Grafton (pop. 5,489), the first large town west of Winchester, Virginia, grew up as a bustling B&O railroad town beginning in the 1850s but is now among the most economically and socially depressed places in the state. Dozens of architecturally interesting but run-down houses and churches drop on brick-paved streets down the steep hills to the Tygart River and the railroad tracks, where a monumental station and a grand but boarded-up hotel are grim reminders of Grafton’s formerly busy self.
Besides its impressive physical setting, Grafton’s main claim to fame is as the birthplace of Mother’s Day, first celebrated here in 1908 in a Methodist church that’s been converted into the International Mother’s Day Shrine (Mon.–Fri.; donations), at 11 E. Main Street across from the old train station.
East of Grafton, the landscape becomes more mountainous, and isolated villages replace the small towns that line the western half of the route.
