276 Area Code 🌍☎️

Norton is an independent city in Virginia's far western tip, surrounded by Wise County, with a 2020 population of 3,687 - the least populous city in the state. Originally called "Prince's Flats," the settlement was renamed Norton in the 1800s to attract the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, whose head was Eckstein Norton, and developed as a timber trade hub before transitioning to coal mining in the 1830s-40s. Located along the Powell and Guest Rivers on the historic Wilderness Trail blazed by Daniel Boone and mapped by Christopher Gist, the 7.5-square-mile city is traversed by US Routes 23 and 58 Alternative. The Hotel Norton is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. As of 2020, the city had a median age of 40.7 years with 90.1% of residents living in urban areas. Abingdon is the county seat of Washington County, Virginia, located 133 miles southwest of Roanoke with a population of 8,375 as of the 2020 census, and serves as part of the Tri-Cities region. Originally settled between 1765 and 1770 by Scots-Irish pioneers including James Douglas, Andrew Colville, and others who purchased land from surveyor Thomas Walker, the settlement was first known as Black's Fort, established in 1774 by Joseph Black to protect against Cherokee attacks during Lord Dunmore's War. The town was incorporated as Abingdon in 1778 and designated the county seat of Washington County in 1776, with the name possibly derived from Martha Washington's ancestral home in Oxfordshire, England. Abingdon received one of Virginia's first post offices west of the Continental Divide on August 20, 1792, and later benefited from a $10,000 bequest from salt entrepreneur William King that established the Abingdon Male Academy in 1803. Today, the town is known for its historically significant sites and thriving fine arts and crafts scene centered on galleries and museums along Main Street. Martinsville is an independent city in southside and southwest Virginia with a 2020 population of 13,485, serving as the county seat of Henry County and the principal city of a micropolitan area encompassing 63,765 residents across thirteen surrounding communities. Founded by Revolutionary War General Joseph Martin on his plantation Scuffle Hill near the Smith River, the city developed historic African American commercial districts along Fayette Street in the early 20th century, with entrepreneur Dr. Dana Olden Baldwin establishing "Baldwin's Block" as a thriving center of Black-owned businesses during the Jim Crow era. DuPont's 1941 construction of a major textile nylon filament manufacturing plant catalyzed industrial growth during World War II and the Cold War, leading Martinsville to earn the nickname "Sweatshirt Capital of the World" and boast more millionaires per capita than any American city by the 1980s. The Martinsville Speedway, a 0.526-mile round-end oval track that opened in 1947 and has hosted NASCAR races since 1949, remains the shortest track in the NASCAR Cup Series. Multiple historic properties, including the Martinsville Historic District and Scuffle Hill plantation, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.