Kilmarnock

J-104

Kilmarnock was called "the Crossroads" about 1664, because multiple thoroughfares crossed here. By the middle of the 18th century, the community was named Steptoe's Ordinary for a storehouse and tavern owned by William Steptoe I. About 1775, it became Kilmarnock, after the town in Scotland. By the 1850s, with Kilmarnock Seminary and Female Seminary, it was a center of education in the Northern Neck, and was becoming a thriving commercial hub. Fires devastated Kilmarnock in 1909, 1915, and 1952, but its citizens successfully rebuilt each time. Kilmarnock was incorporated as a town on 8 Dec. 1930.

Department of Historic Resources, 2006

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Maurice Duke, The Land Between Waters: Virginia's Lancaster County: A Short History (Lancaster, Va.: Mary Ball Washington Museum and Library, 2001), 265; B. Brainard Edmonds, The Crossroads, Steptoe's Ordinary, Kilmarnock: A Virginia Town and Its People (1976; Kilmarnock, Va.: Distributed by Kilmarnock Museum, Inc., 1994); Historical Architectural Survey Report of Lancaster County (Prepared by Traceries with Historic Research & Planning Associates for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and Lancaster County, Virginia, Historical Resources Commission, 1997), 49-50; Kilmarnock Town Charter, http://dls.state.va.us/lrc/charters/, 17 January 2006; Phase II of a Historic Architectural Survey in Lancaster County, Virginia, Final Report (Prepared by EHT Traceries, Inc. for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and Lancaster County, Virginia, 1999), Kilmarnock County Preliminary Information Request, 4-8; Kilmarnock Historic District (Proposed), Department of Historic Resources Archives File (249-5028), Department of Historic Resources, Richmond, Virginia.