Founders Day
The next Sunday Afternoon Lecture program will be the annual Founders Day, at 3 p.m. January 18. This year’s Founders Day will focus on the early medical professionals of the area.
Holiday Hours
During the holiday season, the MHC Heritage Museum will be open regular hours — 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays — with these exceptions:
• Closed at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 24, for Christmas Eve
• Closed on Thursday, Dec. 25, for Christmas
• Closed on Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, for New Year’s Day
Snow and Ice Days
Inclement Weather Policy: On days the schools are closed for inclement weather, the museum may be closed as well. If the roads aren’t too bad and the staff are able to drive in, the museum will be open. If you would like to visit the museum on a “snow day,” call 276-403-5361 or visit our Facebook page, facebook.com/MHCHeritageMuseum, to be sure we are here. If you do not have a response, the museum is likely closed.
City gets back to having a tremendous Christmas Tree
Thanks to an anonymous donor, this year’s uptown Martinsville Christmas celebration revives some of the spirit and tradition of Christmases past.
This Friday’s North Pole Jingle, from 5-7 p.m., is Uptown’s kick-off of the Christmas season. It includes Holidays at the Market, special late hours and offers from local merchants and – most dramatically –the lighting of a massive Christmas tree.
The 22-foot Christmas tree was paid for by an anonymous donor and ordered by Myiah Terry, Management Analyst for the City of Martinsville. It was scheduled to arrive in one transfer-trailer truck Tuesday at the city warehouse. On Wednesday, city workers will deliver the tree, requiring the use of more than one city truck, to the courtyard of the MHC Heritage Museum in the former Henry County Courthouse at 1 E. Main St.
The museum’s courtyard was deemed to be the only uptown place large enough to set up the tree, MHC Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Brenell Thomas told MHC Historical Society Executive Director Holly Kozelsky on Monday.
Kozelsky said that the historical society was pleased to be able to offer the spot for the tree. It seemed like a continuation of a courthouse Christmas tree tradition dating back to 1916.
Also, having the impressive Christmas tree lit during the North Pole Jingle echoes the uptown Christmas celebrations which were attended by thousands of residents each year during the 1900s.
From 1916
It was the Elks who started the tradition of a town Christmas tree on the front lawn of the courthouse, and giving out gifts at that tree on Christmas day. The Elks’ first tree was in 1916, with gifts to 175 children, and by 1921, the Elks’ last year with it, they provided gifts for 1,000 children.
Then the Christmas tree and gift tradition was taken over by the Knights of Pythias, whose headquarters was in the Pythian Building just across Jones Street from the courthouse. The tree was usually erected on Christmas Day or Christmas Eve and remained standing until mid or late January.
S.T. Fulcher said that in the program’s heyday, Abe Globman,the department store owner, offered to the Pythians all the toys which had not sold by Christmas Eve. His son and son-in-law “Leon Globman and Dan Greene also were big contributors,” Fulcher said. Madison Aliff of Martinsville Produce offered all the nuts, fruits and candy left over on Christmas Eve as well. Fulcher recalled Charlie Pinkard, Albert Stultz, Johnny Mize, Roger Love,Sue Love and Jame Mize picking up all the donations.
At 2 or 3 p.m. on Christmas Day, Pythians and their wives and other volunteers distributed gifts, fruits, nuts and candies to between 1,000 and 1,500 children at their decorated tree. Usually that was on the lawn of the Henry County Courthouse (now the MHC Heritage Museum); the courthouse block was known as “Public Square” and was the center of community life. When weather was bad, it would be held in other locations, such as at the Banner Warehouse.
As the business atmosphere changed from locally owned stores to many large chain stores, there were fewer and fewer donations of toys.
By 1983, the tree’s final year, $2,000 was raised annually for the Peter S. Ford Memorial Christmas Tree Fund.
Santa arrived by plane
During the mid-1900s, the local shopping season was kicked off in dramatic fashion when crowds of thousands came to Public Square (the courtyard of the courthouse) to see Santa Claus, amidst great fanfare.
Santa’s visit to Public Square in 1949 brought the estimated largest crowd ever assembled there, between 8,000 and 10,000 people. Santa Claus arrived on an airplane which circled Martinsville three or four times.That was the official opening of Martinsville’s Christmas season; Mayor Nick Prillaman turned on the city’s Christmas street lights and the merchants unveiled their Christmas window displays for the first time as the plane circled. Then it landed at Lester airport (where Liberty Fair shopping center is now). The Martinsville High School Band played “Here Comes Santa Claus” as he got off the plane. A fire truck carried Santa to Public Square in a slow-moving parade in which the band kept playing. At Public Square, Santa climbed the firetruck’s ladder which was then raised so that everyone could see him wave. Most stores set Christmas shopping hours as open until 8:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 16, and also Friday, Dec. 23, and on Christmas Eve, merchants would remain open for as long as they pleased. Stores normally closed at 5:30 p.m., but in the week before Christmas they would stay open until 6 p.m.
The next year, Santa Claus flew to Chicago, Washington and Danville before arriving in Martinsville. An estimated 6,000 to 7,000 people joined the Christmas festivities downtown, and the Fayette street parking lot was jam-packed with children seeing Santa Claus. He was picked up in Martinsville by a city fire truck which took him to the waiting crowds. He was lifted 30 feet into the air to wave at the children, and several children were able to hoisted above the truck to speak with him. Mayor J. Robert Walker welcomed Santa to the city. The Martinsville High School band played, and Paul Zimmerman and his orchestra also performed. All Christmas lights downtown were turned on at 6 p.m.
Santa continued flying into Martinsville regularly for the big Christmas season kickoffs. In 1960, for example, Santa Claus telegraphed his plans to Martinsville Retail Merchants Association President Jimmy Paris. He told Paris that he would board a plane in Nome, Alaska, and fly to Martinsville,where he would ride on a float in the parade. The last line of the Western Union telegraph was, “Tell all the children to make their mamas and papas bring them to see me. This should be the biggest Christmas Ever Santa Claus”.
