Rockbridge Historical Society

09/03/2026

🎉 This Monday, September 7, the City of Buena Vista invites residents & visitors to celebrate with its 55th Annual Labor Day Festival.

🍔🍦🍺This free, family-friendly event features a full day of activities including a downtown parade, live entertainment, local vendors, food, and much more.

🚌 Visitors can also explore the VA250 Mobile Museum, open both Sunday & Monday, Sep. 6-7 (9 AM-5 PM). Its interactive, hi-tech displays offer a fresh, engaging look at Virginia’s history & its role in the nation’s founding as we continue to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary. The Museum welcomes visitors of all ages, particularly schoolchildren, at Camden Field (corner of Magnolia Ave. & 10th St.)

💂🥁 On Labor Day itself, live first-person interpretation of a historical reenactor will add special color, representing a Rockbridge County militiaman during the Revolutionary War. In period clothing, local historian Byron Faidley will discuss military history & everyday experiences of an 18th-cen. frontier soldier, along with displays and demonstrations with reproduction fi****ms & historic gear.

⏰Another historical highlight of this year’s festival will be the Time Capsule Ceremony at the Glen Maury Park Pavilion (12:30 PM), creating a new vessel to preserve memories & milestones for future generations. The capsule will be buried on Inspiration Hill, near the Double Decker Pavilion, to be opened on America’s 300th birthday in 2076.

🗓️ MONDAY, SEP. 7

**CAMDEN FIELD**
🏃 8 AM: Kids Fun Run
8:30 AM:5K Road Race

⛺ 9 AM: Revolutionary War Reenactor Byron Faidley
9 AM: VA250 Mobile Museum (Open both Sun-Mon)

**LABOR DAY PARADE**
9:30 AM: Starts at Magnolia & 23rd --> Camden Field St.

**PAXTON HOUSE**
🏛️ 11 AM-2 PM: Free Historic House Tours~Activities

**GLEN MAURY PARK PAVILION**
🎤 11 AM: Opening Ceremony & Candidates' Political Speeches
12:30 PM: Time Capsule Ceremony

🎶 1 PM: Blue Ridge Mtn Cloggers
2 PM: Vinyl Nation
6 PM: Wayne Carter

Rockbridge Historical Society
City of Buena Vista, Virginia - Government
City of Buena Vista, VA - Economic Development
Buena Vista City Public Schools
Main Street Buena Vista
City of Lexington, Virginia Government
Lexington, Virginia and the Rockbridge Area Tourism
VA250 - American Revolution 250 Commission

08/31/2026

📽️🍿📖 With September now at hand, the Rockbridge Historical Society’s monthly “Revolutionary Films & Books” series launches into its second year, continuing to build toward the twin 250th birthdays of Lexington and Rockbridge in 2028. 🇺🇸🎉

⏰ This Fall, films will be screened on the second Tuesday of each month, with a complementary book discussion to follow on third Wednesdays. All events are free and open to the public, and run from 6:00 - 8:00 PM in the Piovano Room at the Rockbridge Regional Library’s Lexington Branch.

🗓️ From September through December, book selections will be thematically paired to echo with a “Ken Burns Quartet,” serially drawing from the filmography of America’s foremost documentarian. Chosen episodes will draw from some of Burns’ less familiar series, before wrapping the year with excerpts from his most recent national epic, “The American Revolution.”

📰🗞️ For more details on the series, including film trailers and book teasers for each of the selections ahead, see the attached Season Overview, as published in last week's News-Gazette:

https://www.thenews-gazette.com/article/15050,revolutionary-films-and-books-series-set-for-fall

Rockbridge Historical Society
Rockbridge Regional Libraries
Ken Burns
VA250 - American Revolution 250 Commission
Lexington, Virginia and the Rockbridge Area Tourism
City of Lexington, Virginia Government
City of Buena Vista, Virginia - Government
Rockbridge County, Virginia - Government
Lexington City Schools
Rockbridge County Public Schools
Buena Vista City Public Schools

08/29/2026

🇺🇸 🎉 TODAY, 9AM-3-AM: Come share your spirit and curiosity with local neighbors and vendors, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Rockbridge Community Festival.

🇺🇸 It was established in 1976, in a civic, communally-driven effort that's not only proven to be one of our area's most 'sustainable legacies' from that last big national, commemorative moment ... but one of our most popular!

🎪 Find us at our tent today, in front of the Old Court House, where we'll have prototypes of the new historic signage that RHS Trustee Arthur Bartenstein and Executive Director Eric Wilson worked to develop this spring, with the leadership of Main Street Lexington's Rebecca Logan and new Lexington City Councillor Jesse Lyons.

🧭 📖 We'll have maps and books for sale, other historic items to browse and stories to share, as also at our Museum (also open 9-3 at 101 E. Washington St., just a block away).

