· I actively hunt for material, some of it quite literally right in front of all of us, but never really seen. How? Everywhere I go in Virginia, I look for something unusual, even if it is just an everyday view or place or thing. Vistas, stories, art, architecture, crafts, buildings, people, shops, programs, you get the idea. This area, right around us here, is unusually rich with hidden treasures because of the railroad history, lumber and textile industries, frontier and Civil War history, our colleges and universities and their collections and networks, our area festivals, museums, parks, schools, and landscapes, to name but a few of the things I study.

· I have prepared a small quiz for you. The quiz covers a big region, from Winchester to Martinsville, the length of the VA Blue Ridge Region. Many of you will know all the answers, and others will learn something new about hidden treasures of the Blue Ridge. I hope you enjoy it!

1. Where in Henry County can one find a signed letter and photo from the late Princess Diana?
2. In which private school in Southside did a famous American woman painter study? Who was she?
   Where was she born? Where did she live in her later years?
3. Where in Henry County is there a connection to a Chicago entrepreneur?
4. What company there was named for this Chicagoan?
5. In which nearby city (not Blacksburg), and where in that city, is there a large oil painting of
   Va Tech’s Burruss Hall?
6. What one building right in downtown Roanoke besides the art museum has a fabulous collection
    of art that can be viewed free?
7. Where in Roanoke is there Colonial wallpaper of George Washington and his associates and troops ?
8. Where can you sit in “The Virginian,” a red caboose, with a child and have a little picnic and
    read train stories to him?
9. What 7 area colleges include not only the oldest woman’s college in VA but also women presidents
     in 7 of its major universities?
10. Where is there a tiny prayer room you can go into to be quiet in the midst of a bustling mall?
11. Where are there full-length oil paintings of Washington and Lee, in Roanoke?
12. Did you know that a useful machine used all over the world now was invented by James Gibbs
     near Staunton, or that Robert E. Lee had one in his home? What was it?
13. What two very different famous women hailed from Winchester area, one in the 19th and one
     in the 20th century? One was known for writing and the other for singing.
14. Where is there a log cabin with poignant slave history, a film on his history, and a place
     to picnic? Who was the famous man who lived there?
15. What town nearby is the terminus of the new Crooked Music Trail?
16. Where is there the world’s best collection of children’s books by Margaret Wise Brown,
     author of Goodnight Moon, the Runaway Bunny, and others?
17. Where is there an orchid room you can walk through and sit on a bench and breathe in
     the scented, humid air of a greenhouse, for free?
18. Where can you hear programs on the First Ladies?
19. What do these Henry County things have in common: Superior, Honey Dew, Lester’s Fig,
     Log Cabin, and Honest John?
20. Where in Roanoke can one dine well and view beautiful, modern Japanese art?
21. Did elephants ever serve a purpose in an emergency in Martinsville? When and why?
22. Where can you sit in an easy chair and look at rare and used books, then go to an
     art cinema down the sidewalk or buy natural foods right across the street?
23. What four area churches are examples of either extraordinary architecture, including the
     South’s finest example of Neo-Gothic, or unusual religious art, including a statue of a Circuit Rider?
24. What is Glen Burnie?
25. Who worked in a West Virginia coal mine in 1907 and entertained Queen Elizabeth in 1957 in Williamsburg?
26. What museum has recently opened at the upper end of Va’s I-81?
27. Where is Jubal A. Early buried, and why?
28. Where in Martinsville are there two white benches with romanticized farmers depicted on them?
29. Where is there a Confederate Cemetery with a famous Rose Garden?
30. What is Diamond Hill?
31. Where is there a Greek amphitheatre you can walk into? Could your grandson get an
     undergraduate degree there?
32. What is the motto, “Defeated Yet Without a Stain”? Where is it?
33. What is the Virginia Room in Roanoke?
34. Who was the editor of “Martinsville-Henry County Views” in 1976?
35. What State board has she served on whose new facility will draw increased attention to Martinsville?
36. Why is Mildred Lee important to downtown Martinsville and what was done in her name in 1901?
37. Who lived at Leatherwood from 1779 to 1784?
38. Who was the chairman of the Board of the Natural History Museum when the architectural
     plans for the new building were approved?
39. What does “Piedmont” mean?
40. Why was the white Moroccan style house on Starling in Martinsville built as it is?

