Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Forestville, VA

Forestville is a census-designated place and historic mill village in southern Shenandoah County, Virginia, at the crossroads of Routes 42, 614, and 767 near the county's southern tip.

The village arose around a gristmill built about 1760 by Andrew Zirkle on Holmans Creek, one of seven mills raised in the area as commercial wheat production grew in importance.

Forestville was settled initially by German settlers and reflects the pattern of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century German settlement in the Shenandoah Valley.

In 1838, Jacob Bowers, the mill's antebellum proprietor, founded the adjoining village of Forestville on portions of the original mill property, and the village took on its present layout beginning that year.

By 1869 Forestville had a population of 200, with two stores and a number of artisan shops.

The Zirkle Mill survived the Civil War intact — unlike many Shenandoah Valley mills — and continued in commercial operation until the 1950s; it was listed on the historic registers in 1983.

The Forestville Historic District, encompassing about 190 acres, was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 30, 2011, as a well-preserved 19th-century Shenandoah Valley mill village.

Forestville's post office opened in 1847, the village stands about 1,080 feet above sea level, and it uses ZIP code 22847.

Recent Census Bureau survey estimates count only about 35 residents in the Forestville census-designated place, making it one of the smallest census places in Shenandoah County, which had 44,186 residents in the 2020 census and has its county seat at Woodstock.