Staunton is known for being the birthplace of Woodrow Wilson, the 28th U.S. president, and as the home of Mary Baldwin University, historically a women's college.

[9] Because the town was located at the geographical center of the colony (which then included West Virginia), Staunton served between 1738 and 1771 as regional capital for much of what was later known as the Northwest Territory, with the westernmost courthouse in British North America prior to the Revolution.

[11] It served as capital of Virginia in June 1781, when state legislators fled Richmond and then Charlottesville to avoid capture by the British.

For instance, in 1815, a slave named Henry ran away from John G. Wright's Staunton plantation.

He gave a speech at the Virginia Hotel, in which he stated that his "feelings revolted from the idea of a dissolution of the union."

"[13] Located along the Valley Pike, Staunton developed as a trade, transportation and industrial center, particularly after the Virginia Central Railroad arrived in 1854.

[18] On May 23, 1861, shortly after the firing on Fort Sumter began the American Civil War, Virginians voted on whether to ratify articles of secession from the Union and join the Confederate States.

[19] During the war, the town became an important Shenandoah Valley manufacturing center, a staging area, and a supply depot for the Confederacy.

On June 6, 1864, Union Major General David Hunter arrived[20] with 10,000 troops to cut supply, communication and railway lines useful to the Confederacy.

[22][23] Staunton is also home to the former Western State Asylum, a hospital for the mentally ill, which originally began operations in 1828.

However, by the mid 19th Century, this utopian model of care had vanished, replaced by overcrowding in the facility and the warehousing of patients.

[24] When Western State vacated the property and moved its adult patients to its present site near Interstate 81, the facility was renamed the Staunton Correctional Center and turned into a medium-security men's penitentiary.

[24] A separate complex, The DeJarnette State Sanatoruim, was constructed in 1932 and acted as a location for patients with the ability to pay for their treatment.

[30] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 20 square miles (52 km2), virtually all of which is land.

In 2012, it also became the home of the Heifetz International Music Institute, named for renowned violinist Daniel Heifetz, a summer music school and festival dedicated to the artistic growth and career development of some of the World's most talented and promising classical musicians.

The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library is open for visitors, as well as the Museum of American Frontier Culture, which provides insight into life in early America.

Visitors from all over the east coast come to take part in games, events, and shopping throughout downtown.

Businesses contribute the activities for the festival and the majority of West Beverley St is shut down for the weekend event.

Downtown Staunton and Sherwood Avenue were used in the American Civil War film Gods and Generals.

In 1993, a portion of the Showtime production of Assault at West Point: The Court-Martial of Johnson Whittaker was filmed here.

Staunton is home to nearly 200 buildings designed by architect Thomas Jasper Collins (1844–1925), who worked in various styles during the Victorian era.

During World War II it was used by the INS as a detention center for enemy aliens held under Executive Order 9066.

[citation needed] From 1939 to 1942, the city fielded a team in the second Virginia League: the Staunton Presidents.

Arrangements were made to bring in women from the North as teachers, and the jury rooms of the Augusta County Courthouse, located at 1 E. Johnson Street, were to be used as classrooms.

[62] In 1964 the Staunton chapter of the NAACP threatened the city with a lawsuit if they did not immediately desegregate the public schools.

State Routes 252 and 254 are minor roads leading to nearby rural areas of adjacent Augusta County.

[67] In 1944, World War II veteran S. Melvin Johnson wrote to Truman Gibson, assistant to William H. Hastie, advisor to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, regarding segregated seating on the Staunton Transit Service and stating that returning African-American soldiers would not stand for such conditions.

[68] This letter was an indication of the role that African-American veterans would later play in the American civil rights movement.

In 1946, after the United States Supreme Court decision Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia, which found that Virginia's segregated seating law was unconstitutional with respect to interstate bus routes, Ethel New, a black woman from Lynch, Kentucky, was arrested for violating the law because she had purchased an intrastate ticket.

[71] Virginia Breeze provides intercity bus service between Blacksburg and Washington, with a stop in Staunton.