Stevensburg is a small

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically desc ...

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

located at the intersection of Route 3 and Route 663 in

Culpeper County Culpeper County is a county located along the borderlands of the northern and central region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 52,552. Its county seat and only incorporated community is C ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Stevensburg is about 6.9 miles east of Culpeper. Stevensburg's ZIP code is 22741. The

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

is headquartered in a

building A building or edifice is an enclosed Structure#Load-bearing, structure with a roof, walls and window, windows, usually standing permanently in one place, such as a house or factory. Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, a ...

approximately 10 by 15

feet The foot (: feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is an organ at the terminal part of the leg made up of ...

, thereby making it one of the smallest post offices in America.

Floriculture Floriculture (from ) is the study of the efficient production of the plants that produce showy, colorful flowers and foliage for human enjoyment in human environments. It is a commercially successful branch of horticulture and agriculture found ...

is a prominent industry, as several large, commercial

greenhouse A greenhouse is a structure that is designed to regulate the temperature and humidity of the environment inside. There are different types of greenhouses, but they all have large areas covered with transparent materials that let sunlight pass an ...

s are in operation here.

History

In about 1742,

Salubria Salubria is a historic Plantation house in the Southern United States, plantation house located at Stevensburg, Virginia, Stevensburg, Culpeper County, Virginia. It was built in 1757, and is a two-story, hipped roof dwelling with two large corbe ...

, a large brick Georgian manor house, was built about one half mile southeast of the village now known as Stevensburg. Salubria was the birthplace of Admiral Cary Travers Grayson, personal physician to President

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...

. In October 2000, Salubria was donated by the Grayson family to the

Germanna Germanna was a German settlement in the Colony of Virginia, settled in two waves, first in 1714 and then in 1717. Virginia Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood encouraged the immigration by advertising in Germany for miners to move to Virg ...

Foundation for historic preservation. Stevensburg was originally called York by the

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestantism, Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally ...

that lived in the area. In 1782, the community was named Stevensburg in honor of General Edward Stevens, a revolutionary war hero from Culpeper. During this time period, travelers often camped in the small

ravine A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion. Ravines are typically classified as larger in scale than gullies, although smaller than valleys. Ravines may also be called a cleuch, dell, ...

s in the area, known as "bottoms." One ravine, ½ mile east of the village on the south side of present-day Route 3, gained considerable notoriety for "

lewd Lascivious behavior is sexual behavior or conduct that is considered crude and offensive, or contrary to local moral or other standards of appropriate behavior. In this sense, "lascivious" is similar in meaning to "lewd", "indecent", "lecherous", ...

behavior" (according to the Quakers), and came to be known as "Wicked Bottom." During the winter of 1863 through 1864, Hansbrough's Ridge, a

ridge A ridge is a long, narrow, elevated geomorphologic landform, structural feature, or a combination of both separated from the surrounding terrain by steep sides. The sides of a ridge slope away from a narrow top, the crest or ridgecrest, wi ...

about one mile east of the village, hosted the Union Army winter encampment.

Notable people

* Benjamin S. Kelsey – military aviator

References

{{coord, 38, 26, 29, N, 77, 53, 59, W, type:city(228), display=title Unincorporated communities in Virginia Unincorporated communities in Culpeper County, Virginia