Breckinridge Law Office/Former Museum

From Cardinal News

Early 19th-century Museum Building near Fincastle courthouse project faces potential demolition

The plan up until last Tuesday was to move the building during the construction of the new county courthouse. Project managers told the Botetourt County Board of Supervisors that this won’t be feasible due to the condition of the building.

by Samantha Verrelli

June 30, 2025

Fincastle Mayor Mary Bess Smith, among others in town, was taken by surprise last week when the Botetourt County Board of Supervisors was told by project managers that relocating a historic building would no longer be possible, and that the building would be demolished. 

. . . 

Multiple 1800s-era buildings surround the courthouse site, including the Museum Building, which once housed the law office of James Breckenridge, a veteran of the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and a U.S. congressman.

. . .

Botetourt County quickly switched gears from a plan to move the Museum Building, to demolishing it

The county began planning for a new courthouse a few years ago. The most recent courthouse, which was built in the 1970s after a fire destroyed the original structure, was concrete, which former Botetourt County Circuit Judge Malfourd “Bo” Trumbo said doesn’t work well with modern wiring and Wi-Fi systems. A modern courthouse also requires more square feet to house metal detectors and other security measures.

Smith, the mayor, said the sprinkler system in the courthouse, which was installed above the insulation, froze and burst one winter, drenching the inside of the building. Moisture seeped into the concrete walls, creating black mold. The courthouse was also built before the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed and so didn’t comply with all of its requirements.  The county recently demolished the old structure and is preparing to erect a new courthouse on the same site.

The Museum Building, which sits just a couple dozen feet from the courthouse, is in the way of construction.

. . .

The board was told that no action was needed at the time, and that the project team would move forward with demolition, with the intention to preserve as much as it could of the building. 

The news came as a “shock” to the town of Fincastle, Smith said. 

. . .

Fincastle itself, aside from its pre-revolutionary buildings, is a piece of history. Formed in 1772, the town was the municipal hub for a county that once stretched to the Mississippi River. 

The Museum Building housed the Botetourt Historical Society and the Botetourt County Museum up until three years ago. 

At one point early in the building’s history, one room of the brick building housed Breckenridge’s law office.

Breckenridge, who opposed declaring war on Britain in 1812, led Virginia militiamen from Richmond to Washington and Baltimore during the Revolutionary War, according to Encyclopedia Virginia. He owned about 4,000 acres of land by the early 1800s, with multiple properties built by his slaves. He died in 1833. 

The building Breckenridge worked in, once expanded, served as part of the Western Hotel Complex in the 1840s and 1850s, when Fincastle was known as a “stage coach shop,” Trumbo said, and was a “frontier stop-off” for those traveling West. The hotel was complete with a tavern and horse stables, said Lynsey Allie, executive director of the Botetourt County Historical Society. 

In the 1930s, Allie said, the Dodd family converted the building into apartments, which lasted until the 1950s when the county took ownership of the building. The historical society moved out once conversations about replacing the courthouse began.

. . .

Munters Expansion

 Munters Corporation to Expand Manufacturing Facility in Botetourt County

 

Date: March 25, 2025 (Botetourt County, VA) Today, Governor Glenn Youngkin announced that Munters Corporation will invest $29.95 million to build a 200,000-square-foot expansion to its HVAC manufacturing facility in Botetourt County. The project will create 270 new jobs.

 

Munters, a global company with headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, manufactures climate control solutions for mission-critical processes. The new manufacturing facility will be built on a lot at the Botetourt Center at Greenfield, adjacent to its current facility.

 

Munters has experienced significant growth in its data center business over the past five years, expanding its operations with new facilities in Daleville and Cork, Ireland, as well as acquiring additional facilities in Italy and Thailand through the purchase of Geoclima company officials noted. Recognizing the continued expansion of the U.S. data center market, the company saw a need to further increase its production capabilities domestically. The upcoming expansion of its Virginia facility will establish a dedicated data center technologies production campus. Combined with its Texas facility, Munters will have nearly 600,000 square feet of production space in the United States focused on designing and manufacturing cutting-edge, energy-efficient data center cooling systems.

 

"I am thrilled to celebrate this exciting new chapter for Munters right here in Botetourt County," said Chair of the Botetourt County Board of Supervisors Amy White. "In 2022 we celebrated the company’s grand opening in Greenfield, and this expansion is a testament to our community’s commitment to innovation, economic growth, and creating new job opportunities. This rapid expansion also signifies the high caliber of our business partners We proudly support businesses that invest in our region and contribute to our thriving local economy."

