ABOUT VIRGINIA: LOUISA, VA

Louisa, Virginia, the seat of Louisa County, was formed from Hanover County in 1742. At the meeting of the first Court held on December 13, 1742 at the home of Matthew Jouett, permission was granted to Mr. Jouett to keep an ordinary at his home by the Court House. This was the start of a community to be known as Louisa Courthouse and later, the village or town of Louisa.

The tavern, or ordinary as they were then known, was located at the Courthouse and served as a place of lodging and refreshment for the Justices and visitors to the Courthouse. It also served travelers who might go through the county on the roads from Richmond to Charlottesville. Its secondary purpose was as a gathering place for persons on business or pleasure tasks in the immediate area. Legal notices and newspapers were on file, mail was distributed, necessities were distributed, and the taproom was a clearinghouse for news and gossip. A post office was established at Louisa Courthouse in September 1800. Ludlow Branham was the first Postmaster, and the mail during this time period was carried by post riders and stagecoaches.

No actual records of the village exist as to occupants or businesses until the publication of a "Gazetteer of Virginia" by John Martin in 1835. At the time of the incorporation of the Louisa Courthouse as a town, Chataigne and Ellis, in their Virginia Business Directory and Gazetteer, show that the town contained about 250 inhabitants. It also included four churches, a hotel, seven lawyers, one druggist, one saddler, one milliner, one confectioner, a lumber firm, a music store, seven general stores, one general merchandise merchant, and one liquor dealer, one grocer, one flour mill, one distiller, and a tin smith; in all, twenty-seven places of business.

As reported by the census of 2000, there are 1,401 people, 584 households, and 331 families now residing in the town with a median income for a family of $42,396.

Louisa, Virginia, located in central Virginia, has all the advantages of a small community, but is within an hour's drive from Richmond and Charlottesville, and barely two hours from Washington, D.C., the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the Atlantic Ocean. Louisa is 35 miles from Charlottesville, VA over local and county roads. Lynchburg, VA, home of the Jack Daniels Distillery, is another 60 miles southwest and Roanoke and additional 50 miles west. Richmond, VA, is 50 miles to the east but is accessed via a faster moving state highway, making the travel time to each city equal.

Festivals, bazaars, fairs and horse shows abound in Louisa from spring through fall. Fire Departments, churches, The Public School Board, Lions, Rotary and Chamber of Commerce all organize their own events to keep the residents and visitors to Louisa, Virginia entertained. The Tanyard Country Club fills almost every weekend with sponsored golf tournaments, Invitational’s and Open matches. A farmers market every Saturday from May till November offers produce, crafts and other wares. Interaction and cooperation among private, public and municipal organizations runs smoothly in Louisa. The Trevilians Volunteer Fire Department has its own web presence to keep the public informed on a daily basis.

Louisa Public Schools provides equal education opportunities for students in grades Kindergarten - 12th grade. There are three elementary schools, (Thomas Jefferson Elementary School - Trevilians Elementary School - Jouett Elementary School), one middle school (Louisa County Middle School) and one high school (Louisa County High School). Each school has its own website, maintained by one of its own teachers.

Louisa, VA is home to the North Anna Nuclear Power Station which produces electricity and jobs for the county's inhabitants. The warm water produced from the power plant and discharged into the water of Lake Anna creates what some call central Virginia's best fishing. The North Anna River was dammed to form the 13,000-acre lake that supplies cooling water for the station. Lake Anna’s 200 miles of shoreline and a large state park have become a popular outdoor recreational facility.

Louisa, VA even has its own airport capable of handling small jets. Louisa County Airport Freeman Field is a modern aviation facility located two miles southeast of town.

Louisa, Virginia is a modern and growing small town that never turned its back on its original rural county roots. In fact, in 2003, Louisa won the Urban Forestry Award for maintaining and increasing the forest vegetation in the town limits. That award sums up this town’s feeling and spirit in any of its endeavors.

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