Biohazard and Pathogen Disinfection in Urbanna, VA

Urbanna is a small incorporated town in Middlesex County on Virginia's Middle Peninsula, and it is the only incorporated town in the county.

The town's name means "City of Anne" and was given in honor of Queen Anne of England.

Urbanna was established in 1680 as one of the port towns set aside by the colonial government at Jamestown, and it is the only one of those original port sites with visible evidence of the era remaining.

The town sits on Urbanna Creek just off the Rappahannock River, and it grew as a port for shipping tobacco to England.

Urbanna's tobacco warehouse, built in 1766, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and seven buildings in town have been in continuous use since the colonial period.

The 2020 census counted 492 residents in Urbanna, up slightly from 476 in 2010; the 2000 census had counted 543 residents in 266 households.

Urbanna hosts the Virginia Oyster Festival, the Commonwealth's official oyster festival, held every year since 1958 on the first weekend of November.

The two-day festival draws between 50,000 and 75,000 visitors to a town of fewer than 500 people, features a famous oyster-shucking contest and two parades, and the town closes to traffic during festival afternoons.

The Museum in Urbanna, housed in an 18th-century Scottish factor store, displays a copy of John Mitchell's map, considered one of the most important maps in American history.

Local boosters say Urbanna has more boats than residents, and the whole town covers only about half a square mile on the creek.