dan Smith
The seat of government for Bedford County took a turn at being a city a few years ago but has settled comfortably in as a town of 6,818 people living within 11 square miles. That new population represents growth of more than 200 people since 2020.
Bedford is alive with accomplishment, innovation and ambition, including heavy emphasis on visual and performing arts. “We are trying to push downtown,” says Nicole Johnson, Bedford County’s Director of Tourism. The 48-year-old Little Town Players community theatre group leads the way in that regard and the town has a symphony orchestra (Bedford Community Orchestra).
Bedford’s attraction has considerable support with the nationally significant D-Day Memorial, the Bedford Museum, the Bedford Library (with a genealogical section), the Bower Center for the Arts and a town library that is especially appealing to children.
The old Bedford High School and Middle School (which burned recently) are being developed into a boutique hotel and apartment complex (60 units), using the designer responsible for the notable Billy Byrd in Vinton.
Dan Smith
Bedford courthouse
As energetic as Bedford is, says Mary Zirkle, Director of Planning and Development, “It just takes time. This is a marathon, not a sprint. There are ebbs and flows of life, and there is risk” for developers.
The sense of community is strong in Bedford, says Pam Armstrong, the county’s economic development director. “The degree of separation in Bedford is one,” she says. “You can find it faster here.”
Bedford, says Johnson (a Bedford native), “is in a growth spurt, but we need rooftops to get commerce. … There is more variety of businesses and things to do. It feels like home, a comfortable place. I’m excited to see change.”
“Walkability is important,” says Zirkle, “and it is a conscious effort” for the town planners.
Two new, or planned hotels (the Hampton Inn & Suites and a boutique hotel), will bring 115 rooms to a town that needs them. Companies like Blue Ridge Optics, Sam Moore Furniture and Southern Flavorings remain stable, countering the loss of Rubatex (though a foundry has moved into some of its vacated space). Fifty-eight apartments and a few commercial spaces have occupied a former ax factory.
The next step for Bedford is the new 60,000 square-foot metal fabrication facility and a first-of-its-kind workforce development center (Regional Technology Academy), a public-private enterprise. That will add a whole new twist to this charming town.
Rocky Mount
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Dan Smith
A farmers market (pictured), 10 new restaurants, a brewery, and speakeasy add to Rocky Mount’s charm.
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Dan Smith
If you’re beginning to think that the Franklin County seat is moving toward being too big for its britches, you’re right. The 6.5-square-mile town purchased 64 vacant acres at its northern edge a year ago and has expansive plans for it.
A town formerly known far and wide for its battling newspapers and moonshine production (which ultimately resulted in the good Hollywood movie “Lawless”) was all but lifeless 10 years ago when a good idea became a great idea.
That was the creation of The Harvester, which has become one of the notable music venues in the South. The Harvester’s immediate reach was throughout Rocky Mount and Franklin County, and then bringing in music lovers from all over the region and beyond, people who spent money and found a charming little place to relax.
Rocky Mount, founded in 1786 and has a population of 4,989, is today looking at a housing shortage. Because of its success in recent years (the population grows to 25,000 during the day with workers coming in from outside town), growth is not a theory.
Economic Development Director Daniel Pinard says the model for its near future is the Daleville Town Center. The new acreage, he says, has “a ballpark figure of 400 housing units depending on the layout.” That will couple strongly with new commerce. “We are looking for a good mix of small business and big manufacturing.”
The northern corridor, which leads to downtown Rocky Mount was revitalized two years ago and zoned for general business. It has grown substantially. Along with that commercial growth has come an abundance of parks, seven of them totaling 39 acres. Assistant Town Manager Mark Moore says that number is three times the per-capita average for the number of parks in a locality.
The town has invested in façade upgrades, beautification, parking and up-to-date signs, some of them promoting Rocky Mount as the starting point for the Crooked Road, an old-time music travel destination. A new 88-room hotel is on the way as well.
The Harvester, a former tractor dealer, was shut down during COVID, but, says Moore, it is “the strongest it’s ever been. We re-opened it in September of 2021” and feature 300 shows a year. The town owns the Harvester building and leases it to the economic development authority, linking public and private entities. Says Pinard, The Harvester “put Rocky Mount on the map out of the gate with its quality. It transformed the downtown, as well, and gave us something to build on. It became a tool for economic development.”
That is evident with a thriving farmers market, 10 new restaurants, a brewery and speakeasy. The town owns a recently-purchased 4,000-square-foot People’s National Bank building and is looking for proposals, says Pinard.
Growth has evolved from random to planned, he says. Moonshine used to be a sore spot, but now it is a point of smiling emphasis. “We will participate with Franklin, Floyd and Patrick Counties in the Mountain Spirits Trail,” says Moore. That pretty well spells “transition.”
Vinton
For many years, Vinton had a problem with image. It was a blue-collar railroad bedroom community, and the rest of the Roanoke Valley didn’t hold it in high esteem. That has changed. Fast.
Dan Smith
“Vinton, founded in 1884, has taken some of its old buildings and made them new again, giving birth to creative thought.”
Consider how serious Vinton is about economic development, for example. It recently hired Jill Barr Loope, the newly-retired Roanoke County Director of Economic Development, as a part-time advisor. Loope is widely respected in the game and is paired with a couple of solid veteran professionals: Town Manager Pete Peters and Deputy Town Manager Cody Sexton.
Their ambitions for the town are exacerbated by, says Peters, “Less bureaucracy and closer citizen involvement. All the staff routinely engage with citizens. We are able to talk about every-day concerns. We are flexible, pivot turnarounds. We are looking for a way to say, ‘Yes.’”
In looking at the way governments in Virginia are structured, says Sexton, “Towns are the sweet spot. Vinton benefits from a thriving region where we have a seat at the table.”
Loope, who has worked with city, county and town, says the town “is much easier; far fewer layers. It’s simple.”
Vinton, founded in 1884, has taken some of its old buildings and made them new again, giving birth to creative thought. Two schools, the historic Gish’s Mill (which had been closed for many years) and the old library are among the renovations. “We removed the obstacles” to development, says Peters.
Vinton Motors, vacant for 10 years after a 69-year run, became Vinyard Station with four businesses: Pok-E-Joe’s, RND Coffee, Panda Boba Tea Room and another business on the way. A bit more than a year ago, a large building at the corner of Lee and Pollard burned to the ground and is giving Vinton an opportunity to come up with three properties: two residential and one commercial, says Peters.
The town’s elegant, new-ish library has been a boon to downtown, as well. “It was the first sign that something physical was happening,” says Sexton.
Dan Smith
Downtown is alive these days and Twin Creeks Brewery is at the center of it. Downtown is now a walking destination because of recently-completed trails.
“We have had success in the mundane projects that have day-to-day meaning to residents,” says Sexton. “It is personal. We touch people at their homes.”
“We took care of the low-hanging fruit and the white elephants,” says Peters.
Vinton has 8,000 residents squeezed into 3.2 square miles, so there is not a lot of open land to develop. Still, re-use and re-imagining has become standard.
Says Loope, “We will see a lot more redevelopment, more new partners. So much is about timing: identifying the right properties for the right developers. … That is the secret sauce.” And that’s what small towns do well.
The story above is from our January/February 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!