Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Services in Amherst, VA

Amherst is a town in the Virginia Piedmont and the county seat of Amherst County, and it is the county's only incorporated town; it is part of the Lynchburg metropolitan area.

The town site began as a stage stop on the Charlottesville–Lynchburg road known as The Oaks (or Five Oaks), and it became the county seat in 1807 when Nelson County was split off from Amherst County's northern half and the old seat at Cabellsville was left in the new county.

Both the town and county are named for Lord Jeffery Amherst, the British commander known as the 'Conqueror of Canada'; Amherst County itself was formed from Albemarle County in 1761.

The town of Amherst was incorporated in 1910, in part so the village could establish its own police force.

Amherst had a population of 2,110 at the 2020 census and covers just under five square miles at an elevation of about 761 feet in the Blue Ridge foothills.

The old Amherst County Courthouse was built in 1870–1872 from homemade brick fired from Amherst County clay, and a new courthouse was added behind it in 1996–1997 while the historic building remained in the town center.

Amherst proudly claims Virginia's oldest Main Street roundabout, centered on its courthouse village.

Just south of town is Sweet Briar College, a women's liberal arts college founded in 1901 through the bequest of Indiana Fletcher Williams as a memorial to her daughter Daisy, who had died at age 16; the college opened in 1906 with 51 students.

Sweet Briar's Georgian-style campus, designed by noted architect Ralph Adams Cram beginning in 1901, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the college is nationally known for its equestrian program and its rare engineering degree at a women's college.

Central Virginia Community College operates a small center in Amherst, giving the town a second higher-education presence alongside Sweet Briar.