On July 4th, during the Heritage Day festivities, Deltaville celebrated the town's 100th birthday with an exhibit in the Community Center. On display were a variety of photos and stories about life in Deltaville during the last 100 years.
Deltaville was officially named in December, 1909 when the Post Office changed from Sandy Bottom to Deltaville. To commemorate this event, Patty Hall, Deltaville's Postmaster, was on hand to cancel souvenir envelopes with a pictorial postmark designed by Kaptain Krunch (aka Steve Smith). These envelopes, with a photo stamp of a Deltaville deadrise, will be on sale for $5.00 as a fund raiser for the Deltaville Community Association (DCA) until they are sold out. Sheets of the deadrise stamp are also available for $25.00. They can be ordered and picked up at Nauti Nells-776-9811. A history of the post office and the postmasters was also part of the display.
A section of the exhibit dealt with the DCA; its history and the many organizations it has fostered. Each such organization presented their history in words and pictures including the Ball Park, the Recreation area-the Pool, Tennis Courts, Basketball Courts and Playground, the Rescue Squad, the Fire Department, the Library, and the Maritime Museum and Nature Park.
Another display focused on the people and places that were a part of everyday life in Deltaville and are now gone: the old country stores, McGurk's, Bristow's store, blacksmith shop, bus service, Gemmill's hotel, restaurant, and store, Moore's Café and much more.
A boatbuilding exhibit came from the Deltaville Maritime Museum and several local builders were on hand to talk about their boats.
Local citizens of note who were profiled were Scotty Hoye and Norton Hurd among others. Many of Deltaville's distinguished old timers were on hand on Heritage Day to talk about the good old days and to answer questions.
Local church histories with old and new photos were on display in one area.
Finally, restorations of some of Deltaville's most historic homes were presented. Featured in this display were the Kelly House, the Cutler House, Providence, Cupelow, and Laurel Branch (believed to be Deltaville's oldest).
Evelyn Turner and Gordon White are working on a commemorative booklet that will update the 2001 Portrait of Deltaville and will be on sale some time in the future.
Raynell Smith, organizer of this exhibit, stresses that this display is just the beginning of a much bigger project to gather and preserve as much information as possible about the history our community.
Although the original exhibit closed on July 11, most of the displays moved to the Deltaville Maritime Museum at Holly Point Nature Park. The exhibit will be there until the end of the year. Summer hours - until Labor Day - are Tuesday-Saturday 10-4, and Sunday 1-4. For more information, call the museum at 804-776-7200.