Unlike Chester’s sister location Ashland, which is home to a number of fraternities, Chester has had only one over its 150-year history. Gamma Nu, a chapter of the Pi Phi fraternity, fit the bill as an active civic organization that won numerous national awards for their charity, activities, and civic work. The Richmond Times-Dispatch, in 1954, published an article that Chester’s Courtney Wells, who was elected national president, helped organize an alumni fraternity to be known as Pi Sigma Phi. “We all pull together toward a common goal,” said one member. From left, Billy Tripp, Hunter Beasley, John Sibley, Herman…
Browsing: History
Thomas Dale High School has seen several iterations. The school was built in 1906 (right) and named Chester Agricultural High School. Students came from as far away as Suffolk, and in 1907 the school had only two graduates. By 1917, it was renamed Chester High School, and in 1942 it was given its current name, Thomas Dale High School. In the early 1940s, a new building was constructed on the western side of the original building (above). The structure was later demolished. In 1964, another replacement facility opened less than a mile east on State Route 10.
Thomas Dale Senior Class – Front row, left to right: James Clinton Benn, James Meng Lipscomb II, Charles Elmer Smith, Marian Beverly Winn, Janice Mae Flippo, Frances Ann Lindsey, and Pansy Hall Dean. Second row, left to right: Floyd William Norton, David Hutcheson Welchons, Joanne Harris, Elizabeth Clemintine House, Mildred May McDaniel, Dona Louise Parham, and Mrs. L.M. Smart, Sponsor. Third row, left to right: William Courtney Wells, Joyce Evelyn Kidd, Carolyn Ann Dawson, Hazel Virginia Benn, Mary Louise Archer, Marian Kathleen Pride, Barbara Ann Floyd, and Nancy Jo Craig. Fourth row, left to right: Charles William Mitten, William Floyd…
Both passengers and cargo traveled to and from the port at Bermuda Hundred to points along the east coast. The Bermuda Hundred terminus of the narrow-gage Farmville and Powhatan Railroad (track width of 3 ft. 6 in. versus 4 ft. 8 in., the normal width of a modern rail track). The schooner John J. Ward, Capt. Van Clief as skipper, made regular stops at Bermuda Hundred. Ben A. Ruffin of local lore sailed to New York five times on the schooner shown above. This photo was taken in the 1880s.
Memorial Day is a day to remember the men and women who died while serving in the armed forces protecting our country. Including all wars through today, over 1.3 million service members have lost their lives. The Civil War accounted for the most deaths (623,026), followed by World War II (407,300). Folks remember Memorial Day each year by visiting national memorials and decorating cemeteries; remembering takes on different emotions for each individual. Many families will schedule picnics, and swimming pools will open. Local resident Lee Holland, a retired army officer with 28 years of active and reserve duty as an…
Founded in 1830, a route between Richmond and Petersburg was built by the Richmond & Petersburg Railroad. One stop on the railroad was in Chester. The little train depot was located at a rail crossing on Curtis Street. The crossing still exists as a modern crossing, but the station is gone. The railroad stop can still be imagined in a vacant area where Curtis Street curves, crosses the tracks and would have skirted the station on the north side. Can you see people boarding and disembarking while the train takes on water and delivers mail? The station is better known…
The Henricus Foundation announced last week that it has been awarded a $10,000 environmental stewardship grant from The Dominion Foundation – the charitable arm of Dominion Resources – for educational programs that include study of the James River watershed at Henricus Historical Park. “Our unparalleled education programs are designed to ignite a passion for history, heritage, and [the] culture [s] of both the Virginia Indians and of the newly arrived English settlers,” Executive Director Charlie Grant stated. “We educate thousands of children every year, and without the financial support of our community partners, we would not be able to accomplish…
Who are these guys? Do you know? All we really know is that they were standing outside of Magee’s Pharmacy in Chester. It looks as if they are hanging out just chewing the fat on the sidewalk at the intersection of Old Hundred (Hundred Road then) and Harrowgate roads. New Chester gossip or business discussions; what were they talking about? At the time Hundred Road was a business district just a few blocks long. The businesses there at the time included a hardware store, a post office, and the first library in Chesterfield County including a grocery and of course,…
The jug was phony but the game was real. This weekly penny ante poker game in the kitchen at Wrexham. called Wrexham Hall, was located at Old Centralia and Iron Bridge roads, before Chesterfield Meadows was built and it was moved to Old Wrexham Road. Among these three old friends, the weekly penny ante poker game took place during most of the 1950’s. Pictured from left: Stanley Hague, former and Dale District Supervisor; Jerry Harwell of Harwell’s Hardware in Chester on Centre Street and James (Jimmy) Davis, Chester accountant whose office was in the basement of Magee’s Drug Store…
Think nearly 150 years ago and it is May in the little Village of Chester. A fierce battle is raging outside a little yellow house known simply then as the Winfree House. The woman who lives there approaches Colonel William Fowler of the Union troops with a fierce glare in her eyes, walked to the lane fence and, in a tone of voice indicating she was both angry and excited, ordered him to take the guns away; and tells him to leave. The sound and blasts from the cannon are breaking the glass panes in the windows of her home.…