Government

Dayton is a small town located in the center of the Shenandoah Valley, two miles south of Harrisonburg along Route 42. It is one of the oldest settled communities in Rockingham County, and the County’s second oldest incorporated town.  Home to about 1,500 people, Dayton is surrounded by prime agricultural farmland, mostly owned by members of the Old Order Mennonite community.  With working farms and open spaces, traveling through Dayton and the surrounding area is a step back to an earlier time where horse-drawn buggies remain a common form of travel on rural roads throughout the community.  Although Dayton has grown in sections to the west and north, the older part of town is largely unchanged.