Town of Strasburg
"Gateway" to the Beautiful
Shenandoah Valley

The Town of Strasburg, founded in 1761 and incorporated in February 1922, is known for pottery, antiques, civil war history, and breathtaking views.
 

The pottery industry began in 1761 and lasted until 1908 with at least seventeen potters producing earthen and stoneware commercially. The pottery tradition is carried on today by teaching the craft of the potter’s wheel and kiln at the famous Strasburg museum.
 

The Strasburg Museum, originally built as a pottery factory in 1891, later became the depot for both the B&O and Southern Railroads. Today it displays the wares of the potters and historic farming, railroad, Indian, Civil War collections, and memorabilia of the valley town’s daily life.
 

Strasburg was an important part of the valley campaign in the early part of the Civil War, and Stonewall Jackson knew its streets and often used its hostelry. He made Strasburg “the fountainhead of rail traffic for the South” when he captured enemy engines in Martinsburg, WV, and pulled them by horsepower across roads to return them to the rails in Strasburg. From there they were sent south for the Confederate cause.
 

During the closing phases of the war, Strasburg was again in the midst of the action. It is between Cedar Creek Battlefield on the north and Fisher’s Hill Battlefield on the south, both accessible to the public with interpretive material. It is in the heart of the counties burned by Sheridan to eliminate the productivity of this “breadbasket of the Confederacy.”

Strasburg is nestled in the valley of the Shenandoah River with vistas of Massanutten Mountain and the Allegheny foothills

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