Today is a particularly opportune chance to chat with us about your personal and family histories with life in Buena Vista, Lexington, and Rockbridge. You can both contribute to our archive of local histories and oral histories. And we'd love to discuss timely opportunities to volunteer with RHS, as we gradually move to our own centennial (2039 begins to beckon, one quarter of the way through the 21st century now).

You can also visit with membership from our leadership team of Rockbridge250 and VA250; pictured here, at last year's Festival, our local and state "triumvirate" with VA250 American Revolution State Commission Chair Terry Austin (also, our 37th District Delegate to the General Assembly), joined by Rockbridge250 Co-Chairs Sheryl Wagner and Eric Wilson.

With both organizations: we'd love to explore new ideas and memorable opportunities for you to bring your own skillsets to the range of planning and events we already have in sights -- and others we keen to creatively develop -- in the continued 3-year anniversary run here, leading to the twin 250th birthdays of Lexington and Rockbridge, come January 2028!

See you at the festival!!

Rockbridge Historical Society
Lexington, Virginia and the Rockbridge Area Tourism
VA250 - American Revolution 250 Commission
Lexington-Rockbridge Jaycees
Lexington Sunrise Rotary Club
City of Lexington, Virginia Government
City of Buena Vista, Virginia - Government
Rockbridge County, Virginia - Government

08/24/2026

🎉 THIS SATURDAY, 9AM - 3PM: Come visit with leaders, volunteers, and local supporters of the Rockbridge Historical Society & Rockbridge250 during the Rockbridge Community Festival.

🎪 Our tent will be set up at the corner of Washington & Main Streets, right in front of the Old Courthouse.

🧭 📖 You can buy historic maps and publications, or pick up a free book of local history.

🕵️ 🙋 Share your curiosities and family experiences, and chat with us about new and continuing opportunities to volunteer with RHS or Rockbridge 250 in community-wide commemorations, public programs, educational outreach, digital media, or work with our museum and collections.

🖼️ While there, you can also enjoy a sneak peek at the 3 new interpretive signs we've helped design that are currently being fabricated to be permanently installed in Lexington's newly renovated Court House Square.

Just one block away at 101 E. Washington, the RHS Museum will run extended hours from 9-3 PM to align with the run of food, fun, and fellowship on Main Street ...

🧸🚂🧩 In addition to our featured Remsburg Gallery exhibit on ROCKBRIDGE AT PLAY: TOYS, GAMES & HISTORIES, you can also browse our local history library; a range of artifacts, locally made art, and area maps; along with displays on Natural Bridge, and the 1976 Bicentennial & Bikecentennial ...

🌬️💦🫗 Plus, you can cool off in our A/C, use a bathroom that's not a port-a-potty, and grab some water to 'hydrate your history'!?!

🎊 🎂 And yes -- like many good things still operative in our community -- the Rockbridge Community Festival, established in 1976, is one "Bicentennial Hangover" worth celebrating!!!

Rockbridge Historical Society
Lexington, Virginia and the Rockbridge Area Tourism
City of Lexington, Virginia Government
City of Buena Vista, Virginia - Government
Rockbridge County, Virginia - Government
VA250 - American Revolution 250 Commission
Lexington-Rockbridge Jaycees
Lexington Sunrise Rotary Club

08/17/2026

🗞️📰 But wait ... there's even more newspapers at hand ... tonight!

Join the Library of Virginia and Rockbridge Regional Libraries at the Glasgow Public Library for a great tour of resources through which you can digital explore centuries of Virginia newspapers -- across the state, even high school newspapers -- from the convenience of your own digital device.

Rockbridge Regional Libraries
Library of Virginia
Rockbridge Historical Society
Lexington, Virginia and the Rockbridge Area Tourism
Rockbridge County, Virginia - Government
City of Lexington, Virginia Government
City of Buena Vista, Virginia - Government
VA250 - American Revolution 250 Commission
The News-Gazette, Lexington, Va

Please join us TONIGHT as Glasgow Public Library presents Newspapers & the Library of Virginia: The secrets that lurk there at 6PM!📰

Kelley Ewing of the Library of Virginia will present about the newspaper collection at the library and Virginia Chronicle, the online database of Virginia newspapers.

Newspaper archives provide glimpses of everyday life and extraordinary happenings. The Library of Virginia’s diverse collection ranges from Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) newsletters to high school newspapers to daily and weekly papers of the past.

08/17/2026

Here's the mentioned video ... 15 great minutes of local history!

The News-Gazette, Lexington, Va
Rockbridge Historical Society
Lexington, Virginia and the Rockbridge Area Tourism
City of Lexington, Virginia Government
City of Buena Vista, Virginia - Government
Rockbridge County, Virginia - Government
VA250 - American Revolution 250 Commission

Lexington, Virginia's local newspaper celebrated 225 years of publi...

