boundaries of the Town of Colonial Beach
Source: Westmoreland County, Westmoreland Online GIS
boundaries of the Town of Colonial Beach
Source: Westmoreland County, Westmoreland Online GIS
An investor in what became the Colonial Beach Improvement Company purchased 650 acres in Westmoreland County in 1878. The town was chartered in 1882. From the beginning, it was planned as a riverside resort community that would attract land buyers and vacationers from Washington, DC. Many lots were surveyed with narrow and deep dimensions (40 to 50 feet wide and 145 to 170 feet long) to ensure waterfront access.1
Colonial Beach has been a waterfront resort since the founding of the town in 1882
Source: Library of Congress, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Colonial Beach, Independent Cities, Virginia (1934)
steamships delivered vacationers to Colonial Beach
Source: Library of Congress, Colonial Beach, Virginia, 1913
sandy beach at Colonial Beach, looking downstream from the Riverboat on the Potomac