Standing-room-only crowd enjoying the Readers Theater production of
Inherit The Wind, by Jerome Lawrence, and given by the Alleghany Community Theatre – on a hot July afternoon in 2007, at the Alleghany County Courthouse.

Ed Adams questions a witness while Richard Doughton presides as judge. Dan Murray played the attorney for the defense. Susie Gamble played the Clerk of the Court and Randy Boger played the Bailiff.

Each of these “actors” played roles that they acted out every day of their professional lives. This and the venue of the actual Alleghany courtroom added realism to the drama that featured the 1925 Scopes “Monkey” Trial.

The crowd filled the balcony at, what was probably, one of the few events held here that everyone went home happy!

— Photos by Imaging Specialists.

A New Display in the Library from the National Archives and the Alleghany Historical Museum.

Just in time for the upcoming election!
American women were long denied the right to vote. In 1920, the newly ratified 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibited the states from denying the vote on the basis of sex.
For (much!) more information, please visit:
https://museum.archives.gov/rightfully-hers

Did you know that one of the most photographed sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway is right here in Alleghany County? Of course you did.
There are many scenic vistas here, but the little stretch of road at Grassy Gap draws photographers like a magnet.
The gentle, sloping curves, the rugged rail fences, the pastures and the pines make for a lovely landscape that artists have tried to capture for many years.

Information from Brenda Irwin Frizzell about her father’s World War II mess kit that was found on a Belgian battlefield and returned to him 47 years after it was lost. We shared this article with the Alleghany News, an important partner of AHGS.

Printed in 1981, by the United States Library of Congress, this book  features,

“An essay from the Blue Ridge Parkway folklife Project conducted by the American Folklife Center in cooperation with the National Park Service in August and September 1978”

It was edited by Lyntha Scott Eiler. Terry Eiler. and Carl Flelschhauer and includes many photos of Southwest Virginia and Northwest North Carolina.

We love it because it contains stories and images of Alleghany County.

The Sparta Restaurant  –  Sparta, North Carolina

Town and Country Barber Shop  –  Sparta, North Carolina

Click the photo to see the entire book in PDF format.

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