Washington County was carved from Fincastle County in 1776 and named for George Washington while he was still commanding the Continental Army — an act of conviction before the outcome was settled. Abingdon became its county seat and has held that role ever since, its brick Federal and antebellum buildings lining the Great Valley Road in what the historic register calls the best-preserved of the linear communities that grew along that corridor. Three Virginia governors lived here. The courthouse is still on the National Register. A building that opened as the Abingdon Male Academy in 1803 now houses the William King Museum of Art. In 1933, someone founded Barter Theatre on the logic that Depression-era audiences could pay admission with produce; it became the nation's longest-running equity theatre and the State Theatre of Virginia. What Abingdon built — governmental, cultural, institutional — simply kept going.
