The Town of Strasburg is located in north-central Shenandoah County at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley. It is the largest of the six communities in Shenandoah County and is part of the Davis Magisterial District. The town lies on the North Fork of the Shenandoah River in a small basin formed by the river as it loops through the Valley with one of its major loops creating a peninsula just south of town known as Sandy Hook. Geographically the town is generally surrounded by natural barriers with the Shenandoah River and Three Top Mountain lying to the south and east, and historic Cedar Creek and Little North Mountain lying to the north and west.

The town's early growth and settlement was primarily due to its location at the crossroads of major routes of travel and this is still true today. U.S. Route 11 and State Route 55 intersect in the center of town and Interstate 81 is located approximately one and one-half (1 1/2) miles to the west and north of the downtown with two interchanges serving the town. Interstate 66 joins Interstate 81 about four miles north of town and provides direct access to the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area. The town is located ten miles west of Front Royal, 81 miles west of Washington, D.C., 18 miles south of Winchester, and 15 miles east of the West Virginia State Line.

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. It was he who made Strasburg "the fountainhead of Rail Traffic for the South", when he captured enemy engines in Martinsburg, West Virginia 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 of 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.

Standing On The Corner, Circa 1761

Main Street, the Sonner house, in Strasburg, Virginia, a dirt path worn wider by wagon wheels, log houses with shingle roofs, the German language more often heard than English. Today the four men on the corner speak in English; their representative to the House of Burgesses has come to see this new town just chartered due to his exertions in Williamsburg. George Washington speaks to founder Peter Stover, who has laid out streets where many families are already settled. He is half apologizing to Herr Stover for having put off his legislative duty from the last General Assembly until the current one. Stover is a canny, intelligent German who deals in real estate; he ant the townspeople are from the Strasburg area on the Rhine River. Their new Strasburg is on the Shenandoah River, here as there centered in rich valley soils. The third man is wearing a monk's robe with a hood and belted cord. Brother Sirone has come down from Ephrata in Pennsylvania to visit the splinter colony of his Sabbatarian faith whose monastery is three miles away-across the river and close against the mountain. The tall patrician with his clipped English voice looks at the Dunker celibate through narrowed eyes-these people trade with the Indians and possibly carry information about militia movements. The monk is explaining-Yes, I am a master potter. I have come to teach the brothers my trade and the neighbors too if they like... The fourth man is Simon Harr, the schoolmaster of the German school run by the Lutheran church, esteemed by Henry Muhlenburg, head of that church in America. His pupils learn to read from the pages of Luther's bible; they count ein, zwie, drei...

Standing on the Same Corner, 1861

It is Strasburg's one-hundredth birthday and Virginia this April secedes from the Union. The Sonner boy hurries out of his family's old home on the corner of what is now called Queen and Depot Streets. He works for the Southern Railway - on the cutting edge of industry - could be an engineer some day, but...

...Polk Bell comes across the street from his father's pottery, he knows where to dig the clay and to grind and mix it, to shape it on his potters wheel, fire the kiln, wagon the ware - knows the family business and is all set to take it over, but.... Someone's yelling and running down the street. "He's comin. Stonewall's comin down towards town. You should see the teams of horses a-pullin them Yankee trains right over the road all the way from Martinsburg. Gonna put em on the track right here in town." Stonewall, they thought, I would follow Stonewall forever.

A future historian will mention Strasburg as the fountainhead of rail traffic for the Confederacy.

Standing on the Same Corner - 1961

If you didn't know better you'd think they were all frame houses along shady Queen Street - the old logs covered with clapboard and topped with TV antennas. Everything is modern and comfortable. The neighbor ladies sometimes stop to chat - lot of history in this town ...Sheridan burning grandpa's homeplace down ...Miss Ruthie rowing across the river every day to get to her teaching job... how folks gave us a nickname, used to say we came from Pot Town. People from the north are collection our pots now ...we ought to start our own museum. Well, I got to get up to the church to help with the supper tonight.

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