Blackstone, Virginia

The settlement was founded as the village of "Blacks and Whites", so named after two tavern keepers, before the Revolutionary War. It was renamed Bellefonte on May 11, 1875, and back to Blacks and Whites on August 4, 1882. On February 23, 1886, the town was incorporated with the name of Blackstone, in honor of the influential English jurist William Blackstone.^[5]

The Blackstone Historic District, Butterwood Methodist Church and Butterwood Cemetery, Little Mountain Pictograph Site, Oakridge, and Schwartz Tavern are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.^[7]

The town, under its former name, was a stop on the Southside Railroad in the mid-nineteenth century. The railroad became the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad in 1870 and then a line in the Norfolk and Western Railway, now the Norfolk Southern Railway.^[8] The town's grid street pattern was laid out in 1874, and the town incorporated in 1888. Its economy thrived as a location for dark-leaf tobacco sales and shipment through its railroad station.

Blackstone is located at 37°4′36″N 78°0′5″W (37.076661, −78.001302).^[9]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 4.6 square miles (11.8 km²), of which 4.5 square miles (11.7 km²) is land and 0.04 square miles (0.1 km²) (0.44%) is water.

Nearby Fort Barfoot (then Camp Pickett, and later Fort Pickett) was established by the U.S. Army in 1941 and was a very large training center during World War II. It was closed by the BRAC Commission in the 1990s, and the facility is now the headquarters for the Virginia National Guard. In May 2014 the U.S. Department of State selected Fort Barfoot (formerly Fort Pickett) as the site of their Foreign Affairs Security Training Center, which opened in November 2019.^[16] After the fall of Kabul during September 2021, the federal government temporarily housed 5,900 Afghan refugees at the facility.^[17]

The 2-year Blackstone Female Institute / Blackstone College for Girls also operated in Blackstone for many years. The buildings and grounds were later used as the Virginia United Methodist Assembly Center (VUMAC), drawing 19,000 visitors a year before closing in 2016. The Blackstone shopping district (including a Wal-Mart, an outpatient medical center, and a livestock market) attracts customers from a large three-county rural area. The town received a Main Street designation from the state, and a $1 million downtown revitalization project started in 2008. In 2009 the town opened the $4 million James Harris medical center. The Town of Blackstone also has a regional bus terminal that serves 11 counties. The oldest building in town is Schwartz Tavern, built in stages from 1790 to 1840, now used as a museum. Bevell's Hardware, a local business, no longer displays a giant 58' by 20' (17.7 by 6.1 meter) model railroad layout that had attracted thousands of visitors. The Robert Thomas Carriage Museum, containing 28 restored antique carriages, sleighs, and buggies, was opened in 2007.

• Actress Bea Arthur attended Blackstone School for Girls and was active in their Drama program in 1933.
• Bishop James Cannon, Jr., first President of Blackstone College, achieved fame as the leading prohibition advocate in the nation.
• Booker T. Spicely, U.S. Army soldier and victim of a racially motivated murder in Durham, North Carolina, in 1944.
• John A. Tyree, U.S. Navy Vice Admiral and double Navy Cross recipient
• Representative and lawyer James F. Epes
• American football player Robert Jones
• Richmond Dillard Crinkley, Broadway Producer, won the Best Play Tony Award in 1979 for “The Elephant Man.”