 

“It’s been a true pleasure working with Munters and their development partners over the past few years”, says County Administrator Gary Larrowe. “This new investment and job creation is a big deal—not just for them, but for the county as a whole. It’s exciting to see this kind of growth in manufacturing as we outpace Virginia and the nation with job creation happening right here in Botetourt County.”

 

In 2021, Munters located in the Roanoke Region. The investment in Botetourt Center at Greenfield, strong workforce, and friendly business climate attracted the company, and it now sees the need to increase its capacity again to keep up with the rapidly growing data center market. The 200,000-square-foot expansion on a 30-acre parcel adjacent to its current facility will help the company to seamlessly expand operations and meet customer demand.

 

“Munters’ continued growth in the Roanoke Region of Virginia is an economic bellwether,” said John Hull, Executive Director of the Roanoke Regional Partnership. “An expansion less than three years after establishing its operations in the region is a signal that business is good and that Botetourt County and the Roanoke Region have supported a new corporate family member.”

 

The Roanoke Regional Partnership estimates this expansion will have a $ 150 million impact on the regional economy at full implementation, and the project will support an additional 185 indirect and induced jobs throughout the regional economy.

 

Botetourt County and the Roanoke Regional Partnership worked on the project with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.

Bank of Fincastle is now First Bank

On October 18, 2021, the Bank of Fincastle ended its 146-year run as the county's second-oldest business. 

The Bank of Fincastle began on September 22, 1875. It was the county's second-oldest business (The Fincastle Herald is the county's oldest business).

The Bank of Fincastle is now First Bank and no longer a local community bank. And thus ends a long chapter in the history of an old county that predates the founding of this nation.

Catawba Furnace

These are the remains of the Catawba Furnace. You can see it from the road near the cement plant. The furnace was originally built in 1830. It operated for about 20 years then went out of service until the Civil War, when Tregedor Iron Works put it back into service for a short time. By 1865, it was no longer a working iron furnace again.

This furnace has fallen in significantly in the last 15 years (as of 2020). 

This is from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources website:

"This cold-blast charcoal furnace was built on an unusual round plan in 1830. It ran on water power from the Catawba Creek. The original Catawba Furnace consisted of one stack and many wooden buildings situated on 10,000 acres in Botetourt County. In 1863, the property included a corn mill, saw mill, stable, granary, coal shed, blacksmith and wheelwright shop, managers house, one frame boarding house, six cabins for laborers, an office, sheds, and an ore washing machine. Although abundant coal was found on the property of Catawba, the furnace was never converted into using coal or coke. Pig iron was hauled from Catawba Furnace over twenty miles of rough roads to Buchanan and the James River and Kanawha Canal, where it was loaded onto barges to be sent to Richmond. Difficulties in transportation limited production after the Civil War. Pig iron from this furnace was so valued that it sold for as much as $60 per ton, and was transported (in small quantities) to Boston, and all the way to Maine. A large part of Catawba Furnace collapsed in the 1930’s when vandals removed two of the arch lintels."

 

 

Greenfield in the late 20th Century into Today

From the Martinsville Bulletin 12/03/2017

[Additional information prior to this about Franklin County's new economic development project.]

Greenfield and Economic Development

When Jerry Burgess became Botetourt County’s administrator in 1992, the board of supervisors already had its sights set on the Greenfield property. [Formerly the Preston property, and now The Botetourt Center at Greenfield.]*

 The area was experiencing growth, and the county needed more industrial land.

With more than 900 acres, the Greenfield site could meet some of the county’s other needs, too. Schools were essentially at capacity, Burgess said, and there was need for another elementary school.
 
There was also a desire for a second, more centrally located recreation park.

County officials always envisioned Greenfield as more than a place where people would work.

“The county wanted to do something higher-end. They didn’t want an industrial park — they wanted a business park,” Burgess said. “And there’s a huge difference.”

So when landowner Mary Blount died and her will directed that her property be sold, Botetourt County jumped at the chance. It purchased the property in 1995 for $4.6 million. Some of the money for the land came from general obligation bonds authorized by county voters in a 1994 referendum.

Burgess, who retired in 2012, said watching things unfold in Summit View [Franklin County development project]* “has brought back some memories.”

