Buchanan

As of the 2000 U.S. Census, Buchanan was Botetourt County’s largest town with 1,233 people.

Buchanan offers garbage collection to its citizens along with additional police protection, paid mostly by a state grant.

The town has an annual budget of about $750,000, the most of any of the three towns. That includes its water system fund and a real estate and personal property tax. Neither Troutville nor Fincastle charge real estate and personal property taxes.

While Buchanan has the largest budget of any county town, its citizens have the smallest per capita income at $16,238. There are 579 total housing units in the town, and 61.7 percent of the folks are in the labor force. Most have to travel 26 minutes to get to their jobs.

The town was nearly devastated by the 1985 flood. Revitalization efforts begun in the early 1990s have turned the town into a true Main Street area.

The town in its early days was a major James River crossing.

Downtown Buchanan contains the county’s highest concentration of historic homes, stores and churches and makes up the county’s largest National Register Historic District.

The town was established in 1811-12 and in 1881-1882 Buchanan incorporated, bringing the nearby community of Pattonsburg, on the north side of the James River, into its boundaries. Buchanan adjusted its boundaries in the early 1990s in order to take in more people.