Locally acclaimed actress and director Mendy St. Ours has agreed to take charge as artistic director for the 13th annual Spirit Walk of the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society.
The Spirit Walk is a guided history tour of historic Old Charlottesville, including popular haunts such as the old City Jail, the County Courthouse, and the Maplewood Cemetery. The fundraiser supports the work of the Society, and has a cast of around 50 local actors and musicians, many of whom also perform regularly in local theatre companies. The actors portray actual historical characters from Charlottesville, Albemarle County and environs, raging from the early 18th Century to the mid-20th Century.
This year’s Spirit Walk takes place on the evenings of October 26th, 27th and 28th. Tickets go on sale September 24th at the Society, and are $12 for adults, and $5 for children under 12 for tours before 8:00 p.m. Tours leave from the County Courthouse every 15 minutes.
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Posted by river queen at 11:23 PM PDT
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Auditions for the 13th annual Spirit Walk will be held 9-10 September at the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society in the McIntire Building downtown, from 6-8pm. Roughly 50 people are needed to act as “Spirits,” tour guides, singers and musicians in the popular late-October fundraiser for the Historical Society.
The Spirit Walk is a guided moonlight tour of Historic Charlottesville, in which the participants encounter the apparitions of the town’s previous inhabitants.
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Posted by river queen at 11:22 PM PDT
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Albemarle County is known for its natural beauty, and the trees and forests in the area anchor the County’s landscape. Trees were an integral part of early settlers’ lives and work, and they fueled one of Albemarle’s most important industries–lumber. The story of the trees–use, overuse, and conservation–is the story of the growth of the County, both socially and economically.
The exhibit, which will open with a reception from 5-7 p.m. Friday, 7 September in the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society’s exhibit hall in the McIntire Building downtown, is primarily the work of guest curator Catherine Anne Daley, a University of Virginia summer intern through the Institute for Public History. Her stipend was awarded from the Historical Society’s 1857 Fund, whose purpose is to encourage research on local topics by those affiliated with the University.
The exhibit will trace Albemarle County’s use of forest products from the time of the Monacans to the present day and will feature forestry tools belonging to the first State Forester, Richard Chapin Jones. Society Vice-President Steven Meeks has also loaned his family’s collection of tools, traditional split-oak baskets, and locally-made oak chairs. Historic photographs and paper ephemera illustrate the history of local lumber companies, including Barnes, Charlottesville, King, Augusta, and Crozet Lumber Companies.
Posted by river queen at 11:19 PM PDT
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“1907 Souvenirs of Jamestown,” the latest exhibit at the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, explores the 1907 Ter-centennial Exposition, which celebrated the establishment in 1607 of the first permanent English settlement in America. Planned and promoted as a major tourist attraction on a par with the World’s Fair, the Jamestown Exposition was a grand national pageant, through which we can recognize turn-of-the-century popular ideas about nation, race, gender, class, progress and history. The 1907 Jamestown Exposition generated souvenirs and ephemera, many of which are on display through a generous loan from collector and area businessman Preston Coiner. The exhibit will be on view in the McIntire Building through the end of June.
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Posted by river queen at 11:56 PM PDT
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The Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society offers walking tours of historic downtown Charlottesville every Saturday at 10 a.m. beginning April 7 and running through October 27. Tours leave from the McIntire Building, 200 Second Street NE, across from Lee Park. On the third Saturday of ever month guides lead an additional tour of the Downtown Mall, focusing on architecture. A $5 donation is suggested. Tours go on rain or shine.For more information, call the Society at (434) 296-1492.
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Posted by river queen at 11:31 PM PDT
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