The Greene County Historical Society will host a
Grand Opening
of its newly renovated Museum in the Old County Jail on December 1st, from 3 to 6 pm.

Since Voter Registration moved in March of 2005, we have been working, adding air conditioning, new ceiling, lights, flooring, shelving, computer software and hardware, doing cleaning, painting and refurbishing.

Now we are anxious for the community to come and see what the results, and what we have to offer as a place to do family research and to enjoy the items from Greene County’s past that are on display.

I would like to publicly thank the many people who have donated time and money to this renovation effort under the outstanding direction of Board member Bill Steo. This includes very many thanks to Ms Joann Powell, Vice President of the Society, for her recent great generosity in donating $2,000 for our continuing work.

There are some wonderful additions to our collection. One is a beautiful walnut corner cupboard, circa 1770, originally from the Rucker family estate in Ruckersville, but resident at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art since 1967. How we come to have this lovely piece of Greene County history is a story in itself.

And thanks to a tip-off from County resident Janet Runkle, we have acquired from a New York City auction two sets of 1860s bank notes issued in Stanardsville. These items and more will be part of a Discovery Trail highlighting Greene County’s history from pre-Columbian days to the recent past, which visitors will be able to enjoy at the museum from December 1st.

We are actively seeking volunteers to help us with a number of activities; most importantly, to work for 2 or 3 hours at a time to keep the doors open, initially 2 days a week, to those who come to see our collections and research their families.

We also need volunteers to help computerize the catalog of our collections. And we need a computer-literate person to work with our webmaster Harvey Ellinger to get our webiste up and running.

We hope to see many members of the community at the Grand Opening, which will take place before Stanardsville’s Parade of Lights.

For those new to the area, the Old County Jail, now the Greene County Historical Society Museum and Genealogy Research Center stands to the east of the Courthouse at 38 Court Street. If you can’t wait until then to volunteer, please call and talk to me, President Jackie Pamenter, at 434-990-1958.

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