The town of Chilhowie, Virginia, is a small commercial center along the Interstate 81 coridor in Smyth County in southwest Virginia. In 1995-1996, the town was partially inventoried as part of a limited reconnaissance-level survey of Smyth County's historic architectural properties. The survey documented four sites within the Chilhowie Historic District, one of three districts
identified as potentially eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. In winter spring 1998-1999, the eight remaining properties within the proposed district were inventoried.
The district comprises most of the surviving historic commercial center of Chilhowie. It includes the commercial properties lining the principal block of Main Street and buildings on Lee
Highway to the north.

The John Montgomery Preston House represents the t r a n s i t i o n from the Federalist to the Greek Revival style , a change that occurred in western Virginia as l a t e as the 1840's and 50's. This 1842 structure takes advantage of the features of both style's in a form which is more impressive because of its s i z e than most structures of any period in t h i s area. Its beautiful location on the Middle Fork of the Holston River in the h i l l s west of Marion has been marred by the presence of I n t e r s t a t e 81.

Prominently sited on a low h i l l surrounded by mountains, the Abijah Thomas House, Smyth County, is the finest example in Virginia of a 19th-century octagonal house. Built in 1856-57, this sophisticated structure has retained important graining and painting schemes i n spite of years of weathering and neglect.

The Scott-Walker House sits on a one-acre site on the east side of State Road 635 in a mountainous area called Buckeye Hollow in rural Smyth County, Virginia, two miles southeast of the town of Saltville. The house is a two-story, three-bay, gable-roofed structure with a hall parlor plan on each floor. The house has limestone masonry walls and exterior chimneys at each
gable end. Interior woodwork makes the house exceptional. The original structure has raised paneling in the door and window reveals, and has paneled wainscotting in one room. It also has
dentil crown molding and plastered walls above wainscotting in all rooms. Elaborate carving, featuring an uncommon scallop motif, decorates mantels on each floor. A single-story, threeroom,
frame wing was added to the north elevation 1992 and a single-story frame garage was built east of the house in 1993. There are no extant historic outbuildings on the property.

The town of Saltville, Virginia, is an important industrial center in Smyth County in mountainous southwest Virginia. The center of the historic salt and plaster industry in the region, the town is located in the northwest section of Smyth County in the Little Mountain
range. The district comprises a significant portion of the surviving historic commercial and residential center of Saltville