One of Botetourt County’s first planned developments was called Howerytown near Daleville. Jacob Howery bought property in 1786 and 1794. He had a Stagecoach Inn and Tavern on the Great Wagon Road.
Beginning on June 1, 1795, Jacob took a block of his land and made 40 lots, which he sold to 23 people. Howerytown became a thriving hamlet in 1835 and is shown on the 1839 county survey.
Then the roads were changed. Brick Union Road had gone into Howerytown Road and continued to Amsterdam then went west. When Route 11 was built and went through Troutville, Howerytown was not an important location. Today only archaeological fragments remain.
The location of Howerytown is shown on the map done by Hildebrand of the Greenfield-Amsterdam community and this is a close up of it. The map is now hanging on the Botetourt Museum of History & Culture wall above the display made by the Historic Greenfield Advisory Council.
More information can be found in The Fincastle Herald March 12, 2008 front page article: “Could Ashley Plantation have been Howrytown?” There was also an August 3, 1872 Fincastle Herald article about Howerytown reprinted in The New York Times.
~ Botetourt County Museum of History & Culture
