Choose Virden

Are you looking for a town to open or locate your business?  Choose Virden.

Virden is only 20 minutes south of Springfield on Illinois Route 4 (Historic Route 66).

It boasts a vibrant business community with more than $66 million in annual retail sales and a workforce of more than 1,000.  Located at the northern edge of Macoupin County, Virden lies within the St. Louis Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area.  But, economically, it functions as part of the Springfield, IL, economy.  Two major railroads serve Virden:  the Union Pacific and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe.

National brand stores have already chosen Virden:

AutoZone, Family dollar, Dollar General, Casey’s, Subway, Hardee’s, Dairy Queen

Regional brand stores have also chosen Virden:

McKay’s Auto Parts, Sloan Implement, Sav-Mor Drugstore, Fast Stop, Circle K, Advanced EyeCare, Fitness Zone, Poggenpohl Ready Mix

Virden is also home to many home-grown, local businesses:

Hendricks Home Furnishings, Do-It-Best Hardware, Royell Communications, Kruse Enterprises, Freedom Chevrolet, Jamies The Diamond Mine, Main Street Tire & Auto, Showtime Lanes, Snell Enterprises, Maguire Backhoe, The Wildflower Patch, The Sly Fox, Monarch Landscaping & Garden Center, American Medical Supply, Summit Brokerage,  Calvert & Ferry Funeral Home, Maynerich Financial, DiCarlo’s Pizza, Books on the Square, Bloom Florists, Lewis Electric, Inkorporated Designs, auto and truck body shops, and more.

Virden has three banks, several financial and insurance businesses, local newspaper, two dentists and chiropractors, a public library, several eating establishments, tumbling studio, ambulance service, volunteer fire department, and a dozen churches etc.

Utility services comes from the Otter Lake Water Commission, Virden Sanitary District, Ameren Illinois, Liberty Utilities Midstates, and Frontier Communications.

Downtown Virden, known for decades as simply The Square, is a four block square of businesses with a sylvan city park in the center featuring a century-old bandstand.  The downtown park is the site for numerous events throughout the year.  Many of the commercial buildings surrounding The Square are more than a century old.  A number of them feature unique and historic Mesker ornamental facades.  The downtown business district extends east and west of The Square on Jackson Street and north on Springfield (Route 4) and Dey streets.  A Virden history mural adorns the west wall of the Sav-Mor Building.  The Post Office houses a New Deal era mural by renowned illustrator and author James Daugherty.

Virden was founded in 1852 when the Alton & Sangamon Railroad reached this area, offering area farmers easier access to markets for their crops and livestock.  The Alton & Sangamon became the Chicago & Alton, then the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio, then Illinois Central Gulf, and now Union Pacific railroad, still the main rail line between St. Louis and Chicago.  Virden has a mayor-alderman form of government, with two aldermen elected from each of the city’s four wards.  The local school district is the North Mac School District (nearly 1,500 students) encompassing the former Virden and Girard school districts (Virden, Girard, Thayer, Nilwood, and Lowder).  The Virden Sanitary District and the Grand Prairie of the West Library are separate governmental units.

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