March 4
100 Years ago – 1925
Several new rooms were being built on to the Methodist Church in Bassett to accommodate an increase in Sunday school attendance.
75 years ago – 1950
Harnsberger’s Market was on East Main Street behind the Rives Theatre. It advertised “You have never seen such bargains since Grandma was a girl!”: 3-lb. can of Spry or Crisco, 74 cents; Phillip’s 12-oz. can of pork & beans, 4 for 19 cents; two cans of Campbell’s tomato soup, 21 cents; Quakers macaroni or spaghetti, 3 packages for 24 cents; 6 bars of Baby Ruth candy, 25 cents; 6 packs of Beechnut gum, 20 cents; ground beef, 47 cents a pound.
A Stuart family escaped fire, and their 2-story house in downtown was saved. At 3:30 a.m., a neighbor who had awoken due to illness, Mrs. Irvin Hazelwood, saw the fire, which had started in a pile of wood under the house. The fire department was called, and she alerted the occupants, Mr. and Mrs. Nash DeHart. The DeHarts, their young son and their boarder, Miss Louise Barrow, got out of the house. Miss Barrow, barefoot and in a nightgown in the intense cold, carried out the little child in her arms.
50 years ago – 1975
It was the time of checkered polyester double knit. Globman’s Basement Store offered checkered polyester double knit and solid color sport jackets for $19.96. Boys’ permanently pressed long pants, including of course checkered designs, normally priced at $4.99, were on sale for $2.96. Seven Band Radios, which also picked up TV audio, cost $29.96.
25 years ago - 2000
Family Life Services Medical Clinic, a free clinic at 926 E. Church St., had a record 50 patients. The clinic was open some Saturdays. Funding included $15,000 from Henry County and $5,000 from Martinsville. Volunteers included Sandra Robertson, family nurse practitioner there; Cathy Linscott Via, registration desk; Registered Nurses Brenda Landau and Carolyn Nichols; Helen Wright, answering telephones; and Hannah Nichols, 10, babysitting and entertaining children in the waiting room, and weighing patients.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.