Virginia Tech

Solitude is a historic home located on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute at Blacksburg, Montgomery County, Virginia. The earliest section was built about 1802, and expanded first in circa 1834 and then in the 1850s by Col. Robert Preston, who received the land surrounding Solitude from his father, Virginia Governor James Patton Preston. Dating back over 200 years, Solitude is the oldest building on the Virginia Tech Blacksburg campus.It is a two-story, L-shaped, five bay, log and frame dwelling with a hipped roof. Mid 19th century modifications gave the farmhouse a Greek Revival look. Also on the property are the contributing stone spring house with log superstructure and an outbuilding built in about 1844 and renamed in 2019 by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors as the Fraction Family House at Solitude. This new name recognizes its usage as a dwelling for the largest enslaved population living on the site and symbolically recognizes all enslaved at Solitude. In 1872, the 250 acre Solitude farm became the part of the central campus of Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, serving primarily as the college's farm. The farm house, after the death of its owner, Robert Taylor Preston, in the following decade, served as a college infirmary from 1882 to 1886. It, as well as the Fraction Family House, was then used as faculty housing for the next 60 years. In the 1940s it briefly was a clubhouse for returning World War II veterans who lived in a trailer park surrounding the building while attending Virginia Polytechnic Institute. At that time, dances regularly were held in Solitude's two front parlors. In the 1960s and 1970s, Solitude was used by the Hokie Club in addition to housing faculty in two apartments. Academic programs started using the building in 1974. For some time, Solitude housed a human nutrition and food laboratory and interior design studios and offices. Its last occupant was the Appalachian Studies Program, which has returned following the restoration of the building. Also located in the building is the Henry H. Wiss Center for Theory and History of Art and Architecture. Solitude had been vacant for many years prior to a $1 million (~$1.32 million in 2022) restoration that began in July 2010 and lasted half-a-year. Much of the project was funded by the Mary Morton Parsons Foundation of Richmond, Va.The house is situated in a landscaped park adjacent to the central campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute. It was listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register in 1988 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.After Solitude's listing on NRHP, decade-long research and archaeology commenced to further study the main house, property, and overall site to extrapolate further historical information and evaluate what would be needed to restore the house and outbuildings. These efforts culminated in a 2000 Master's thesis by Michael Pulice, a then-Master's of Science candidate in Virginia Tech's Architecture Department, now the chief architectural historian for the Western Regional office (Salem, VA) of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Pulice concluded in his thesis that the remaining log outbuilding, long believed to be either a doctor's office or kitchen, is a surviving slave cabin and servants quarters.

The Virginia Tech shooting was a spree shooting that occurred on Monday, April 16, 2007, comprising two attacks on the campus of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. Seung-Hui Cho, an undergraduate student at the university, killed 32 people and wounded 17 others with two semi-automatic pistols. Six others were injured jumping out of windows to escape Cho. The first shooting occurred at West Ambler Johnston Hall, a dormitory, where two people were killed; the main attack was a school shooting at Norris Hall, a classroom building, where Cho chained the main entrance doors shut and fired into four classrooms and in a stairwell, killing thirty more people. As police stormed Norris Hall, Cho fatally shot himself in the head. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history and remained so for nine years until the Orlando nightclub shooting. It remains the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history and the deadliest mass shooting in Virginia history. The attacks received international media coverage and provoked widespread criticism of U.S. gun culture. It sparked debate about gun violence, gun laws, gaps in the U.S. system for treating mental health issues, Cho's state of mind, the responsibility of college administrations, privacy laws, journalism ethics, and other issues. News organizations that aired portions of Cho's multimedia manifesto were criticized by victims' families, Virginia law enforcement officials, and the American Psychiatric Association.Cho had previously been diagnosed with selective mutism and severe depression. During much of his middle school and high school years, he received therapy and special education support. After graduating from high school, Cho enrolled at Virginia Tech. Because of federal privacy laws, the university was unaware of Cho's previous diagnoses or the accommodations he had been granted at school. In 2005, Cho was accused of stalking two female students. After an investigation, a Virginia special justice declared Cho mentally ill and ordered him to attend treatment. Because he was not institutionalized, he was allowed to purchase guns. The shooting prompted the state of Virginia to close legal loopholes that had allowed individuals adjudicated as mentally unsound to purchase handguns without detection by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). It also led to the passage of the first major federal gun control measure in the U.S. since 1994. The law strengthening the NICS was signed by President George W. Bush on January 5, 2008.Administrators at Virginia Tech were criticized by the Virginia Tech Review Panel, a state-appointed panel tasked with investigating the incident, for failing to take action that might have decreased the number of casualties. The panel's report also reviewed gun laws and pointed out gaps in mental health care as well as privacy laws that left Cho's deteriorating condition untreated when he was a student at Virginia Tech.: 78 : 2 

The Peggy Lee Hahn Horticulture Garden (7 acres), formerly the Virginia Tech Horticulture Garden, is a horticulture garden located on the Virginia Tech campus on Washington Street SW, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. The largest public garden in western Virginia, it is open daily without charge. The garden was established in 1984 by Dr. Robert Lyons, Dr. Richard Johnson and Robert McDuffie. It was renamed in 2004 to honor Mrs. Hahn and her husband, T. Marshall Hahn, former president of Virginia Tech (1962-1974). All features have been built and planted by students, staff, faculty, and volunteers.Today the garden is used by students in the horticulture, landscape architecture, urban forestry, and entomology undergraduate programs. More than 50 volunteer gardeners from Blacksburg, Virginia, and the surrounding area assist at the garden throughout the year. Many of them fulfill their requirements with the Virginia Cooperative Extension Master Gardener program at the site.Garden features include: Dwarf Conifer Display Perennial Border— More than 90 species and cultivars. Pond — Japanese maples with beds of tender annuals. Shade Beds — natives and unusual woody plants from Asia and Europe. Stream Garden — over 20 species of bog and aquatic plants. Trident Maple Allee — Maples underplanted with perennials and annuals. Wisteria Arbor — wisteria and climbing hydrangea. Xeriscape Area

Sandra D. Thompson Field is a multi-purpose stadium located on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia where it is home to the Hokies soccer and lacrosse teams. Built in 2003, the stadium seats 2,500 people and features a regulation size auxiliary field.

