Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Scottsburg, VA

Scottsburg is a small incorporated town in Halifax County in southern Virginia, one of only four incorporated towns in the county alongside Halifax, South Boston and Virgilina.

Scottsburg was incorporated by an order of the Halifax County Circuit Court on March 22, 1926, and its current town charter dates to 1975, according to the Commonwealth of Virginia's official charter record.

Before it was even a town, a 1907 Halifax County handbook described Scottsburg — set between Clover and South Boston — as an important market village with three tobacco warehouses, a bank, two churches, a high school and five commercial establishments.

The 2020 census counted 127 residents in Scottsburg, up from 119 in 2010, a gain of about 6.7 percent.

Scottsburg had 54 households and just 63 housing units in the 2020 census, making it one of Virginia's smallest incorporated towns by population.

The town covers only about 0.7 square miles of land, giving it a population density of roughly 172 people per square mile in 2020.

Scottsburg's median age in the 2020 census was 41.5 years, and about two-thirds of its residents were White alone, with about 22 percent Black or African American alone.

Scottsburg uses ZIP Code 24589 and sits in Virginia's historic bright-leaf tobacco belt, the farm economy that built its early warehouses and market trade.

Scottsburg's Halifax County was formed in 1752 from Lunenburg County and named for the second Earl of Halifax; at nearly 825 square miles it is the fourth-largest county in Virginia, with its seat at the town of Halifax.