Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 03/21/2013
NRHP Listing Date 05/28/2013
NRHP Reference Number 13000342
In Southside Virginia’s Pittsylvania County, the Gretna Commercial Historic District took shape with the arrival of the Lynchburg and Danville Railroad through the area between 1872 and 1874. The railroad swelled a settlement known as Franklin Junction. In 1901, it changed its name to Elba and in 1916 to Gretna. Gretna’s historic district contains 26 contributing buildings constructed between 1881 and the early 1960s, with many dating to Gretna’s early period of development. Representing historic purpose-built commercial, governmental, and civic organizational buildings, their architecture ranges from the popular Commercial style to the Colonial Revival style of the former Gretna Fire Station and Town Hall, to a Classical Revival social lodge building, and the Art Deco style of an early-20th-century service station.
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
Updated: June 6, 2021
