Virginia State Route 45 passes by Pemberton, located about 11 miles (18 km) west of Goochland, the county seat.

Pemberton became connected to other markets via the Cartersville-Fredericksburg State Road, that began in Cartersville, crossed the James, and continued northward.

In the late 1800s the Richmond and Alleghany Railroad (later the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, and currently CSX) was built through the area along the tow path of the abandoned Kanawha Canal.

By the early 1920s the rural village of Pemberton consisted of a large combined general store and post office, a lumber mill and pulp yards.

Prominent Goochland County residents living in Pemberton included William Henry (Bill) Hall, a veteran of the American Civil War; and Bland Selden Hobson, the only Goochland woman known to have served overseas in World War I.