Category: Oral Histories
Recordings and transcripts of memories shared by town residents.
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Union Baptist Church
Union Baptist Church is the oldest black congregation in the Scottsville area and was organized in 1865 by the Reverends Henry Smith and J. A. Doll. According to Virginia Moore in her book, Scottsville on the James, the first pastor was Rev. Smith, and the congregation held prayer meetings in homes until they bought two…
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Robert Lee Bryan ~ Printer and Newspaper Man
Robert Lee Bryan was born on 21 January 1909 in Charlottesville, VA, and was the son of William Whitaker Bryan (1880-1930) and Addye (Beattie) Bryan (1886-1955). William Bryan ran a print shop called the Virginia Printing Company, and his son, Robert, started helping his father by running printing errands for him when he was only…
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Pitts Market on Main Street
Shown above in this 2026 photo is the former Pitts Market (operated on the first floor at the left of this building from 1937-1962) and home of the William Robert and Ruth (Kent) Pitts family at right behind the porch and in rooms behind the store. In the 1950’s, Scottsville had four grocery stores. One…
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Doctor Percy Harris, Sr.
Shown in this 1915 photo, Dr. Percy Harris, Sr. stands beside his Maxwell car on West Main Street with Valley Street behind him. The building just behind his right elbow is W.F. Paulett Lumber and at the photo’s left is a three-storied, white building called the Travelers’ Rest Hotel. Percy enrolled in the Medical College…
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Scottsville Flour Mills
The Scottsville Flour Mills was a five-story building, located at Main and Ferry Streets in Scottsville. It was a state-of-the-art mill that was built about 1910 and ran with steam. Arthur Thacker managed the mill for Captain John Pitts, its owner, from 1911-1917, until his health worsened due to breathing flour dust in the mill.…
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Buckingham Lining Bar Gang
In a rich baritone voice, John Laury chanted these words during his June 4th visit to Scottsville Museum with the Buckingham Lining Bar Gang: “I got a gal who’s long and tall Sleeps in the kitchen with her feet in the hall.” Mr. Laury served as the “caller” for this African-American work song during an…
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Bruce’s Drug Store
Bruce’s Drug Store began on November 1, 1908, under the name of Scottsville Drug Company. Dr. Luther R. Stinson and Dr. Benjamin L. Dillard, practicing physicians in Scottsville, maintained a small medicine shop in the town’s old apothecary shop on Valley Street (now 510 Valley Street). Finding it inconvenient to keep their shop open as…
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