About Bedford City County, VA

This year marks the 75^th Anniversary of Historic Garden Week in Virginia. Over two hundred homes across Virginia will be opened to the public during this week. I've been attending this event in Lynchburg since I moved to Virginia in 1987 and it's the highlight of my spring!

Sponsored by The Lynchburg Garden Club and Hillside Garden Club, several local homes and gardens are opened to the public and it's a delight to walk through perfectly manicured gardens and beautifully decorated homes. This year, Garden Day in Lynchburg is Tuesday, April 22, 10 a. m. to 6 p. m. The following homes will be on the tour:

4411 BOONSBORO ROAD

1628 LINDEN AVENUE

1013 HARRODS COURT

1450 TRENTS FERRY ROAD

1340 WAKEFIELD ROAD

In addition, the following will be opened at no additional charge: Point of Honor and Sweet Briar House. Also open, Sandusky, The Anne Spencer Garden, Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest, The Old City Cemetery, Miller Clayton Gardens.

BOX LUNCHES: Will be available again this year at Oakwood Country Club from 11am-2pm for $10 pre-paid. Advance reservations are required by calling Oakwood (434) 384-8181 ext. 101

TICKETS: Advance tickets $20, day-of-tour tickets $25, single-site admission $8. Full ticket for minors 6-12 years old $10 and $4 for single-site admission. Children 5 and under admitted free of charge. Tickets are available at the Visitors' Information Center, 216 Church St., the pharmacy at Krogers on Boonsboro Road, The Silver Thistle at Boonsboro Shopping Center and The Columns in Forest. The day of the tour, tickets will be available at Headquarters and each home. Advance tickets may be ordered with a credit card at an additional charge by accessing http://www.vagardenweek.org/.

There will be no bus service this year. For more information on ticket sales, parking, etc, contact:

.

The Lynchburg Chamber Visitor's Information Center
216 Church St.
Lynchburg, VA 24504
(434) 847-1811

Posted by:

Debbie Malone, Realtor RE/MAX 1st Olympic 20395 Timberlake Rd Lynchburg, VA 24502

(434)546-0369 malone1981@aol.com

January Monthly Market Update

Sales Period: January 2008

Property Type Area Liv Area Units Sold Average List Price Average Sold Price DOM

Single family Lynchburg 1951 50 166,924 161,796 89

Campbell County 1723 26 159,811 152,275 108

Bedford County 2271 36 283,409 272,219 116

Amherst County 1998 21 178,390 173,635 95

Appomattox County 1463 5 154,120 144,500 256

A total of 138 properties sold the month of January 2008. That is down a little from January 2007 when 147 properties sold. And it has taken longer for homes to sell the month of January than in previous months. Once the spring gets here there is a much better opportunity for the activity to increase.

"I have deposited in the county of Bedford Virginia, about four miles from Buford, in an excavation or vault six feet below the surface of the ground, the following articles belonging jointly to the parties whose names are given in number three herewith. The first deposit consisted of ten hundred and fourteen pounds of gold and thirty eight hundred and twelve pounds of silver deposited."

Virginia's best-know lost fortune is said to consist of thousands of pounds of gold and silver and a fortune in jewels. Some say it's a hoax, but hundreds of hopeful treasure hunters would like to believe otherwise.

In 1817, a party of 30 Virginians led by Thomas Jefferson Beale left to try their luck mining in Colorado. They struck a rich vein of gold and silver in the south-central part of the state, which they worked for a year and a half before the accumulating wealth started to make some of them uncomfortable. Beale and eight others went back to Virginia to bury two truckloads of nuggets while the others stayed and mined.

The party arrived at Goose Creek in Bedford County in November 1818, following a fain trail through a gap in the Blue Ridge foothills near the Peaks of Otter. Snow covered their tracks as they dug a square pit six feet deep, lined it with flat stones and filled it with iron cooking pots filled with treasure. The last concealing spadeful fell in December, and within two months they had rejoined their comrades.

