Gretna Green the marriage ceremony. The blacksmiths in Gretna became known as "anvil priests", culminating with Richard Rennison, who performed 5,147 ceremonies. The local blacksmith and his anvil became lasting symbols of Gretna Green weddings. Two in particular, The Old Blacksmith's Shop, built around 1712, and Gretna Hall Blacksmith's Shop (1710) became, in popular folklore at least, the focal tourist points for the marriage trade. The Old Blacksmith's Shop opened to the public as a visitor attraction as early as 1887. Victorian chronicler Robert Smith Surtees described Gretna Green at length in his 1848 "New Monthly Magazine" serial, "The Richest Commoner in
Gretna Commercial Historic District Gretna Commercial Historic District Gretna Commercial Historic District is a national historic district located at Gretna, Pittsylvania County, Virginia. The district encompasses 26 contributing buildings in the central business district of Gretna. The district primarily developed in the early-to-mid-20th century, with buildings dated between about 1881 and 1963. Notable buildings include the Thomas C. and Robert H. Creasy storehouse (1881), Masonic hall (1902), Bank of Elba (1907), Dalton building (c. 1914), W.D. Love and Co. grocery store (c. 1921), Amoco Service Station (1940), former Gretna Fire Station and Town Hall, and Berger Motor Co. (mid-1940s). It was listed on the