The Giles County Historical Society is launching evening lecture series, to be held once a month at the Giles County Historical Museum, 208 North Main Street, Pearisburg. Each month a featured speaker will discuss a topic relating to local history, genealogy research, historic preservation, personal memoir writing and other subjects.
The inaugural lecture will be given by the Historical Society's former Executive Director, Terri Fisher, on Thursday, November 3, at 7:00 p.m. Terri will discuss her recently published book Lost Commununities of Virginia, now in its second printing. The book is a project of Virginia Tech's Community Design Assistance Center where Terri is Outreach and Programs Coordinator.
Lost Communities of Virginia casts a spotlight on 30 small communities located throughout the state. These once-thriving towns, villages and gathering places provide quiet reminders of rural Virginia's past when trains or steamboats stopped several times a day, coal miners frequented the company store, stagecoaches delivered passengers and their many trunks to the mountain springs resorts, and traveling entertainers brought excitement on a summer evening. The book's contemporary photographs, the words of long-time residents, historical information and maps bring these "lost communities" alive to the reader's imagination.
Among other topics, the author will discuss the Victorian heyday of Eggleston Springs resort, and the once-bustling transportation hub of Newport, which in earlier days was so rowdy that it was dubbed "Hell's Half Acre." Other nearby towns in the book include Paint Bank, Riner and Pocahontas.
Terri holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in Computer Science fro the University of New Hampshire and is nearing completion of a Masters of Architecture at Virginia Tech. Her interests are in the area of preservation and sustainable design and she is also the author of two pictorial histories of Giles County: Pearisburg and Giles County: Then and Now.
The Giles County Historical Society works to preserve, interpret and exhibit Giles County's rich historical and cultural heritage. It provides a repository for Giles County family histories, documents and artifacts, assists, genealogical researchers, and supports the preservation of endangered Giles County artifacts, sites and records.
Terri Fisher, Outreach and Programs Coordinator of Virginia Tech's Community Design Assistance Center is the author of this recently-published book that document's once-booming communities that lost their original function and now seek a new purpose.
Giles County Historical Society and Museum Admission: Free
Wed. -Fri. 12-5
Sat. - Sun. 2-5
Research Office Open only Thurs. 12-5
http://www.gilescountyhistorical.org/ (540)921-1050
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