Louisa (originally named Louisa Court House) is a town in Louisa County,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, United States. The population was 1,555 at the 2010 census. It is the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

of Louisa County.

History

Louisa Court House was named because of the county courthouse constructed in 1742, near the intersection of Courthouse Road (now SR 208) and Main Street/Louisa Road (now SR-22/ US-33). The village of Louisa Court House had been the county seat for over a century when it became a strategic location during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

for Virginia's supply and communication lines. Virginia Central Map 1852 cropped

Chartered in 1836 as the Louisa Railroad by the

Virginia General Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 161 ...

, the

Virginia Central Railroad The Virginia Central Railroad was an early railroad in the U.S. state of Virginia that operated between 1850 and 1868 from Richmond westward for to Covington. Chartered in 1836 as the Louisa Railroad by the Virginia General Assembly, the railr ...

mainline passed through the village. On 10 June 1864, thousands of men and horses of Gen.

Fitzhugh Lee Fitzhugh Lee (November 19, 1835 – April 28, 1905) was a Confederate cavalry general in the American Civil War, the 40th Governor of Virginia, diplomat, and United States Army general in the Spanish–American War. He was the son of Sydney S ...

's cavalry division camped around the courthouse prior to the

Battle of Trevilian Station The Battle of Trevilian Station (also called Trevilians) was fought on June 11–12, 1864, in Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign against Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Union cavalry under Maj. ...

.Historical Marker Database: Louisa Court House – Raiders Intercepted
Accessed 19 June 2022. The VCR merged into the

Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond ...

in 1868 (reorganized as the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in 1878). The C&O operated the mainline through Louisa over one hundred years, until the

Chessie System Chessie System, Inc. was a holding company that owned the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O), the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), the Western Maryland Railway (WM), and Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad (B&OCT). Trains operated und ...

merged into

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

in the 1980s. The incorporated Town of Louisa was created by Act of the General Assembly in 1873. Many businesses found advantage in locating near the mainline, especially heavy industries that could transport using the railroad. As the road infrastructure improved and especially since the 1956 development of the

interstate highway system The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...

I-64 Interstate 64 (I-64) is an east–west Interstate Highway in the Eastern United States. Its western terminus is at I-70, U.S. Route 40 (US 40), and US 61 in Wentzville, Missouri. Its eastern terminus is at an interchang ...

, local businesses transport mainly via semi-truck using

US 33 U.S. Route 33 (US 33) is a United States Numbered Highway that runs northwest–southeast for from northern Indiana to Richmond, Virginia, passing through Ohio and West Virginia en route. Although most odd-numbered U.S. routes are north–s ...

. East of the Town of Louisa on Jeff Davis Highway is the Cooke Industrial Rail Park, a 1400 acre contiguous tract of land with over 1 mile of rail frontage, served by CSX and

Buckingham Branch Railroad Buckingham Branch Railroad is a Class III short-line railroad operating over 275 miles (443 km) of historic and strategic trackage in Central Virginia. Sharing overhead traffic with CSX and Amtrak, the company's headquarters are in Dill ...

Historic Places

There are many places of local historic interest and some that are of national significance: Bloomington,

Boxley Place Boxley Place is a historic home located at Louisa, Louisa County, Virginia. The original house was built in 1860, as an Italianate/Greek Revival-style dwelling. It was enlarged and remodeled in 1918 by architect D. Wiley Anderson in the Colon ...

, the 1905 Louisa County Courthouse, and Louisa High School are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

Geography

Louisa is located at (38.024057, −78.001584). According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the city has a total area of 1.8 square miles (4.7 km), of which 1.8 square miles (4.7 km) is land and 0.55% is water.

Climate

Demographics

At the 2000 census there were 1,401 people, 584 households, and 331 families in the town. The population density was 766.8 people per square mile (295.6/km). There were 620 housing units at an average density of 339.4 per square mile (130.8/km). The

racial makeup A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...

of the town was 66.81% White, 29.48% African American, 0.79% Native American, 0.71% Asian, 0.79% from other races, and 1.43% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.43%. Of the 584 households 30.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.6% were married couples living together, 16.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 43.3% were non-families. 37.0% of households were one person and 18.3% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.25 and the average family size was 2.93. The age distribution was 24.8% under the age of 18, 7.9% from 18 to 24, 28.5% from 25 to 44, 19.2% from 45 to 64, and 19.6% 65 or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 81.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 73.1 males. The median household income was $29,519 and the median family income was $42,396. Males had a median income of $27,578 versus $23,188 for females. The per capita income for the town was $17,763. About 14.7% of families and 18.7% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...

, including 27.9% of those under age 18 and 17.0% of those age 65 or over.

Points of interest

Louisa is home to the

North Anna Nuclear Generating Station The North Anna Nuclear Generating Station is a nuclear power plant on a site in Louisa County, Virginia, Louisa County, Virginia, in the Mid-Atlantic states, Mid-Atlantic United States. The site is operated by Dominion Resources, Dominion Genera ...

which produces electricity and offers 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. Louisa is also home to the

Twin Oaks Community Twin Oaks Community is an ecovillage and intentional community of about one hundred people living on in Louisa County, Virginia. It is a member of the Federation of Egalitarian Communities. Founded in 1967, it is one of the longest-enduring and ...

, an

intentional community An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, ...

of 100 people living on . The community has been in Louisa since 1967. The

2011 Virginia earthquake On August 23, 2011, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake hit the Piedmont region of the U.S. state of Virginia at 1:51:04 p.m. EDT. The epicenter, in Louisa County, was northwest of Richmond and south-southwest of the town of Mineral. It was an ...

had its epicenter just 7 miles (11 kilometers) south-southeast of Louisa.Magnitude 5.8 - VIRGINIA
This quake registered 5.8 magnitude, and caused the evacuations of buildings on

Capitol Hill Capitol Hill, in addition to being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues. It is one of the ...

in Washington, D.C., as well as New York City and was felt as far north as Canada.

Public services

Jefferson-Madison Regional Library Jefferson-Madison Regional Library system serves Albemarle, Greene, Louisa, and Nelson counties and City of Charlottesville. The library system is within Region 6 of Virginia Library Association (VLA) regions. Service area According to the F ...

is the regional library system that provides services to the citizens of Louisa.

Notable people

* Kerry Wynn, defensive end for the

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The c ...

References

External links

* {{authority control Towns in Louisa County, Virginia Towns in Virginia County seats in Virginia