April 30
100 Years ago – 1925
A fire completely destroyed the building and contents of two-story, 20-room Hotel Bassett early in the morning. When the cook arrived for duty at 5 a.m., she saw the kitchen and the back part engulfed in flames. She screamed for help and to awaken everyone. The guest escaped through the windows in the nick of time, leaving behind their belongings. The owner of the hotel, Mrs. Hairston, had only started running it the day before; she had lived there for several months, and the previous operators, Mr. and Mrs. J.P. Stuart, had just moved to Roanoke the day before. The loss of the building was estimated at $8,000, and the contents, $3,000. The recently organized New Hotel Corporation had only just purchased property and was preparing to have the old building moved to the rear of the lot to make room for a large new brick building.
75 years ago – 1950
The board of trustees of the Martinsville Community Hospital for Negroes contracted with the DeShazo Lumber Company for the completion of the hospital in West Martinsville, for $36,000. Construction of the hospital was started 2 years before.
Randolph Millner, the manager of the State and Federal employment office of Martinsville, reported that there was a shortage of painters in the area – at least 20 qualified painters were needed to fill job vacancies. Other areas of high job needs were furniture cabinet makers, furniture sample makers, carpenters and brick masons.
50 years ago – 1975
In Charles W. Martin’s coalyard in Bassett, a railway coal car in the middle of the night overshot an unloading platform and hit an oil truck, knocking down a canopy and damaging an office wall.
The Martinsville Library had a new book, “The Television Sponsors Directory,” which listed more than 4,000 name brand products and the main office addresses of the companies which made those products – useful for writing to a company with a complaint or compliment.
25 years ago - 2000
A father and son were indicted by a Martinsville Circuit Court grand jury on charges of elder abuse in the death of their wife/son. They were Peter Michael Stolbun, 79, and his son, Peter Martin Stolbun, 36. Elizabeth Stolbun, 75, died on Nov. 26. She had been found in the house in terrible conditions and told rescuers that she had not eaten in a long time. She died in surgery.
Aaron B. Quinn, 72, of Ferndale Court, Collinsville, was found dead after a crazy chain of car wrecks. The wrecks started with a silver Toyota Corolla hitting a car on the intersection of Virginia Boulevard and Commonwealth Avenue. The Corolla continued along toward Martinsville High School, where police were finally able to stop it. It caused several other wrecks, including one with Helen Howell and her teenage daughter, and the car hit Thomas Grant Jr. When police finally caught up with the driver, Vicki E. Gammon, what she told them led them to discover the body of her stepfather in his Collinsville house.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.