Creating a museum is an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience, and many people here in Martinsville have had that thrill over the past few years.
I am one of them. After an exciting and enjoyable 2-decade career in local newspaper (I still write a column for fun), I became the executive director of the Martinsville-Henry County Historical Society in the fall of 2023.
You would not believe the dedication, ingenuity and hard physical labor that go into creating a museum. The Historical Society did that over a span of several years in creating the local history museum (MHC Heritage Museum at 1 E. Main St., Martinsville) in the former county courthouse in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and, now, a small group of dedicated volunteers have done it very quickly in the MHC Heritage Museum’s annex, which Dr. Mervyn and Virginia King funded to preserve and share their incredible collections of antiques with our community.
There is no one else like the Kings. Virginia is the consummate professional, knowledgeable and insightful, and also delightful in her personality. Dr. King is a fireball of ideas, plans, order and creativity. Together they are a powerful team.
They have had the dream of creating a museum for several years, and over the past 2 years, when the groundwork had been laid and it was time to put it to reality, they have been joined by a third person, Jack Stewart. He is a volunteer who has been invaluable in all of his dedication, assistance and friendship. Dr. King and Jack spend long hours together every day putting this museum together.
Note that Jack’s level of dedication is a family affair. His wife, Christine Stewart, is just as dedicated a volunteer with the Virginia Museum of Natural History, the Martinsville Tree Board and Virginia Master Naturalists.
Crazy Moments
Can you imagine? Here are just a few of the things we have experienced:
- Unloading and bringing in a 1,600-pound delivery of shelving units
- Jack opening the boxes, getting covered in little white dots of Styrofoam packing material, putting together these glass display cases.
- Saturdays when we’ve talked strong guys into driving out with us to Hillcroft to haul the really heavy things
- All of us, but mostly Jack and Dr. King, the two buddies, moving around very heavy pieces of wood, cutting, shaping and forming the display structures
- Jack, Dr. King and me struggling and barely succeeding to bring from the van into the museum extremely heavy rolls of carpet, which Dr. King exclaims, “but the man at the store just carried it out over his shoulder!”
- Wondering for weeks why the wall shelves we’ve put up are not quite level, until we’ve discovered that two of the bracket racks have been installed upside down and have to be flipped
- Ann Martin, turning the attention away from building and toward tea pots and silver spoons for her special events
- Dr. King disagreeing with me on something I think we should do, until he shakes his head, pats me on the back and says, “Kid, just do what you think you have to”
- Michael Sanguedolce and Randy Hundley going through bags of rags and a gallon of WD-40 cleaning antique toys, occasionally stopping to appreciate the ingenuity of design with all the delight of children at Christmas
- Our intern, Raylee Wilson, on top of a ladder and stretching up as far as she can to hang signs
- Johnny Nolen, coming in for his host shift, checking out what’s new, getting visitors excited about it
- Jack, Davis Scott, Dr. King and me bringing over from the Kings’ apartment across the road old style folding tables so huge and heavy we can barely move them, carefully pivoted to fit inside the elevator, one of us crouched below it, another balancing above.
This museum annex has been built with laughter and tears, but mostly laughter and a tremendous feeling of joy and excitement. There are no better people to spend the days with than Virginia, Dr. King, Jack, Ann Martin and the others involved.
Dr. and Mrs. King had a dream which finally has turned into reality, an incredible gift for this community. The museum annex with the King Collections is of national-level significance and will be a boon to tourism and culture here.
Now you – everyone – can see it. The grand opening will be from 3-8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6, with festivities, food, music, activities and fun. Admission will be free for children. Regular admission is $10, and $5 for people ages 2-18 and 65+, and free for members. Of course, get yourself or your family a membership, and come as often as you like at no charge, plus receive by mail our newsletter, which is chock-full of articles I and others have written on local history.
Hats Off …
And meanwhile, hats off to these who have played a big role in the creation of our annex:
- Architect Conrad Knight, who put Dr. King’s vision on paper, and then into reality
- Deskins Construction, with James Deskins and project manager Darren Beckner
- Lou Harris, who did the interior design
- ActivWall, headed by Duke and Carter Ferrell, who built the frames and doors for the glass walls, which they installed
- Press Glass, who custom made the glass panels for those walls
- Andrew Wells, who installed our security system
- Minet, which was here countless times to work out complicated technology issues, and especially the fantastic Eric Boaz
- Linda Stoker and Mary Prosser, an antiques specialist and the Kings’ niece, who researched many of the artifacts
- Collinsville Printing, who print many of our materials including our signs, and Susie Stone there, who after seeing our newsletter joined the Society as a bronze-level member
- Deborah Stone, our bookkeeper, and Beth Chapman, our past bookkeeper, who kept track of and paid all those bills, and the donations from the King which provide the funding for them
- Michael Sanguedolce, Randy Hundley and George Shorter who clean and polish the antiques
- Johnathan Phillips, who was the president of the MHC Historical Society board of directors during most of that time, and Graves Anthony, our current president, and board members who helped in setting up the museum: Davis Scott (now an employee, no longer a board member), Steve Keyser and Hunter Haskins
- Donna Anthony and Susan Haskins, who have decorated for many events at the museum
- Tiffany Hayworth, the executive director of Dan River Basin Association, Doug Stegall and Carole McGovern, whom we often go to for advice
- Dylan Chappell, who does whatever we need to help out plus thrills us all with his marvelous piano playing; and JoAnn Linscott, who has played beautiful piano for us at events; and Ernie Bremmer, who tunes our piano
- John Edwards, Aman Sarwary and Gene Fulcher, who have helped move the really heavy things
- Pepper Martin, the very talented Patrick County artist who painted the Kings’ portrait
- Our regular museum hosts, Davis Scott, Dylan Chappell, Johnny Nolen, Michael Sanguedolce and Jack Stewart, who welcome visitors and give tours of the museum – and are about to become a whole lot busier doing so.