After two more years of mining, Beale led another trip back to the same spot, and a second load joined the first. This time he decided to leave a message for his partners in Colorado in case something happened to his group on the return. Three numerical ciphers detailing the location of the hoard, the contents of the vault, the name of the party were put in a strongbox and given to Lynchburg innkeeper Robert Morris, with instructions to open it if no one returned in 10 years.

Beale and his crew left once more for Colorado, and Morris never saw any of them again. Two months later, he received a letter saying the keys to the code were in the mail, and then nothing. As the years passed, Morris gradually forgot about the strongbox, until he happened upon it decades later while searching for a harness in a shed. After trying for years to decipher the codes, morris showed them to a friend, who managed to break the one describing the vault using a key based on the Declaration of Independence. The other two were made public Click Herebut remain a mystery despite the efforts of decoding experts and computer codebreakers.

Downtown Bedford, Virginia is a charming place with its antique stores, shops and farmers market. There are many impressive turn of the century buildings and one of my personal favorites is the one housing the Bedford City/County Museum.

Downtown Bedford Banner Main Street Bedford- Blue Ridge Mountains

This Beautiful Romanesque Revival is the only example of this style of architecture in Bedford and was built in 1895. Located on East Main Street, it originally served as a Masonic Temple.

It's an impressive structure with its multi-colored brick, stone archways, terra cotta ornamentation and bay windows. The Museum holds displays of Bedford's history from early native American life through the Civil War up to present day. The is headquarters for the Bedford Genealogical Society and library as well. Highlights of the museum are:

• Black History Room
• Indian Room with relics, tools and implements
• Civil War Room with period artifacts
• WW I & II Rooms
• D-Day Room -dedicated to the Bedford Boys

There is a Geneology Library room and gift shop. For more information and hours of operation, call:

For more information on Bedford City or County, contact:

Debbie Malone, Realtor RE/MAX 1st Olympic 20395 Timberlake Rd Lynchburg, VA 24502

(434) 546-0369 malone1981@aol.com

Monument Terrace, Lynchburg, Virginia MOPH

One of the things I love about the Lynchburg Virginia area is people who passionately believe in a cause. Ever since the start of the war in Iraq, a group of veterans and concerned citizens have been meeting on the steps of Monument Terrace and you will find them here every Friday from noon to one pm. Their goal is to recognize the sacrifice of those who have served in our military and to show support for our troops who are currently serving.

Steve Bozeman is one of these dedicated individuals. A former marine who was awarded two Purple Hearts, Steve is an amazing athlete who's participated in numerous marathons and holds the American record for completing 15 Double Ironman Triathlons. He carries the Marine Flag during the Virginia Ten-miler and Marine marathons. Steve is on the committee to erect a Purple Heart Memorial in Lynchburg http://www.purpleheart.org/. He and others have been tirelessly raising funds for the memorial which will be dedicated on Memorial Day, 2008. So far, $12,000 has been raised of the $16,000 goal. Steve sent me the following information:

The Purple Heart Memorial will be placed on upper plaza near Court St. and dedicated on Memorial Day 2008.

On the back of memorial, these words will be engraved, "Honoring all recipients of the U.S.A.'s oldest

military medal and remembering particularly here at Monument Terrace, the wounded and fallen of Lynchburg,

Va. and its immediate surroundings".

Also, on back will be engraved all the five military branches emblems in 5" diameters.  The "Listening Post," 

familiarly known as "The Doughboy" was dedicated in 1926 to honor the men of Lynchburg who served in WWI 

(1914 - 1918), of which 43 men were killed.  Memorials honoring WWII, (182 killed), Korea (24 killed) and 

Vietnam (27 killed) were dedicated in 1986 to honor those veterans.  The Purple Heart Memorial will honor all 

those 276 heroes from Lynchburg who paid the ultimate sacrifice for America's freedom.

For more information on how you can help bring the memorial to Lynchburg, please contact:

Debbie Malone, Realtor

RE/MAX 1^st Olympic

20395 Timberlake Rd

Lynchburg, VA 24502

(434)546-0369

malone1981@aol.com