Founded in 1761 by German and English settlers, Woodstock was the first town to be established in what later became Shenandoah County. Like most Valley towns of the period, it has a gridiron plan and its principal street (now Main Street) is the Great Wagon Road, which after 1834 was known as the Valley Turnpike. In 1772 Woodstock became the county seat. The turnpike and the arrival of the Manassas Gap Railroad in 1856 ensured the town's commercial and economic prosperity through the nineteenth century. Woodstock, one of the Valley's best-preserved historic towns, is anchored at its northern end by the former Woodstock High School (600 N. Main Street) that has been rehabilitated into Shenandoah County offices. At the southern end of town the Massanutten Military Academy (1899 established; 614 S. Main Street) is dominated by the Gothic Revival Lantz Hall (1907) designed by Holmboe and Lafferty of West Virginia. The Woodstock Museum (104 S. Muhlenberg Street) occupies two late-eighteenth-century houses.
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