A social, retail, and community hub, the Wintergreen Country Store in Nelson County was constructed in four phases, beginning circa 1908, when Grover Harris built a one-story, one-room structure with a porch. He added to it in the late 1920s. The store stood at the intersection of state routes 627 and 151—where three previous stores had been built—and conveniently across the road from a mill Harris also owned. The Wintergreen Country Store sold goods and farming supplies, extended credit, and during elections citizens voted there. Mill customers also settled accounts at the store, and in the early 1940s the post office relocated there. From 1974 to 1978, the store building expanded and had a second life housing Wintergreen’s ski resort offices and exhibition and retail spaces, after the ski slopes were established. During its third incarnation, an Episcopal Church mission met there. At the time of its listing in the registers, the old store served as an art gallery and apartments. The Wintergreen Country Store contributes to the South Rockfish Valley Rural Historic District.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia