Rainy Day the Campbell County Museum

My mom always says I’m a great tour guide. 

Whenever she and my dad come to visit me in Central Virginia, I always have an itinerary of activities planned for us, and it rarely involves things like going out to dinner or the movies. I like taking them places and doing things they can’t do at home. If we do go out to dinner, it’s a local place. Otherwise, we’re eating at my table—part of the dining room set I inherited from my grandmother.

I’ve taken my parents to the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, the Anne Spencer Home and Garden, the Rotunda at the University of Virginia, to Black Dog Salvage, and to many other places that are unique to Virginia. 

I’ve always loved visiting historical places and shopping for antiques. I actually blame my parents for this—they pulled my brother and I out of school when we were in the fourth and first grades, respectively, and homeschooled us. We spent several years going to nearly every historic site in Charleston, South Carolina. Most kids my age liked going to Frankie’s Fun Park or Whirlin’ Waters Adventure Waterpark, but I wanted to visit the Trappist monks at Mepkin Abbey and roam the halls of plantation houses (I was very disappointed when they wouldn’t let us visit the upper floors or look in the closets). 

All this goes to say, I’ve always been curious. This came in handy in college when I studied journalism because a big part of journalism is finding things to write about and pitching story ideas. In order to do this, you have to have a natural curiosity about the world and ask questions. I would take trips downtown just to look at the flyers posted in the windows of local businesses and to collect business cards from bulletin boards. I was on a first-name basis with the director of the local cemetery, the owner of the camera shop on Main Street, and even the mayor.

Last week, my husband and I took Thursday and Friday off from work. We took a “staycation” and treated ourselves to a nice dinner out at a Lynchburg staple, the Dahlia, where we had some delicious comfort food—fish and chips for hubs and shrimp and grits for yours truly. The next day, we ran some errands and decided to stop at the Campbell County Museum at the Historic Courthouse, a volunteer-run museum located in the historic Rustburg courthouse. 

We’d been driving by the museum regularly for years, and I’d always been curious about it. For one reason or another, we never stopped in. But on the Friday of our staycation, it was cold and rainy, so we had to cancel our plans of taking our dog for a hike.

By By nannetteturner; Nannette Turner - https://www.flickr.com/photos/brokersaunders/3457222617/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25008373

Campbell County Museum at the Historic Courthouse

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Campbell County Courthouse is a Greek revival style courthouse built from 1848-49. It now houses the museum, which is managed by the Campbell County Historical Society. 

Upon entering the ground floor of the building, we were greeted by the museum director. She gave us a tour of the space, which has been lovingly restored and transformed into a showcase of local history. 

The ground floor includes a small gift shop, a genealogical resource room, and a meeting space, which is used for quarterly meetings and other community gatherings (I heard there is a knitting group that meets there once a month!). The upstairs features several other displays, including photos and objects from the county’s school system, a room dedicated to fiber arts, rocks and arrowheads, military mementos,  and the original courtroom. 

Every room within the museum features a curated collection of artifacts that collectively showcase the history of Campbell County. Many of the items were donated by members of the community.

It amazes me how a team of volunteers was able to put together such an informative and charming museum. I thoroughly enjoyed our visit and feel like I learned a lot about the history of our community. 

When my husband and I first started talking back in college, we went to a few of the Smithsonians together. While I enjoyed the grandiose museums, I enjoy smaller, local displays more. They tell stories on a hyperlocal level, at a level I can connect with. They are more personal, more human, than some of the national galleries.

This is why I don’t understand people when they say that Central Virginia and the Lynchburg area in general is boring. There is so much rich history in this region—did you know Lynchburg is one of the only cities largely preserved from devastation during the Civil War? Many other cities were burned or completely destroyed during the war, whereas Lynchburg was not. This has left us with a great amount of pre-Civil War-era architecture and a historic charm that you don’t find in many other places. 

If you think the place where you live is boring, think again. Every place has a story to tell. 

Listen up.