Points of Interest
Front Royal is the home of Randolph-Macon Academy (founded 1892) which features an Air Force JROTC program. Front Royal is also the home of Christendom College and the Smithsonian's Conservation and Research Center.
Commercially, it is the home to a Virginia Inland Port situated on U.S. Route 522.
Like many outer suburbs, Front Royal is facing the challenge of providing jobs to its community and preventing a slide into being a bedroom community. It also faces tensions between long-time residents, recent (10–20 years ago) arrivals and more affluent newly-arrived residents, many of whom commute daily to Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia. This struggle was reflected in Centex's huge 1,862-home "The Villages at Twin Rivers" proposal, which sought to transform 579 agriculturally-zoned acres just outside the town into a residential district. The proposal was large enough that Centex is offering to build a new interchange on Interstate 66 and help fund a new elementary school. However in late 2006, Centex scaled back its plans and is no longer offering to build an elementary school.
Front Royal is home to the Avtex Fibers Superfund Site. Once Virginia's largest Superfund site, this former rayon manufacturing facility is being recovered to provide a 175-acre (0.71 km2) eco-friendly office park, 30 acres (120,000 m2) of soccer fields, and 240 acres (0.97 km2) of conservancy park along the Shenandoah River. Front Royal is home to the Canine Enforcement Training Center (CETC), which trains dogs in various detection abilities for numerous Federal Agencies.
Important tourist attractions include Skyline Caverns, the northern entrance to Shenandoah National Park, and Skyline Drive. It also has a large number of American Civil War attractions, both in the town and the surrounding Shenandoah Valley.
The Front Royal Cardinals baseball team joined the Valley League in 1984. Games are played in Bing Crosby Stadium. Bing Crosby donated the land and money to build the original stadium when he became aware of Front Royal in 1953 as a result of a fellow Irish Catholic named Frank Nesbitt. In 1953, Frank Nesbitt coached a Little League team from Front Royal which came in 3rd in the world tournament. Freddie Moore was one of the players on that team. Freddie Moore later became active in Front Royal Little League. After Moore died of cancer one of Front Royal's Little League fields was named in his honor.
The Confederate Museum on Chester Street has many interesting artifacts from the 1860s.
Front Royal has been designated the canoe capital of Virginia.
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