2026-04-08T14:27:03-04:00 Zend_Feed_Writer https://shenandoahstories.org/ Shenandoah Stories https://shenandoahstories.org 2018-06-19T15:35:29-04:00 2018-12-18T12:14:39-05:00 https://shenandoahstories.org/items/show/309 Logan Olszewski- Shenandoah County Library<br /> Located next to the Deary Tavern, this two-story building was built in 1855. It is constructed with wooden weatherboarding on the outside, a heavy embossed metal on the inside, and a layer of brick in between. The building was first owned by Henry Theis. Henry ran a furniture company making cabinets with his brother, Christian at this location. When the Civil War began, Henry enlisted in the Staunton Artillery. He fought in many major battles in Virginia, as well as Gettysburg, was wounded at Cold Harbor, and was present at Appomattox when Lee surrendered. After the war, Henry, his brother, and Wiegen Ruhl continued to run their business, but at Henry’s home. The furniture and cabinet company remained open until 1889. The building was then sold to the Cushman Brothers. The Cushman’s were carriage and wagon makers. As the brothers got settled, they renovated the house to accommodate their business by adding double doors that went all the way to the ceiling of the ground story to allow the removal of completed carriages. Slanted wooden tracks were also added for the carriage wheels and can still be seen today. After the Cushman’s sold the house it was briefly a blacksmith’s shop. For more (including 3 images), view the original article. 2018-06-07T11:59:08-04:00 2018-12-18T12:14:39-05:00 https://shenandoahstories.org/items/show/308 The Shenandoah Stories Team Chapin and Sachs, sometimes known as Chapin and Sacks, Manufacturing opened a plant in Woodstock Virginia in 1910 following the purchase of the A.W. Nicodemus & Sons Creamery building on what is now East Court Street which had opened in 1903. At the time Chapin and Sachs, headquartered in Washington DC, was one of the largest ice cream manufacturing concerns in the United States. Their trademark “Velvet Kind” ice cream was sold in the District of Columbia, Virginia, Maryland, Florida, and Michigan. The Woodstock plant was one of eight facilities operated by the company. Woodstock was selected as the site for a plant due to the abundant supply of milk supplied by local dairy farms and the area’s rail connect to Washington DC markets. In 1908 Chapin and Sachs constructed a new creamery on North Street. This brick facility totaled just over 30,000 square feet, was three stories tall, had two cold storage rooms, and contained a 10 ton ice plant. A large trucking fleet collected milk from throughout the valley, travelling throughout the valley to collect milk and to distribute ice cream. Over 500 farms contributed milk. Distribution points were established as far south as Timberville and as far north as Stephens City. Over 12,000 gallons of milk were handled each day. To meet their needs a well of over 200 feet was constructed to fill a 50,000 gallon reservoir and a sewer line of over one mile in length was laid between the plant and Pughs Run south of Woodstock. Chapin and Sachs would continue to operate its Woodstock plant until around 1930 when it was sold to Southern Dairies who continued to process milk here until the 1950s. The plant was then closed and purchased by the Town of Woodstock who converted it into their public works facility. When that service moved to its current home on Moose Road in the early 2000s the former creamery was sold to a private developer and is today vacant. For more, view the original article. 2018-04-11T17:08:19-04:00 2018-12-18T12:11:34-05:00 https://shenandoahstories.org/items/show/307 The Shenandoah Stories Team During both WWI and WWII, country residents sought ways to memorialize their family members, friends, and neighbors who were serving in the armed forces. One of the most popular ways they found was by erecting an honor board. These wooden signs listed the names of locals in the military. Special notation was usually provided to observe individuals killed in action. Boards such as these were erected in each Shenandoah County town. This board was designed to honor those residents of the Ashby Magisterial District, which surrounds and includes Mt. Jackson, who served in the conflict. After the war most of the boards were removed, often when more permanent memorials were erected. However, the Ashby District Board remains in Mt. Jackson and lists the names of those who served in that town and surrounding communities. For more, view the original article. 