Members of Pittsylvania Historical Society and Chatham First met at Frances Hallam Hurt Park Saturday for a cleanup day.
Mary Lee Black, co-chairman of Chatham First, said, “We have spent four years in the park to create a welcome recreational and historic area for all. We hope that residents and visitors will come to the park to picnic, to hike Competition Trail, to walk dogs, and to enjoy the playground with children.”
The late Frances Hurt came up with the idea of preserving a tobacco barn to document part of the county’s rich history.
In 2002 Hurt’s idea became a reality through the tireless efforts of the historical society, which accepted the donation of a barn from Amy and Dave Davis of Chalk Level and arranged to have it dismantled and reassembled in the park with the help of craftsman Mike Creasy.
It was around 1900 that Nathan and Jimmy Shelton helped Luther Blair build the barn on his property. Blair and the Sheltons were Confederate veterans.
The Davises, who donated the barn, now own the Blair property. The farm is about one mile west of Mill Creek Church on Chalk Level Road.
Rocks for the foundation and fire boxes were gleaned from several places, including the Ramsey farm at Chalk Level once owned by the Pannels (Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart’s mother’s family.)
The door on the north side, with strap hinges forged in a blacksmith shop, came from Dave Pannel’s horse barn at Chalk Level.
When J.E.B. Stuart visited family at Chalk Level, his horse was kept in the stall enclosed by this door.
The tobacco barn mini-grant project from JTI for rehabilitating tobacco barns in Pittsylvania and Halifax counties in Virginia and Caswell County in North Carolina would not cover the needed repairs to the barn, according to Mark Joyner, a member of the historical society’s board of directors.
“Since our society is responsible for choosing the tobacco barns in our county for the project, the barn we own in the park was ineligible to receive the grant money,” Joyner said.
“We had to come up with funds for the restoration project on our own. Through the help and generosity of Chatham First, which donated the money from the sales of the 2014 tobacco barn calendar, we were ready to start work on the barn.”
In 2015, the historical society voted and approved hiring a contractor to do the work.
For two weeks, Miles and William McNichols of M M Construction of Blairs removed the old mud daubing and chinking and replaced it with red-colored mud in May.
This past Friday, a new interpretive historical marker was place near the barn telling the history of tobacco and showing how it was cured.
The marker was produced by Pannier Graphics, a company that provides interpretive park signs for the National Park Service.
The restored barn and its interpretive sign remind visitors of Pittsylvania County’s rich tobacco heritage,” said Bill Black, president of the historical society.
Mrs. Black agreed.
“Frances Hallam Hurt park is a large wonderful asset to our town that many people never visit. Chatham First plans to host events during the next months to invite all to enjoy this lovely, cool retreat,” she said.
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