Kilmarnock

History

The town was founded on February 1, 1650 and was called “the Crossroads”. The land where the current town stands was patented to Gervais Dodson and George Wale. Wale, however, would later becomes the sole owner of the territory. By 1659, another protagonist in the town's history made his way within the town from England, named Anthony Steptoe. He would later claim part of Wale's patent on March 1, 1676. Later on, his grandson, William Steptoe, on 1764, sold a 2 1\2 acre parcel of today’s Kilmarnock  to Robert Gilmour, who worked for a mercantile firm (Bogle, Somerville & Co.) in Glasgow, Scotland and owned a significant property in Kilmarnock, Scotland. At this point, the town was no longer called "the Crossroads", but "Steptoe’s Ordinary" due to the influence of William Steptoe, but that was about to change. The town would later adopt the name "Kilmarnock" and have its first ever mention under that name in a deed filed by Rawleigh Hazard, a silversmith who had moved in the town and bought some acres of land on December 7, 1778. On August 10, 1804, John Hall becomes the first postmaster of Kilmarnock. He was already known in the area for operating the very first shop in the town, sold to him by Peter Tankersley in 1803. With Raleigh D. Carter as its first Mayor and S. G. Purcell the first Sergeant. On March 17, 1952, the final historic fire occurred after several years, St. Patrick’s Day's fire began when the Hazel Building caught on fire once again. The high winds led the fire to sweep onto Main Street. The buildings rebuilt after the 1915 fire were lost due to the common attic. On April, 2006  "Main Street revitalization project" begins, with the aid of federal, VDOT and local community funds. This leads to the creation of the “Steptoe’s District”, in honour of…

Geography

Kilmarnock is located at (37.712437, -76.381707). According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which 2.9 square miles (7.4 km2) is land and 0.35% is water. Kilmarnock hosts the Holly Ball, a debutante ball founded in 1895, at the Indian Creek Yacht and Country Club every December.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,487
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  3,340
• Carolina Wren

  Thryothorus ludovicianus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  2,943
• Tufted Titmouse

  Baeolophus bicolor (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  2,729
• Carolina Chickadee

  Poecile carolinensis (Audubon, 1834) · Aves
  2,477
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,299
• Eastern Bluebird

  Sialia sialis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,142
• Turkey Vulture

  Cathartes aura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,113