Botetourt County wasn’t looking for just “any old business” to go into Greenfield, Burgess said. Like Franklin County, Botetourt leaders had specific goals in mind.

“Botetourt has never had an employment problem, but they had a problem where the wages paid were very low for a lot of jobs. So people were typically working two jobs, both members of the family were working,” he said. “So the board of supervisors wanted higher-end jobs.”

Botetourt County officials worked with the Roanoke Regional Partnership to develop a marketing plan and determined they wanted to ink a deal with the first business within 12 to 18 months. Exactly 15 months after the plan was adopted, Burgess said, Japanese auto-parts manufacturer Koyo Steering Systems committed to becoming Greenfield’s first tenant. The company broke ground in July 1999.

Then Altec Industries, a manufacturer of mobile aerial lifts and equipment for utility companies, announced in August 2000 it would come to Greenfield. In October of that year, the Greenfield Education & Training Center opened.

For a while, Burgess said, Greenfield was “rocking.” Then, it wasn’t.

It seemed Botetourt was close to a deal with a German company, but then 9/11 happened, and Burgess said he never heard from the company again. Then the economy tanked.

“All of the momentum that we had at that point was gone,” he said.

In 2016, Greenfield began rocking again.

Italian auto-parts manufacturer Eldor Corp. settled on Greenfield for its first North American production plant, with plans to invest $75 million and create 350 jobs over five years.

Then West Coast-based Ballast Point Brewing Co. chose Greenfield for its East Coast operation, with the promise of a $48 million investment and 175 new jobs. Ballast Point purchased an existing building owned by Lawrence Transportation Systems, which had acquired the building after Koyo, renamed JTEKT North America following a merger, shut down in 2010. Lawrence leased the space for use as a warehouse and distribution center.

And construction on an industrial shell building, which would reduce the wait time for the next business that wants to call Greenfield home, also began last year.

More than 20 years after Botetourt County purchased the land for Greenfield, the park is coming together as originally imagined. Burgess praised the boards of supervisors over the years for sticking with the vision rather than throwing the plans out the window when the economy faltered.

“At the end of the day, it all turned out,” Burgess said. “But the boards of supervisors over the years had to show a lot of patience. . . "

About 400 acres remain at Greenfield, and the county is in talks about how to develop them, said Ken McFadyen, Botetourt’s economic development director.

That means Botetourt and Franklin counties will be selling their product at the same time, raising the question of competition. Some say Summit View and Greenfield are competitors, while others prefer to think of them as complementary.

In some ways, a win for one is a win for all. A new business means jobs not just for the locality that snags it, but for neighbors, too. And the good publicity of an economic development announcement benefits the region as a whole. But there are some things that can’t be shared. Arguably the biggest reward — new tax revenue — is collected by only the host locality.

. . .

Greenfield is within three miles of an interstate, something Summit View can’t offer. Franklin County is eligible for grant funding from the Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission, which can support development costs, while Botetourt County is not. Natural gas is available in Greenfield; while Franklin County plans to bring natural gas to its park, either by tapping the Mountain Valley Pipeline or extending from Clearbrook, it isn’t on site yet.

Economic development industry officials believe there’s enough demand in the region to support both parks.

“I’m excited to have more product to sell, frankly,” [Beth] Doughty said.

Having more sites puts the Roanoke Valley on the radar of site consultants, who play an instrumental role in helping executives find a home for their business, Burgess said.

“Something that I have said in the past is that if you sell Coke and Pepsi you’ll end up selling more of both of them,” said Gary Larrowe, Botetourt’s county administrator.

Businesses want to have options.

“Think of it this way: When you’re traveling on the interstate and you’re in a place where you’ve never been before, do you stop at the exit with one gas station or do you stop at the exit that has three or four gas stations and a couple of fast food restaurants?” McFadyen asked. “Same principle.”

That’s how Botetourt snagged Eldor. The Italian company originally was interested in the Roanoke site selected by Deschutes Brewery. When that option disappeared, McFadyen said, they turned to nearby Botetourt County.


* Additions from blog editor.

50 Second Video of the Preston House Fire, 1959

Fincastle Bluegrass Festival, 1965

Fincastle was home to the very first multi-day bluegrass festival, way back in 1965.

Here is a youtube video showing some of it:



And here's a write-up about in Banjo Newsletter.