Miles Stadium was a college football stadium located on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Virginia. It was the home field of Virginia Tech's football team from 1926 to 1964, until the new Lane Stadium opened in 1965.Miles Stadium opened in 1926 with 3,760 permanent seats. Subsequent expansions increased seating capacity to 17,000 permanent seats and temporary bleachers. The stadium's inaugural game was a victory over Roanoke College on September 25; four weeks later, the dedication game was a win over rival Virginia. The playing field was aligned northwest to southeast, at an approximate elevation of 2,050 feet (625 m) above sea level. The stadium's last game was in 1964, a Virginia Tech victory over North Carolina State on November 7. The stadium was razed in 1965 and over the next thirty years the large grassy area became known as the "Prairie." In the 1990s, three new residence halls, Payne Hall, Peddrew-Yates Hall, and New Residence Hall East (together known as the "Prairie Quad") were built on the former site of Miles Stadium. Of the 95 varsity football games played in the venue, Virginia Tech compiled a 66–25–4 (.716) record; the most memorable win was arguably in its final season, the 1964 homecoming defeat of Florida State on October 24. Undefeated FSU was ranked tenth in the nation, and was the highest-ranked team defeated at Miles Stadium. Virginia Tech did not defeat a higher ranked team until the 1995 win in the Sugar Bowl over #9 Texas on New Year's Eve.Miles Stadium was named for Clarence P. "Sally" Miles, Virginia Tech class of 1901, former director of athletics, graduate athletic manager, professor, and dean. Virginia Tech's Miles residence hall is also named for C.P. Miles.

The Virginia Tech Stability Wind Tunnel is a medium-scale wind tunnel located at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Virginia. With a test section measuring 6 by 6 ft (1.8 by 1.8 m) and maximum wind speeds of approximately 262.6 ft/s (80.0 m/s), it is one of the largest university-owned wind tunnels in the United States, and is used for a wide variety of research projects within the college as well as being contracted out for commercial use, especially product testing. Professor William Devenport is the current director, and Dr. Aurelien Borgoltz is the assistant director.

Cassell Coliseum is a 10,052-seat multi-purpose arena in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States, that opened in 1962. It is home to the Virginia Tech Hokies men's and women's basketball teams, wrestling team, and volleyball team.

English Field at Atlantic Union Bank Park is a baseball stadium in Blacksburg, Virginia. It is the home field of the Virginia Tech Hokies college baseball team. It was opened in 1989 and has a capacity of 1,033 in chair back seats plus additional grass-covered bank seating along the left field line known as "The Hill". English Field underwent an $20 million renovation in 2018.

The Virginia–Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine (also known as the Virginia–Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine) is a state-supported college of two states, Virginia and Maryland, filling the need for veterinary medicine education in both states. Students from both states are considered "in-state" students for admissions purposes. It is one of 28 colleges of veterinary medicine in the United States and is accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association's Council on Education and the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International. In 2011, the U.S. News 'Veterinary Medicine' Ranking placed the college tied for 17th with Iowa State University in a poll of 25 ranked schools.The college is considered a constituent college of both Virginia Tech and the University of Maryland. The college's main campus is located on Virginia Tech's campus in Blacksburg, with a branch on the University of Maryland's campus in College Park. It also operates the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, Virginia. The college's Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) program is designed to be finished in four years.

Lane Stadium is a college football stadium in the eastern United States, located on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Virginia. The playing surface of the stadium is named Worsham Field. The home field of the Virginia Tech Hokies of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), it was rated the number one home field advantage in all of college football in 2005 by Rivals.com. In 2007, it was ranked #2 on ESPN.com's "Top 10 Scariest Places To Play." The stadium is named for Edward Hudson Lane, a former student, local businessman, and Virginia Tech booster, while the playing surface is named for Wes Worsham, a university donor and booster.From 1982 to 2014, Lane Stadium had the highest elevation of any Football Bowl Subdivision stadium in the eastern United States, at 2,057 feet (627 m) above sea level. That distinction now belongs to Kidd Brewer Stadium of Appalachian State University, at 3,333 feet (1,016 m). (The highest field in FBS is at Wyoming's War Memorial Stadium, at 7,215 feet (2,199 m).)

Blacksburg is an incorporated town in Montgomery County, Virginia, United States, with a population of 44,826 at the 2020 census. Blacksburg, and the surrounding county is dominated economically and demographically by the presence of Virginia Tech.Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and the city of Radford are the three principal jurisdictions of the Blacksburg-Christiansburg Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses those jurisdictions and all of Montgomery, Pulaski, and Giles counties for statistical purposes. The MSA has an estimated population of 181,863 and is currently one of the faster-growing MSAs in Virginia. Blacksburg High School, which in 2013 opened a new building, is often ranked among the top schools of the nation for its academics.

The Blacksburg Museum and Cultural Foundation is a cultural institution in the Town of Blacksburg, Virginia, that sponsors exhibits, concerts, lecture series, and other cultural activities. The museum is headquartered in the Alexander Black House. The BM&CF also consists of the St. Luke & Odd Fellows Hall, a museum of African-American heritage in Blacksburg.