Cars line the entrance to War Memorial Park in a photo dated by a member of the Facebook group “Remember in Martinsburg When …” to June 1959. The Martinsburg Public Library will feature photos from the group during a West Virginia Day celebration Friday beginning at 2 p.m.
MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — The “Remember in Martinsburg When …” Facebook page is coming to the Martinsburg Public Library for West Virginia Day, which is Friday.
The Facebook page is chocked full of old and not-so old photos of Martinsburg and the surrounding area that elicit comments, reminisces and answers to queries about the town. There are photos of Hack Wilson when he played for the Martinsburg Blue Sox, when the Nichols department store had a going-out-of-business sale and when horse-drawn wagons parked along Queen Street.
The Facebook page has more than 8,000 members.
The event at the library is free and open to the public.
Beginning at 2 p.m., photos from the page will be projected onto a screen on the second floor of the library and the audience will be invited to comment on the images – to remember in Martinsburg when … .
“People might have knowledge of the photos or they can share whatever is on their minds,” Keith Hammersla, the moderator of the discussion, said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “There are a lot of interesting historical topics on the Facebook page and the audience can discuss the different topics. This will give people in the community a chance to share memories of the town.”
Hammersla is a local historian and director of information services at the library.
It also is an opportunity to learn more about Martinsburg and the surrounding area, he said.
On display in the library’s foyer throughout June are photos of Martinsburg showing the town from around 1890 through 1965.
The photos feature an early soapbox derby race, a silent movie being filmed in front of the courthouse in 1915, a concert in the old bandstand that stood on the square and several street scenes…
