Nelson County Museum is set to open Aug. 17

Submitted story
Published: August 13, 2008

The Nelson County Museum of History will hold its grand opening on Sunday, Aug. 17 from 3 to 5 p.m.

The museum is presenting “Cuttin’ On the Lights,” an exhibit showing how electricity came to the county in the 1930s and the impact it had on people’s lives. An exhibit on Hurricane Camille featuring never-before-seen color photos taken just after the 1969 flood will also be unveiled.

The grand opening will include a ceremony marking the inclusion of Oakland on both the national and Virginia registries of historic places.

Kathleen Kilpatrick, director of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources will be the keynote speaker.

Ice cream, cake and lemonade will be served, sponsored by Food Lion of Lovingston, and music will be provided by Bennie Dodd and Friends, sponsored by the Lovingston Opry. Games for children will be organized. There is no charge for the event.

“Cuttin’ On the Lights” tells the story of how Nelson County citizens met the challenge of bringing electrical power to a rural area by taking advantage of a Depression-era program run by the Rural Electrification Administration to organize the Central Virginia Electric Cooperative.

The exhibit includes an interactive map showing how electrical service was extended throughout the county, posters with a narrative and archival pictures, pre-electric appliances, early electrical appliances, including a refrigerator, sewing machine and antique radio, as well as oral history videos of the men and women who built the electrical system.

The video was produced by Erin Hughey-Comers, who worked as an intern on the museum’s oral history project in 2006-07.

The rural electrification exhibit has been designed to teach certain elements of the Virginia Standards of Learning, and classroom activities are being created in the hopes of bringing school groups to the museum starting this fall.

The exhibit was funded by a grant from the Rural Development division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a matching grant from the Donovan Foundation and private donations.

Funding for the rehabilitation of Oakland came in part through two matching grants totalling $83,250 from the Virginia General Assembly, sponsored by Sen. Creigh Deeds and Del. Watkins Abbitt Jr.

The exhibit on Hurricane Camille includes color slides taken just after the August, 19, 1969 event by Broward York Jr., a reporter for the Waynesboro News-Virginian. Most of the photos have never been seen by the public.

The Camille exhibit, which includes seven different posters describing the event, was designed by Courtney Proffitt and Abigail Haymes, two interns from the University of Virginia’s Institute for Public History.

The interns’ work was funded by a grant from the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation. The museum plans to expand the Camille exhibit for next year’s 40th anniversary of the event. Documents from the founding of the county in 1807 will also be displayed.

The museum has been four years in the making and is housed in a former residence and tavern built in 1838. It is a joint venture by Oakland’s board of directors, who manage the museum, and the Nelson County Historical Society, which purchased the 10-acre property in 2004.

Oakland was built by George Mitchell in 1838 on property that was part of the Samuel Jordan Cabell estate called Soldier’s Joy. It operated as a tavern and one of the ground floor rooms has been furnished with a colonial-era cage bar built by Bob Taylor of Village Woodworks in Lovingston, with authentic wood donated by Dick Morgan, and early-American-style tables and benches built by Ted Hughes and John Parr.

Dr. Arthur Hopkins purchased the building in 1857 and gave Oakland its present name. Dr. Hopkins is thought to have run a clinic there where he treated sick and wounded Confederate soldiers.

In 1871 Oakland passed into the Goodwin family and became a working farm. As such, it witnessed many improvements including the advent of modern farming, rural electrification, running water and, later, telephone service. Artifacts related to all these developments will be on display in the museum.

In 1963, when Elizabeth Goodwin Coco received title to the house it became known as the Coco house. Her niece, Josephine Goodwin Campbell, inherited the old brick structure and 11.6 acres in 2000.

In 2004, she sold it to the Nelson County Historical Society. The house is registered as a Virginia Landmark and in 2006 was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The museum will be open on Thursdays from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m., beginning next week.