County Past
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Lancaster County, Virginia

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
14historic places
—earliest paper
1651formed
10,919pop. 2020
21cemeteries
—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 14 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1966; 1 is also National Historic Landmark. Most listings are in or near Irvington, Lancaster, Lively.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for Virginia is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Lancaster titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

6 of 14 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

14 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Belle IsleLancasterBuilding1973
Christ Church NHLIrvingtonBuilding1966
CorotomanWeemsSite1970
Fox Hill PlantationLivelyBuilding1978
Grace Episcopal ChurchKilmarnockBuilding2017
GreenfieldWhitestoneBuilding2018
IrvingtonIrvingtonDistrict2000
Lancaster Court House Historic DistrictLancasterDistrict1983
LocustvilleOttomanBuilding1994
Pop CastleWhite StoneBuilding1989
SIELE (motor yacht)IrvingtonStructure1998
St. Mary's WhitechapelLivelyBuilding1969
VervilleMerry PointBuilding1987
Village of Morattico Historic DistrictMoratticoDistrict2011

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Lancaster was formed in 1651 (1651-12-31) from both NORTHUMBERLAND, York.

[1651] LANCASTER created from both NORTHUMBERLAND and YORK.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Lancaster County population from 1790 to 2020 (Census historical series).

12k8,0974,628179018001840188019101920196020002020
17901800182018401860188019001920194019501960198020002020
5,6385,3755,5174,6285,1516,1608,9499,7578,7868,6409,17410,12911,56710,919

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

21 cemeteries and 4 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 21 of 21 listed
NameLatLon
Bethel Cemetery37.75208-76.54189
Beulah Cemetery37.78989-76.51824
Campbell Memorial Presbyterian Church Cemetery37.65263-76.44911
Christ Church Cemetery37.68051-76.4231
Claybrook Baptist Church Cemetery37.67173-76.4482
Corrottoman Cemetery37.7053-76.52465
Emmanuel Cemetery37.79374-76.62551
Grace Cemetery37.70541-76.37911
Irvington Cemetery37.66264-76.42023
Irvington Cemetery37.66069-76.42106
Lebanon Baptist Church Cemetery37.8095-76.50931
Morattico Cemetery37.75235-76.36477
Mount Vernon Cemetery37.64375-76.40217
Norwood Baptist Church Cemetery37.79263-76.6069
Old Saint Johns Cemetery37.6893-76.38494
Saint Marys Whitechapel Cemetery37.74652-76.55217
Sharon Cemetery37.68707-76.42328
White Stone Cemetery37.64847-76.38772
White Stone Cemetery37.65986-76.38995
Willie Chapel Cemetery37.76098-76.45666
Woodlawn Cemetery37.72874-76.39022
Historical populated places — 4 of 4
NameLatLon
Bridgetown37.81042-76.54245
Dunton Mill37.68208-76.37717
Greenvale37.72153-76.55218
Wharton Grove37.65542-76.4555

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Lancaster County, Virginia

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.