Upperville (Virginia)

Upperville is a municipality with 1,061 inhabitants (2007 ) in the U.S. state of Virginia. The town is located 80 km west of Washington, D.C. in Fauquier County. It is located near the Blue Ridge Mountains and is intersected by U.S. Highway 50.

History

1775 George Washington acquired land in the area of present-day Upperville. This included one of the oldest buildings in the area that today under the name 1793 Inn is operated as an inn. The actual local company was established in 1790, as Josephus Carr his estate aufteilte along the present Highway 50 into 50 plots and gave the place the name Carrstown. In 1819 it was renamed the town in Upperville. During the American Civil War was the area of Upperville scene of a battle during the Gettysburg campaign, which became known as the Battle of Upperville in the story. On June 21, 1863 here the Union troops came under command of General Alfred Pleasonton on the Confederate troops under the leadership of James Ewell Brown Stuart. At the battle took about 10,000 military personnel in part 400 of them died on the spot. The oldest church of the town, built in the 1832 United Methodist Church, served as a hospital during the battle the Union forces.

Upperville today

The community is shaped like since its founding by agriculture. In addition to the cultivation of cereals, the place is primarily a center for horse breeding. Also contributes to the discharged since 1853 in the village of Upperville Colt and Horse Show, the oldest horse show in the USA. After the Second World War, Upperville also developed into a preferred place of residence for the upper classes of the nearby Washington DC. After a visit to the community in 1961 John Updike wrote the poem Upon Learning That a Town Exists Called Upperville.