Staunton's Saturday Got Rearranged This Year. Here's the Late-Fall Map.

"There's nothing better than walking downtown on a beautiful Saturday and hearing the sound of music and the smell of apple cider donuts," Staunton Farmers' Market manager Rachel Wine told WHSV in April. In the same interview she said that feeling would "carry forth with the market at the west end, but it is just going to look a little bit different."

Seven months later, "a little bit different" covers more than the market. Downtown Staunton's Saturday no longer happens in one place this year. It runs along a route, and the stormwater tunnels under the Wharf are what set that route. As the weeks get colder, the holiday calendar pulls most of it back to familiar ground, though not all of it.

One Saturday, three addresses

For more than 30 years, a Staunton Saturday morning started at the Wharf, where the Farmers' Market had set up since 1993. In 2026 the same morning usually covers three separate stops:

1. The market at 2020 West Beverley Street. It's in the Staunton Juvenile & Domestic Relations Courthouse parking lot. In October and November it runs Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon.
2. Downtown Beverley Street. Through Nov. 2, the block from Lewis Street to Market Street stays closed to cars from Friday at 4 p.m. until Monday at 7:30 a.m. under the city's Shop & Dine Out program.
3. The Wharf. It's still open for business and parking, with an active construction zone around its edges.

You'll find details on all three on the Staunton Farmers' Market website and in the city's Shop & Dine Out announcement. Why the morning got split up in the first place is the part that shapes the rest of the season.

Why the market moved west

According to WHSV, the city found in March 2025 that the tunnel system under the Wharf and parts of downtown had been compromised. Wine explained the problem to the station:

"It's an old system, and the weight of cars being parked on top of the tunnels was causing the concrete to buckle, which is obviously not a good situation for anyone."

Construction was set to begin in February 2026, so the market spent the previous year looking for somewhere else to go. The courthouse lot it settled on gave it what Wine called "the most space that we've ever had to work with." Josh Knight, the city's engagement and communications manager, told WHSV that crews worked on electricity and parking-lot conditions before opening day. He also said some of the historic wayfinding signs that point people to the Wharf had to be changed. Anyone who still drives to the old spot will now find a banner saying the market has moved.

When WHSV spoke with Knight, he called the West Beverley site temporary. He said the city hadn't considered it permanent, though he expected "a big push" to bring the market back toward the Wharf once that becomes possible.

What the crews are under now

The work behind all this has its own name and schedule. The city calls it the Downtown Tunnel Repairs project. It's a $4.6 million effort covering the tunnel sections under Byers Street, West Johnson Street and New Street.

In a Sept. 24 update, the city said crews would move from Byers Street to West Johnson Street the week of Sept. 28. The News Leader reported on Oct. 1 that the Byers fencing had come down and crews were moving to Johnson. If you drive downtown for the market or for dinner, this is the current setup:

• Byers Street had been closed to through traffic since March 2025. It's open again, one-way eastbound from Lewis Street to Johnson Street, and serves as the detour.
• West Johnson Street is closed to westbound traffic at Augusta Street and to eastbound traffic just past the Johnson Street Parking Garage entrance.
• Johnson Street between Central Avenue and Augusta Street is one-way eastbound. Central Avenue stays open.
• On foot, you can still reach the Wharf from Central Avenue and from the garage entrance.
• Parking in the Wharf lot and the Johnson Street Garage stays free. The eastern part of the Wharf lot has reopened, and the lower section of the western lot is open.

The city says downtown has about 25 more available spaces during this phase than it had during the Byers Street phase. The Johnson Street work is scheduled to finish in spring 2027.

New Street is a separate piece of the project. The project page says work there started June 29 and is expected to wrap up in fall 2026. Traffic is shifted to the right, on-street parking on South New Street isn't available, and the RMA lot has reopened.

The last closed-street weekend

The post you're reading lands right before the final Shop & Dine Out weekend of the program's seventh season. Beverley Street closes to cars Friday, Oct. 30 at 4 p.m. and reopens Monday, Nov. 2 at 7:30 a.m. Cross streets stay open throughout.

The city's 2026 list of restaurants offering outdoor dining on Beverley reads like a downtown dining guide. It includes Accordia, Baja Bean Co., BLU Point Seafood, Elli Bubble, The Green Room, The Pampered Palate Café, Queen City Bistro, Remedy Burger, Sama Sama, Shenandoah Pizza & Tap House, The Split Banana, Star Party, Sweet Addies, Yelping Dog Wine and Zynodoa.

One more Beverley Street change arrived this fall. The News Leader reported on Sept. 18 that Ciders from Mars had moved to a new Beverley Street location. The cidery's site now gives its address as 113 W. Beverley St. That puts it on the main street for the last closed-street weekend and for the holiday season after it.

After Nov. 2, the calendar pulls things back together

When the street closures end, the season's anchor dates take over. Most of them are back on long-familiar ground, at Gypsy Hill Park, the American Shakespeare Center and downtown's parade route. The market is the exception. It stays on the West End until it switches to its winter format.

The market's website lists the Winter Holiday Market dates and its no-market Saturday without a year. Check the market's site or its Facebook page before you plan a December morning around them. The parade details come from the Staunton Downtown Development Association. The Holiday Lights listing is on the city calendar. Times for both Christmas Carol runs are on ASC's holiday page.

If you'd rather not wait for December, ASC's fall repertory is running now. It includes The Tempest, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Witch, with Frankenstein opening Oct. 2 and Witch opening Oct. 9, according to the fall season page.

The part of the Wharf nobody has scheduled yet

The spring 2027 finish date covers the streets. It doesn't cover the Wharf lot. The city's project FAQ says the current repairs deliberately stick to tunnel sections under active roadways. That way the city avoids spending money on parking-lot tunnels that a future project could change.

The structural evaluation also found areas of concern under the Wharf lot itself, and those areas have been closed to vehicles since March 2025. The city says those lot tunnels are being looked at in a daylighting feasibility study. That study is exploring whether the tunnel roofs could be removed to open the creek back up to the air. The city also says any future Wharf lot work will be planned separately, through a long-term process with extensive public engagement.

The streets around the Wharf have a completion date. The lot where the market spent three decades doesn't have one. In April, the city's Josh Knight described the West Beverley site to WHSV as temporary while construction is finished, adding, "I guess ultimately we'll see how this plays out." On the question of whether Wharf businesses stay open in the meantime, the city's answer is yes. It says it's working on detour and parking signs and will keep pedestrian access open through every phase.

So for now, a Staunton Saturday still starts on the West End, comes downtown along the Byers Street detour, and from late November ends under the lights at Gypsy Hill Park.

If you live near the West End market or downtown and you're curious how this year's changes might affect your street, I'm glad to talk it through, from what the new traffic patterns mean day to day to what a house nearby might need before a future sale. Mary Beth Harris is here to help you find a house and create a home.