Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Fieldale, VA

Fieldale is an unincorporated census-designated place (CDP) in Henry County, Virginia, and it is part of the Martinsville Micropolitan Statistical Area.

Fieldale's site was first settled in 1770 by planter George Waller, a state militia officer later promoted to colonel, and his wife Ann Winston Carr, a first cousin of Patrick Henry, who established a protected ford across the Smith River.

For more than a century the settlement was known as Waller's Ford, and the local militia trained on Colonel Waller's acreage; a Virginia historical marker now marks the location of his plantation.

In 1916, Marshall Field & Company bought the site from the Waller heirs and built Fieldcrest Mills, the planned company town of Fieldale, and an 8,500-square-foot company clubhouse, all completed in 1919.

Fieldale was the first town in southwestern Virginia with sidewalks, electric lighting, and municipal water and sewer systems, amenities provided by its company-town builders.

The Fieldale Historic District, the Marshall Field and Company Clubhouse, and the Virginia Home are all listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Fieldale's population peaked at 1,499 in the 1960 census, at the height of the Fieldcrest textile era.

Fieldale had a population of 852 in the 2020 census, down from 879 in 2010 and 929 in the 2000 census, when the CDP had 420 households.

Fieldale covers 1.6 square miles of land along the Smith River in northern Henry County.