July 17 through the years
100 Years ago – 1925
Construction began on the Lester swimming pool. It was built by Lester Lumber Company on top of the old mountain known as the old “Anne Lester” homeplace on the edge of the corporate limits of Martinsville, near the plant of the Lester Lumber Co. on Jones Creek. G.T. “Captain Til” Lester oversaw the construction. It would serve as fire protection for the lumber company and surrounding properties, but on a daily basis, it would be a swimming pool for the general public. The oval-shaped pool would be 230 feet long and 140 feet wide, and vary from 12 inches to 12 feet deep. The deepest part would be in the center. The whole thing would cost $75,000, with more than 25,000 bags of cement and 5,000 yards of sand. It would hold 2 million gallons of water, filtered every 6 hours. One thousand steel locker were being put in, and a concrete grandstand that would seat 5,000 people. (The swimming pool was on the site of the present Liberty Fair shopping center, home of Kroger grocery store and other stores.)
“Representatives of the state board [of health] stated to Mr. Lester that the department desired to see one model of the best known type of a swimming pool in Virginia and advised Mr. Lester of the splendid opportunity that was afforded his company, as the plans and location of this new project possessed every advantage toward making this pool a state model by which others could follow,” reads “G. Tilden Lester Constructing Huge Swimming Pool,” Henry Bulletin, July 17, 1925.
A meeting of the Trent Local of the Tobacco Growers Association was held at the Trent School House. Mr. W.A. Baker, Field Service representative for Leaksville territory, and Mr. Steve Mitchell, field representative for Martinsville territory, answered questions from tobacco growers.
75 years ago – 1950
Jimmy Beckner, 4, of Starling Avenue had the first case of polio reported in 1950. After a week of not feeling well, he was taken to Greensboro, N.C., where he was diagnosed with polio. He was a patient at Central Carolina Convalescent Hospital in Greensboro.
50 years ago – 1975
Mrs. Lillie Agnew, the grandmother of an 8-year-old boy who had been paddled at school in May, circulated petitions in Patrick County, demanding the dismissal of the principal who had paddled the boy. The boy’s mother had taken out child abuse charges against the principal, but the week before the judge threw the case out of court, saying that corporal punishment does have a role in schools.
25 years ago - 2000
Judy and Jimmie Dalton opened Jimmie’s Discount at 6311 Virginia Ave. in Bassett. They sold towels, clothes, socks and gift items.
Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology gave $25,000 to the Southern Piedmont Technology Council. Five thousand of that would be used in Martinsville to help local companies learn how to use the internet to help their businesses. Michael Scaffidi was the telecommunications and traffic coordinator for Martinsville.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.