August 18
100 Years ago – 1924
Ad in the Henry Bulletin: “Cross Laundry – Corner of South and Askin Sts., Martinsville, Virginia. With a new modernly equipped Sanitary Laundry in our new modern laundry building offers it services to the public with a guarantee of the most efficient prompt and satisfactory service at reasonable prices and respectfully solicits your patronage. Our Service” Thrift-T-Service, 7 cents per pound, minimum charge 50 cents. Everything carefully washed and thoroughly rinsed in eight to ten changes of water. The excess water is removed. All flat work is ironed and carefully folded. Other work is returned damp ready for starching. Wet Wash – 5 cents per pound, minimum charge 50 cents. Everything is washed in mild suds and thoroughly rinsed in eight to ten changes of water. The excess water is removed and the bundle returned damp sweet and clean ready to starch and hang up dry.”
75 years ago – 1949
Drivers entering Martinsville from the north on U.S. 220 were stopped and questioned on where they were coming from and where they were headed, as part of a traffic survey conducted by the State Highway department. The next day, the motorists were stopped on the other end of 220, and also people going from the DuPont plant who traveled on South Askin street.
The chairman of the House Appropriations committee in Washington announced that conferees had agreed to appropriate $2,400,000 for work on the Philpott dam and reservoir for the year, $400,000 more than provided in the bill passed by the House but $400,000 less than the amount appropriated in the Senate bill.
The Martinsville Kiwanis met at Club Martinque with guest speaker Shane McCarthy of Washington D.C., and official of the Knights of Columbus. McCarthy told the Kiwanis that Communism was a real threat to American democracy and a danger to the future well-being of the world. He said that the basic idea of Communism is the abolition of private property and that the United States had 5,500 clubs, several newspapers and other periodicals to spread the message of Communism.
1960
It was the Kiwanis Club’s very first Pancake Day. The club aimed to serve 3,500 people, and charged $1 a plate. It was supposed to run from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., but didn’t get started until about 6:45 a.m. Nonetheless, they served more than 500 people before 9 a.m. The sale raised almost $1,600.
The Wesley Guild of First United Methodist Church held a Hobby Luncheon on the terrace and around the swimming pool of Dr. and Mrs. C. Louis Jones. Items including handmade articles, “white elephants” and surprise packages.
The fifth annual Henry County Horse Show, which had over 200 entries, opened. It was sponsored by the Jaycees. Fifteen hundred people attended. Of the 12 blue ribbon winners, four were local: Moonlight Mystery, owned by Faye Hurd and ridden by Betty Hurd; Dixie, owned and ridden by Molly Randolph; Night Train, owned by Roy Brooks and ridden by Joy Gibbs; and in the Saddle Seat Equitation, for ages under 18, Millie Ravenel took top honors.
50 years ago – 1974
Computerized stop lights were put in at Bridge and Church streets and 12 other intersections in downtown Martinsville. The computer was put in front of the Henry County Courthouse. These fancy new traffic lights would use detectors built into the roadways throughout the city to measure traffic volume and set light cycles for more efficient flow of traffic. The system cost $134,000.
25 years ago - 1999
Shelly Frith Drane, 49, of 1231 Sam Lions Trail, was killed in a single-car accident on Figsboro Road. She was the daughter of Mary Kathryn N. Frith of Martinsville (who died in 2011) and the late J. Burness Frith, the founder of Frith Construction Co., and she had been the company’s director since 1993. She and her husband, Lewis T. Drane II, had one daughter, Peyton. The SPCA’s Shelley Frith Drane Adoption Center was named in her honor. The center opened in January 2008. In two years, $1.5 million was raised to construct that building off the Joseph Martin Highway. Leslie Hervey was the SPCA’s director then.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.