2018-03-22T16:57:45-04:00 2018-12-18T12:14:39-05:00 https://shenandoahstories.org/items/show/303 Shenandoah County Library In 1923 the Town of Strasburg completed a new reservoir to supply the town with drinking water. The reservoir contained approximately 25 million gallons of water and was located in what is called “Little Fort Valley” atop the Massanutten Mountain east of the town. The most challenging part of this undertaking was connecting the mountain top reservoir to the town’s existing water system. To accomplish this, a 1700 foot tunnel was bored through Massanutten Mountain so water could flow from the new reservoir to the town’s old reservoir which dated to 1905. This tunnel was a major engineering project that required an extensive amount of resources to complete. Newspaper articles at the time note that when the tunnel opened, the town held a major celebration in which almost the entire community rejoiced using fireworks, sirens, bells, horns, and other entertaining noisemakers. During last decades of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th century towns across the country focused on major public works programs as part of a larger progressive moment designed to improve and modernize municipalities. Every town in Shenandoah County participated in this in some way and new roads, new reservoirs, new sewer systems, and new civic structures were built throughout the county. Reservoirs were especially popular since they provided drinking water, improved health, and enhanced fire protection. Most of the services provided by local government, including water and sewer, can be dated to this period. For more (including 2 images), view the original article. 2018-02-15T10:27:16-05:00 2018-12-18T12:11:53-05:00 https://shenandoahstories.org/items/show/299 The Shenandoah Stories Team In 1868 the African American residents of Strasburg Virginia banded together to found Mt. Zion Methodist Church after being inspired by a series of travelling Methodist Missionaries that visited the town and organized religious meeting. That same year Washington Carter became the congregation's first minister. The congregation was able to acquire land and construct their first church in 1869. Church tradition holds a cabin in the Fishers Hill community was acquired, dismantled, and moved to the church's Queen Street site to serve as a house of worship. This building would remodeled and expanded in 1885, 1907,and 1913. These projects included the construction of a bell tower, finishing of the interior, cladding the building in siding, and additions on the front and rear. Throughout its history Mt. Zion has been an important part of the Strasburg community, especially in the lives of its African American citizens. In a segregated society the church hosted most of the social, educational, and political events reserved for African American residents. These included bush meetings, church rallies, school plays, and Christmas programs. It also sponsored sports teams and helped fund the local segregated school. Today Mt. Zion remains an active congregation that is part of the United Methodist Church's Shenandoah Valley charge that includes Woodstock and Strasburg's historically black churches. It also maintains the adjourning Mt. Zion Methodist Church Cemetery which dates to around 1901 and is the community's historically black cemetery. For more (including 2 images), view the original article. 2017-10-12T13:36:03-04:00 2018-12-18T12:15:15-05:00 https://shenandoahstories.org/items/show/277 The Shenandoah Stories Team After Pearl Harbor Americans feared that their communities could be targeted by the enemy, so a civil defense organization was created. Though officials realized the risk of attack was slight, they supported Civil Defense to help monitor military flights and to connect citizens to the war effort. Part of this program involved the construction of aircraft observation towers in Shenandoah County’s towns and some rural communities. These observation posts were funded by private donations and were staffed around the clock by volunteers, usually boys too young to fight, men unfit for the draft, and women. They recorded airplanes flying overhead to assist with an early version of air traffic control and would have been the first ones to alert the community in the event an enemy attack had occurred. The New Market observation tower was dedicated on April 22, 1943. It was located on the New Market Fire Department’s carnival grounds and that group played an important role in constructing the structure. By 1944 the success of US Armed Forces eliminated the need for Civil Defense so the volunteer groups were disbanded and observation towers were demolished. For more, view the original article. 2017-10-06T17:07:57-04:00 2022-07-21T15:37:59-04:00 https://shenandoahstories.org/items/show/269 The Shenandoah Stories Team The 1885 Lake's Atlas of Shenandoah and Page Counties notes the "Shenandoah House" stood on this site. It would have served travelers on the Valley Turnpike and from the nearby rail line. Sometime in the last decade of the 19th century/first decade of the 20th century the Holtzman family purchased the structure and renamed it the Hotel Holtzman. It was one of many such businesses they operated in several county towns. In 1907 the Shenandoah Herald reported it was one of the last two bars operating in the Town of Woodstock. The Holtzman Hotel's bar would operate until alcohol was outlawed in 1907. At the time the Shenandoah Herald reported only it and the Holtzman Hotel across the street were operating bars. It, and the Geary Hotel across the street generated over $500 annually in town liquor taxes so their business must have been brisk. Lawyers representing the two businesses fought efforts to outlaw alcohol, but they were unsuccessful. The "dry" won by one vote. On September 26, 1916 the Holtzman Hotel was the site of an address by Lila Valentine, President of the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia. The Shenandoah Herald noted it was an "excellent address" and would have been designed to promote the women's suffrage movement in Shenandoah County. The hotel would operate into the 1920s when it was purchased by the Dalke Family. They opened the Uptown Theater here and rented commercial space in the front to a barbershop. After the Dalke's opened the Community Theater two blocks away the Uptown Theater primarily showed westerns and other cheaper films. In 1947 a fire heavily damaged the building and it was demolished. In 1974 Shenandoah County purchased this land and built a new circuit court house here. For more (including 2 images), view the original article. 2017-10-06T15:05:01-04:00 2018-12-18T12:12:07-05:00 https://shenandoahstories.org/items/show/263 The Shenandoah Stories Team Starting in the 1920s, clothing and textile manufacturing became prominent industries in the Shenandoah Valley. One group that operated in the area was the Casey Jones Work-Clothes Company. They opened plants in Woodstock, Mt. Jackson, Shenandoah, Luray, and Elkton which produced denim overalls and provided steady employment to hundreds of locals, including women who had previously been excluded from many industrial jobs. During WWII, their operations expanded and the Woodstock plant on E. Court St. became a major producer of dungarees for the Navy. Business was so good weekly payroll often exceeded $5,000, or approximately $90,000 in today’s currency. In September 1943, that plant was awarded the Army-Navy “E” Award of Excellence presented to companies who achieved “Excellence in Production” of war equipment. Only 5% of the more than 85,000 companies involved in producing materials for the US military’s war effort earned that honor. Not long after they received this award, Casey Jones was purchased by Blue Bell Inc., who later introduced Wrangler Jeans. They continued to operate the plant on E. Court St. until 1956 when a new factory opened on the south end of town. Over the next several decades this building would be a realty office and retail shop. In the 1980s and 1990s it was home to a radio station and Channel 10 TV which covered Woodstock area news. Today it is home to the Woodstock Brew House. They produce a wide array of local brews and maintain a series of 12 beers on tap at all times. In addition they serve food on weekends and utilize locally grown products when possible. For more (including 2 images), view the original article. 2017-09-28T13:32:12-04:00 2019-07-09T13:22:00-04:00 https://shenandoahstories.org/items/show/212 The Shenandoah Stories Team Built in 1836, the Central Hotel was designed to serve individuals travelling on the Valley Turnpike. Providing spirits would have been part of its mission from the beginning. Who the early operators of the site were is unknown, but in the 1880s it was managed by Laonard Walters. On April 14, 1880, he was granted a license by Shenandoah County to keep an ordinary and retail liquor store at the site. In the 1885 Lake's Atlas he is listed as the owner of the hotel which was still providing spirits for travelers. Today this building is an apartment complex. For more, view the original article. 2017-09-13T14:25:54-04:00 2018-12-18T12:15:33-05:00 https://shenandoahstories.org/items/show/154 The Shenandoah Stories Team In 1977 the Johns Manville Corporation opened a new manufacturing plant between Edinburg and Woodstock. It was listed as being just over 330,000 square feet and contained three rail spurs, an emergency power supply, and its own water and sewer systems. The Manville Plant produced commercial roofing material and insulation systems that were created from a wide array of natural products imported to the county via the Norfolk and Southern Railroad line adjacent to the site. Approximately 250 persons were employed here at the height of production. Over the next thirty years the local John Mansville site would survive the company’s 1982 bankruptcy, several fires, and economic shifts. Its role in the local economy, along with other manufacturing plants, could not be overstated. However, in 2007 the company made the decision to close its Edinburg Plant as part of an effort to streamline production following an economic downturn. In 2009 the site was sold to a firm in Luray Virginia who planned to process wood products there. However, that organization sold it at a foreclosure sale three years later. Today the former plant is owned by Andros Foods who uses it as a warehouse. For more (including 7 images), view the original article.