Union Hall, Virginia

Gwin Dudley Home Site, also known as Twin Chimneys, is a historic home site located at Smith Mountain Lake, Wirtz, Franklin County, Virginia. The site consists of two extant stone chimneys that are situated 31 feet, 8 inches apart (inside face to inside face), indicating the length of the house, which was lost to fire in the early 20th century. They were part of a house erected about 1795.A stone tablet, with the initials GD and the date 1795 inlaided into the stone, are prominently display on the south chimney, above the arch.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.

North Shore is a census-designated place (CDP) in Franklin County, Virginia, United States. The community lies along State Route 616. It is part of the Roanoke Metropolitan Statistical Area. Westlake Corner borders the community to the north and northwest.

Penhook is a census-designated place (CDP) in Franklin County, Virginia, United States. The population was 801 at the 2010 census, up from 726 in 2000. It is part of the Roanoke Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Holland–Duncan House is a historic home located near Moneta, in Franklin County, Virginia. It was built about 1830, is a two-story, five-bay, central passage plan, brick dwelling, with a one-story frame ell with side porch. It has a metal gable roof and exterior end chimneys. The interior features Federal and Greek Revival design details. Also on the property are a contributing former post office, mounting block and steps, privy, and cemetery.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.

Smith Mountain Lake is a large reservoir in the Roanoke Region of Virginia, United States, located southeast of the City of Roanoke and southwest of Lynchburg. The lake was created in 1963 by the Smith Mountain Dam impounding the Roanoke River. The majority of the south shore of the lake lies in Franklin County while a small portion, including access to the dam, lies in Pittsylvania County. Bedford County makes up the northern half of the lake with the Roanoke River as the dividing line. The lake has become a popular recreation spot and has also experienced significant development in the last decade. It is the largest lake contained entirely within the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Hale's Ford is a small unincorporated community located in the northeastern corner of Franklin County, Virginia about 25 miles (40 km) from Roanoke. It is most notable as the location of the Burroughs Farm, the tobacco plantation where the famed educator and orator Booker T. Washington was born into slavery in 1856. His mother Jane was an enslaved black woman held by the Burroughs and his father was a white planter who lived nearby. After the American Civil War ended, Jane took her children to West Virginia to rejoin her husband, who had been sold there as a slave before the war. The Booker T. Washington National Monument, established in 1956, preserves portions of the 207-acre (0.84 km2) tobacco plantation where Washington was born. It interprets his life as a national leader. Hale's Ford is also the site of one of Virginia's historic covered bridges and of the Hook–Powell–Moorman Farm, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.Some of the community is included within the Westlake Corner census-designated place.

The Booker T. Washington National Monument is a National Monument near the community of Hardy, Virginia, and is located entirely in rural Franklin County, Virginia. It preserves portions of the 207-acre (0.90 km2) tobacco farm on which educator and leader Booker T. Washington was born into slavery on April 5, 1856. It provides interpretation of Washington's life and achievements, as well as interpretation of 1850s slavery and farming through the use of buildings, gardens, crafts and animals. Congress authorized the Booker T. Washington Memorial half dollar to fund the purchase of the site. This commemorative half dollar was the first US coin to feature an African American, and was minted from 1946 to 1951 at three different mints. 18 varieties of the coin were produced, and more than 1.5 million were sold (primarily to collectors). Yet, after the coin's production was finished, the BTW Commission owed more money than it had assets, and the Commonwealth of Virginia had to step in to provide funds to purchase the site. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966 and designated a National Monument on April 2, 1956.

Westlake Corner is a census-designated place in Franklin County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,553 at the 2020 census up fro 976 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Roanoke Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The Pigg River is a river in south-west Virginia in the United States. It is a tributary of the Roanoke River, which flows to the Atlantic Ocean via Albemarle Sound. The Pigg River rises on Fivemile Mountain in western Franklin County and flows generally eastwardly through Franklin and Pittsylvania Counties, past the town of Rocky Mount. It joins the Roanoke River from the south (along a section of the Roanoke often known locally as the Staunton River) as part of the Leesville Reservoir, which is formed by a dam on the Roanoke. Recently, several dams across the Pigg River have been removed. In 2017, the 100 year old power dam at Rocky Mount was breached to restore the historic flow and to improve the habitat of the Roanoke logperch, an endangered species. Other dams removed recently include the dam near the Rocky Mount Veterans Memorial Park in 2013, and the Wasena dam in 2009. The river is named for John Pigg, an early settler from Amelia County, Virginia, who in 1741 acquired 400 acres of land through which the unnamed river passed.

Hook–Powell–Moorman Farm is a historic farm complex and national historic district located near Hales Ford, Franklin County, Virginia. It encompasses three contributing buildings and 10 contributing sites. The buildings are the Greek Revival-style farmhouse (c. 1855); a one-story frame building with Georgian detailing identified as the John Hook Store (c. 1784); and the Dr. John A. Moorman Office (c. 1890). The sites are those of an ice house, carriage house, workshop, barn, outbuilding, original site of the store, a house, spring, ice pond, and road bed.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.

On the morning of August 26, 2015, news reporter Alison Parker and photojournalist Adam Ward, both employees of CBS affiliate WDBJ in Roanoke, Virginia, United States, were fatally shot while conducting a live television interview near Smith Mountain Lake in Moneta. They were interviewing Vicki Gardner, executive director of the local chamber of commerce, when all three were attacked by a gunman in a mass shooting. Parker, age 24, and Ward, age 27, died at the scene, while Gardner survived.The gunman was 41-year-old Vester Lee Flanagan II, a former reporter at WDBJ who had been fired in 2013 for disruptive conduct. After a five-hour manhunt, Flanagan shot himself during a car chase with police officers and died later at a hospital.

Smith Mountain Lake State Park is a 1,148-acre (4.65 km2) state park along the shores of Smith Mountain Lake in Bedford County, Virginia near Huddleston. It is primarily a recreational area, offering water-related activities as well as camping, picnicking, hiking facilities, and a public beach. The park was opened to the public in 1983.