08/17/2026

🎂The Rockbridge Historical Society shares our congratulations to The News-Gazette, Lexington, Va on its 225th Anniversary!!

🎉 Last Thursday, we were delighted to raise a glass with Publisher Matt Paxton, Editor Darryl Woodson, and many members of the News-Gazette Team, as they shared a meaningful and locally authentic look back into their institutional and commercial history, and look ahead, as to what such enterprises continue to mean to the vitality of a community, in a rapidly evolving (and often thinning) news landscape.

📽️ Of particular interest, the excellent 15 minute documentary they produced tracking the paper's evolution through different formats and mergers, providing local and national news here nearly since Rockbridge County was established in 1778. We'll bump that out separately, along with a fascinating document from RHS' own collections in the Washington & Lee Archives: one of the first subscription lists to our area's first newspaper, THE ROCKBRIDGE REPOSITORY, which began publication in 1801.

🗞️📰 Partnering with the News-Gazette and others, RHS has begun planning an event that will feature a roundtable that will constellate different histories and perspectives on local journalism -- newspapers and other print media, broadcast journalism and digital outlets -- as we continue to explore two and a half centuries of American Evolution, here in Rockbridge, and well beyond.

The News-Gazette, Lexington, Va
Rockbridge Historical Society
VA250 - American Revolution 250 Commission
City of Lexington, Virginia Government
City of Buena Vista, Virginia - Government
Rockbridge County, Virginia - Government
Lexington, Virginia and the Rockbridge Area Tourism

08/15/2026

🗞️ After its recent 250-themed presentation at the Glasgow Library on records from the Revolutionary era, the Library of Virginia returns to Rockbridge on Monday with a presentation about Virginia's historic newspapers, and the ways in which you can access their vast and varied digital collections, yourself. 📰

🕰️Monday, August 17, 6 PM.
📖Glasgow Branch, Rockbridge Regional Libraries

Questions? Contact Librarian Barbara Slough at: [email protected]

Rockbridge Historical Society
Rockbridge Regional Libraries
Library of Virginia
Lexington, Virginia and the Rockbridge Area Tourism
VA250 - American Revolution 250 Commission

08/10/2026

Time Capsule ^2!! With one 'Semiquincentennial Time Capsule' already in the ground this summer, at the Lexington Library .... see below for another opportunity to share and preserve local histories tied to Buena Vista.

This new capsule -- to be opened at the American Tercentennial in 2076 -- is smaller than the larger 1976 cylinder that was opened on July 4, so smaller items are requested for consideration. Some examples already collected include a penny, an ornament depicting the Paxton House, a flash drive to contain historic resource,s and artistic renderings of the city’s public schools.

Deadline to donate items: Friday, Aug. 21.

To make arrangements to donate items or discuss this project further, contact the Paxton House Historical Society at (540) 404-1831 or email [email protected].

The News-Gazette | A weekly, family-owned newspaper serving Lexington, Buena Vista and Rockbridge County Virginia since 1801.

08/10/2026

💥 If a Declaration sounds in the Imperial Woods ..... and there's nobody there to hear it ... .. did it actually happen ???

🕰️ It took more than 5 weeks, but on August 10, 1776 -- 250 years ago, today -- news finally arrived in London attesting to the publication of "The Declaration of Independence" in Philadelphia on July 4. That temporal limbo, another of the 'time warps' that had long bedeviled the decision-making of transatlantic colonial rule and revolt, tied up in the 18th-century crossings of communication and transportation.

📜 With news confirmed to the British Parliament -- and the King to whom the Declaration's 27 Grievances were more patently and pointedly addressed -- a new stage in America's revolutionary play was at hand.

🇬🇧 The uncertain evolution of that "Revolution" would of course cycle and circuit for seven more years -- across North America's eastern seaboard and indigenous homelands, from Canada to the Caribbean to the final sea battle in the Bay of Bengal -- before the Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783, formally recognizing the United States as a free, sovereign, and independent nation. 🇺🇸

📖 For an excellent accounting of how the news of the Declaration traveled through those crucibles -- within the colonies, and more globally -- see Emily Sneff's just-published book from Oxford University Press, "WHEN THE DECLARATION WAS NEWS."

https://www.emilysneff.com/projects

📰 For more on how the language of independence and stages of rebellion crested into the summer of 1776, and continued to spread in Virginia and Rockbridge, see the June 17 News-Gazette feature written by RHS Executive Director Eric Wilson, "Celebrating Independence, in 1776:" the 10th article published in RHS' ongoing 3-year series of Revolutionary Moments.

https://www.thenews-gazette.com/article/14485,celebrating-independence-in-1776

Rockbridge Historical Society
VA250 - American Revolution 250 Commission
The News-Gazette, Lexington, Va