The county seat of Floyd County was first called Jacksonville for Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States. On Jan. 23, 1896, the General Assembly passed an act officially changing the name of the town of Jacksonville to the town of Floyd.

The Historic Jacksonville Cemetery contains the burial site of Patrick Henry’s son Nathaniel. Nathaniel Henry lived and taught in Floyd County before falling ill and struggling financially. The cemetery also contains the graves of Civil War soldiers.

According to local legend, Annie Smith, a schoolteacher in Floyd, was a sweetheart of Edgar Allen Poe’s. It is believed that Poe’s poem “To Annie” was written about her.

The Jacksonville Center for the Arts boasts some historic firsts in Virginia. It’s the first “cultural business incubator,” working to grow small, rural, creative businesses. It’s also the first residential craft school. The center is located in a 1940s-era dairy barn and offers an array of arts and crafts classes for beginners to masters in pottery, ceramics, blacksmithing, glasswork, papermaking, photography and other mediums.

The Floyd Country Store is considered the cornerstone of Floyd, and is a major venue on the Crooked Road Music Trail. Its trademark program is the Friday Nite Jamboree featuring traditional mountain music every week, beginning with gospel hour at 6:30 p.m. The Floyd Country Store has grown from a well-kept secret treasure to a well-known treasure for the town.

County Sales/County Records is a store and distribution center well-hidden from all except the faithful, but it is the world’s largest distributor of bluegrass and old-time music. Though most of its sales are done online or on the phone, the downtown shop is open to the public.

Schoolhouse Fabrics is a fabric store housed in an original 19th-century schoolhouse. Quilters, sewers and other crafters travel for miles to browse the store’s treasure trove of fabrics.