The Chesterfield Historical Society of Virginia (CHSV) will present a lecture at 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 19 at the County Museum, 6813 Mimms Loop, in Chesterfield. Guest presenter is Lamar Banister, living history “edutainer.” Banister’s costumed program covers the period of history between 1875 and 1917 including the Gilded Age; a time of dramatic change from the final Native American conflict to major technological and industrial developments into the Age of Flight. Banister uses costumes depicting a rich robber baron, an immigrant/union worker and a circuit-riding lawman taming the Wild West- all while accentuating stops along the way through…
Browsing: History
The John Rolfe Players were as much a part of local theatre just as peas are to carrots. The force behind the group was Dottie and her husband Larry Armstrong. Between the two of them some say they were the John Rolfe theatre group. Formed in 1955 the couple said people had been “bitten by the bug.” Betty Matthews who has promoted the idea of a local arts venue, (Chesterfield Center for the Arts) credits Dottie with conceiving the idea.
With the ongoing celebration of Black History Month in February, the Chesterfield County Historical Society (CHSV) and its African-American History Committee has compiled the life story of the man behind the naming of Mimms Loop – Cornelius Mimms, a Chesterfield County resident who was born before the Civil War and became an important African-American leader. In his honor, a new exhibit entitled, Cornelius Mimms: A Legend and Legacy opened this month at the Chesterfield County Museum, 6813 Mimms Loop in the Chesterfield government complex. The exhibit will run through the fall. Cornelius Mimms was born September 17, 1857 during slavery.…
Construction of the Dutch Gap Canal began in August, 1864. The majority of the work to remove 67,000 tons of dirt was done by African-American troops under the Union Brig. Gen D. S. Ludlow. Due to naval battles at Trent’s Reach and the regular artillery shelling by Confederate troops, the canal’s completion was delayed until after the end of the Civil War. The picture above was taken in April 1865 near the bluff of Henricus Historical Park. In 1930s the Army Corp of Engineers widened Dutch Gap to its current width. Now, it is a shipping lane for cargo ship…
Between the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement, the Rosenwald rural school building program proved to be a critical initiative in the effort to provide educational opportunities to African Americans in the South. More than 5,000 Rosenwald Schools, including 367 in Virginia, were built during that time. However, today, it is estimated only 10 to 12 percent of these buildings remain standing nationwide. For the third year in a row, John Tyler Community College and Preservation Virginia will bring together people from all over the Commonwealth who are interested in saving Virginia’s remaining Rosenwald buildings and their histories. Virginia’s…
Before the automobile became ubiquitous, street cars or trolleys were the transportation of choice. The Richmond to Petersburg trolley paralleled Jefferson Davis Highway and at least one stop covering still remains in Bensley Village. Pictured here is a trolley car as it passed the Bellwood Plantation, now the site of the Defense Supply Center Richmond. Some older local residents talk about some enjoyable evenings on the trolleys.
The most snow recorded in Central Virginia fell 1940 between January 24-25. The blizzard dropped 21.6 inches of snow on the area, officially. Pictured above are two Chester residents attempting to dig out a car at A.L. Lindsey’s Service Station that stood at the corner of Rt. 10 and Chester Road. The snow is easily knee deep in the picture.
During the night of December 23, 1998, an ice storm now referred to as The Storm, pummeled Chester leaving an astounding amount of damage in its wake. By morning the ice had built up on branches enough to cause their collapse, and when the boughs broke they brought down with them power lines, power poles, phone and cable lines. Chester was disabled. Most had no power; some were without phones and cable did not matter. Pictured above: several trees and branches wiped out power lines on Petersburg Street closing the road for several days. Some 75,000 households were out of…
Once located on a knoll where the Chester Walgreen’s now stands, the Shepherd House, once the queen of Chester’s houses, was possibly the largest home of its time period in Chester. Built by T.S. Shepherd, circa 1900-10, the house remained in the hands of the Shepherd family – although in later years it had been divided into apartments – until the early 1960s when it was razed to make way for the Chester Post Office. In 2002 the post office was torn down and its operations were moved to its current location.
The Chesterfield Historical Society of Virginia (CHSV) will present a lecture at 11 a.m. on Saturday, January 30 at the County Museum, 6813 Mimms Loop, in Chesterfield. Ryan O’Hallahan, Chesterfield County Museum staff member and graduate history student at Virginia Commonwealth University, will discuss the experiences of women during the Civil War. Topics will include: women in camp during the war, women spies, nursing and how the war changed women’s roles in the workplace during and after the war. Pictured above, Sarah Dandridge Cooke Duval was typical of untold numbers of Southerners who embarked on frenzied attempts to escape the…