Qualla: Radford, Virginia

Radford, Virginia: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit DwayneP at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Before it was Radford, it was Lovely Mount. Before Lovely Mount, English Ferry. Before English Ferry, Ingle's Ferry. The succession of names reflects what this little patch of southwestern Virginia has always been: a crossing point. Travelers stopped at the New River here for fresh water on their way west. Then the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad arrived in 1854 and a depot went up at Lovely Mount, exactly halfway between Lynchburg and Bristol. Everything that has happened to Radford since flows from that one decision.

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Image: DwayneP at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Radford, Virginia: The Town That the Railroad Made

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown photographer, Public domain. Once the depot opened, the population boomed. Ice plants, a creamery, milling and piping companies all set up shop along the tracks. The settlement grew up around the railroad and not the other way around, which is why the train station area became known as Central Depot and the ...

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Image: Unknown photographer | Public domain

Radford, Virginia: A College and an Arsenal

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Donnie Nunley, CC BY 3.0. Two things changed Radford in the 20th century. In 1913, the state chose it as the site for the Radford State Normal School - a women's college that would become Radford University in 1979. Then in 1940-41, with war coming, the U.S. military picked Pulaski and Montgomery counties...

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Image: Donnie Nunley | CC BY 3.0

Radford, Virginia: The Bobcats and the Beamer Connection

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wrightexe, CC BY-SA 4.0. For a city of fewer than 17,000 people, Radford has produced a surprising volume of state athletic titles - more than thirty across the decades, in everything from tennis to track to wrestling. The 1971 and 1972 Radford Bobcats high school football teams ran off 26 straight wins ...

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Image: Wrightexe | CC BY-SA 4.0

Radford, Virginia: Margaret Skeete and a Cast of Others

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cmacauley, CC BY 4.0. Radford's list of notable people runs in unexpected directions. Margaret Skeete, born in Texas in 1878 and later a Radford resident, lived until 1994 and was for a time the oldest living American. Corrine Conley voiced Rudolph's mother in the Rankin/Bass Christmas special. John R...

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Image: Cmacauley | CC BY 4.0

Radford, Virginia: Bisset Park and the Water Below

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Government Printing Office. (1861 - 12/16/2014), Public domain. Bisset Park runs along the New River downtown - a strip of riverbank that floods often enough that the city has had to install high-water-mark signs. The river has shaped Radford's shape, its history, and its weather. The climate here is unusually mild for Appalachia, classified ...

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Image: Government Printing Office. (1861 - 12/16/2014) | Public domain