Week 3: Pages 50-74

Industry and Commerce

Soapstone and slate helped Esmont grow beginning in the mid-1880s. Alberene Soapstone Company started in 1883, mining soapstone and building a company town in the area. To keep up with demand, one of the company founders decided to build a railroad. When it was finished, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway ran the trains, and later purchased the line.

Later founders Daniel Carroll and Henry Lane started a slate-quarrying company in the area. Another area slate-mining company, Blue Ridge Slate, was later established and then closed after the state ordered it to abate the dust it produced.

Alberene Soapstone merged with Virginia Soapstone in nearby Schuyler, and to facilitate transport between the sites, the Nelson and Albemarle Railway Company was chartered. The Esmont Depot served as the stop in Esmont.

While the quarries continued on and off, the railroad tracks were ultimately abandoned in the 1960s.

More information on the industry is available in Garth G. Groff’s book, Soapstone Shortlines: Alberene Stone and Its Railroads shared on the Friends of Esmont website.

Growth in the area led to a bank and several general and hardware stores opening either directly in Esmont or nearby including Purvis Store, Esmont National Bank and Post Office, Lane Brother's Commissary, Pace’s Store, Esmont Inn, and Steed's Store.

Brown’s Market is the only storefront in the area today.

Did you know?

An Albemarle Monthly article from late 1979, shared by the Friends of Esmont, outlines life post-quarries.