Biohazard Cleanup Near West Ferrum Ferrum, VA

Ferrum is a census-designated place (CDP) in Franklin County, Virginia — an unincorporated community in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, southwest of Roanoke.

The 2020 census counted 1,827 people in the Ferrum CDP, down from 2,043 in 2010, a decline tied to enrollment at the college that dominates the community.

Ferrum is home to Ferrum College, founded in 1913 by the Methodist Church as the Ferrum Training School to educate underserved children of the Blue Ridge mountain communities.

Ferrum College grew from a primary and secondary school into a private four-year college, and its roughly 700-acre campus is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Census survey estimates put Ferrum's median age at only about 21.6 years, among the youngest in Virginia, because so many residents are Ferrum College students.

The college's Blue Ridge Institute and Museum was designated the State Center for Blue Ridge Folklore by the Virginia General Assembly in 1986.

Since 1973 the Blue Ridge Institute has held the Blue Ridge Folklife Festival on the Ferrum campus on the fourth Saturday of every October, showcasing traditional musicians, artisans, and craftspeople from across the region.

The institute also runs the Blue Ridge Farm Museum, an 1800s Virginia-German living-history farm that is the largest living history museum in southwest Virginia.

Ferrum is a designated major venue on The Crooked Road, Virginia's Heritage Music Trail, and the college hosts a free old-time and bluegrass music jam every Monday evening.

Ferrum is part of the Roanoke metropolitan area and lies along Virginia Route 40, west of Rocky Mount, the Franklin County seat.