Kilmarnock

Kilmarnock was called "the Crossroads" about 1664, because multiple thoroughfares crossed here. By the middle of the 18th century, the community was named Steptoe's Ordinary for a storehouse and tavern owned by William Steptoe I. About 1775, it became Kilmarnock, after the town in Scotland. By the 1850s, with Kilmarnock Seminary and Female Seminary, it was a center of education in the Northern Neck, and was becoming a thriving commercial hub. Fires devastated Kilmarnock in 1909, 1915, and 1952, but its citizens successfully rebuilt each time. Kilmarnock was incorporated as a town on 8 Dec. 1930.

Department of Historic Resources, 2006