August 19 through the years

100 Years ago – 1925

Rev. J.S. Riddle, an evangelist from Draper, N.C., preached a tent meeting on the Williamson Hill on the South-Side, for several days. On the previous Sunday evening so many people showed up that the tent was completely full and hundreds of people listened from outside the tent.

Notice in the Henry Bulletin: “August 19, 1925. John W. Lee, a well known Chinese who is now the manager of the Franklin Hand Laundry 355 Franklin Street is selling out and expects to leave August the 30th, 1925. He wishes that all his customers and friends would call in to see him before he leaves. The new manager is a good and reliable man in the person of L.C. Hung.”

75 years ago – 1950

The new city parking lot off Main Street opened to the public. It had 65 parking meters, and all-day parking was allowed at 5 cents an hour. It was the second parking lot put into service in the summer; the first one was on Fayette Street with 101 meters.

50 years ago – 1975

The old Community Hospital building on Armstead Avenue was put up for sale by its board of directors. The Sportsman’s Club had considered leasing the building to use as a recreation center, then decided against it. The club would have leased it for $1 a year for 20 years, but it said having to pay $2,580.64 in back taxes and $4,300 in debt was too much.

25 years ago - 2000

Teen pregnancies in Martinsville and Henry County were decreasing, but there was an increase in out-of-wedlock births by women in their 20s. In 1998, 34 of every 1,000 births in Henry County and 71 of every 1,000 births in the city were to single women in their 20s. Patricia Carter was the co-director of For the Children Partners in Prevention, which was its second year into an Enrichment Center that taught women in their 20s how to improve their lives.

— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.