Sources for Henry County: my visits and “Our Proud Heritage” booklet and “Martinsville-Henry County, Historic Views,” 1976.

Answers:

1. Bassett Historical Society, hall near the restroom.
2. Chatham Hall. Georgia O’Keeffe. Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. New Mexico.
3. Fieldale
4. Fieldcrest
5. Roanoke at the Hotel Roanoke, main lobby.
6. Wachovia Bank (Tower), in many of the law and investment offices.
7. Hotel Roanoke, by the main floor elevators.
8. Transportation Museum of Western Virginia, Roanoke.
9. Hollins University, Ferrum College, Roanoke College, Radford University, Sweetbriar College, Randolph-Macon Women’s College, Mary Baldwin College.
10. At Art on a Mission, in Tanglewood Mall, Roanoke.
11. Hotel Roanoke, main lobby.
12. Sewing machine.
13. Willa Cather and Patsy Cline.
14. The Booker Taliaferro Washington Monument on Rt. 122 in Franklin County.
15. Rocky Mount.
16. The Wyndham Robertson Library at Hollins University. Brown is an alumna.
17. Greenbrier Nurseries in Roanoke, on Buck Mountain Road, off Starkey Road.
18. Strasburg, in the Shenandoah Valley at the Presidents’ Museum.
19. All were kinds of world-renowned plug tobacco (1843-1906) made in Henry County.
20. Kobe Restaurant on the corner of 419 (Franklin Road) and Brambleton Road.
21. Yes, in 1901 when mud made it impossible for horses to pull two heavy cannons from the train station to the Courthouse Square for the dedication of the Confederate Memorial. The elephants were borrowed from a circus.
22. “Too Many Books” on Grandin Road in Grandin Court in Roanoke, with the Grandin Theater and Natural Foods Co-op nearby.
23. St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Roanoke for its neo-Gothic architecture; Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox in Roanoke for its statues; the black and white Stations of the Cross art and elaborate Crucifix at St. Thomas of Canterbury on Plantation Road in Roanoke; the circuit rider statue and exquisite stained glass windows and modern architecture of Vaughan Chapel at Ferrum College.
24. Glen Burnie is the historic Glass home in Winchester, now open, with its lovely gardens, to the public.
25. Thomas Bahnson Stanley, Stanley Furniture, son-in-law of the Bassetts.
26. The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley.
27. Lynchburg, because he saved Lynchburg from certain destruction in the Civil War, and lived there in his later years..
28. In front of Hooker Furniture downtown.
29. Lynchburg, and Jubal Early is NOT buried in that one.
30. An historic neighborhood of Victorian mansions in Lynchburg.
31. At Randolph-Macon Women’s College.
32. The statement on the Confederate Memorial at the old Henry County Courthouse, monument erected in 1901 by Mildred Lee Chapter UDC.
33. The repository of genealogical records and rare books at the Roanoke Public Library.
34. Jean Adams, Mrs. George Adams.
35. Virginia’s Museum of Natural History Board.
36. Mildred Lee was the woman the UDC Chapter in Martinsville was named for. They erected the Confederate Memorial in 1901 with more than 200 Confederate Veterans present.
37. Patrick Henry.
38. Ibby Greer
39. Piedmont: in French, le pied is foot and le mont is mountain= foot of the mountain, or foothill.
40. It was built with a three-story square in the center for G.T. “Cap’n Til” Lester in 1918 so that its bathrooms, heating system and stairways were in the center to protect pipes for bathroom plumbing from freezing, and had one of the first indoor bathrooms in Martinsville.