It was just me and the tour guide, Beth Ford, and the house. We both wore masks, which are required, and I did not feel uncomfortable or unsafe in the slightest. They have two more dates posted to their Facebook Events page: October 18th and November 15th. This is a great tour for history buffs and photographers, so consider signing up if you have those dates free.
Continue reading Reynolds Homestead Has Restarted Home ToursTag: Plantation
A Monument to Booker T. Washington
Virginia has been in the news this year for a violent alt-right rally centered around a statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville. Public opinion is mixed about how to respond. In fact, public opinion is mixed about exactly what is or what are the problem(s) that need to be addressed. We have yet to be able to have a responsible dialog as thoughtful adults. Maybe we’ll get there. I hope so.
I don’t have an opinion on the statues so I am not going to offer one. I do have an observation, however. In the rural areas of Virginia, there are precious few monuments to anything other than the Civil War and that seems like an oddity to me. Roanoke is not so bad. It’s got some great monuments – like the firefighter monument at the Museum of Transportation and the monument to fallen officers in front of the police station. Greensboro has the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park commemorating the Revolutionary War. When you get into rural Virginia, however, there are pretty much only Civil War monuments. It’s as if there have been no notable people or events in the past 150 years, although I am absolutely sure that that is not true.
One notable exception to this is the Booker T. Washington National Monument about an hour north of Henry County on the way to Smith Mountain Lake. Continue reading A Monument to Booker T. Washington
Life In & Around Martinsville-Henry County 