Lovettsville in Retrospect
Sunday, July 13, 2025, at 2:00 p.m.
St. James United Church of Christ,
10 East Broad Way, Lovettsville
Long-time Lovettsville Historical Society members are proud of our long-running Second Sunday Lecture Series that we hold at St. James Church. Our lecture programs the last few years have come to include one seminar on the second Sunday in July. For this format–a little longer than our usual lecture–we have a presentation, then a panel of 4-6 people familiar with the subject at hand to respond, then turn it over to our audience to discuss. It is a change of pace, involves more folks to grapple with a topic, and certainly gets the audience more involved.
This year’s seminar—on Sunday, July 13th–will feature a topic suggested by one of our long-time board members now on the Advisory Board–Judy Fox. We will be showing the 2006 Documentary Film by Comcast entitled On This Ground: The German Settlement. This is a still-available public service documentary about Lovettsville and the surrounding German Settlement, was part of what was a monthly public access television series. The Lovettsville Historical Society worked with the Mosby Heritage Area (now the Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area) to plan the narration and choose the local speakers as part of the program. It is 26 minutes long and quite engaging. That’s nearly a score of years ago, and some things have changed. First, we know a bit more than we did then about certain aspects of our local story, as research continues. Second, our perceptions in 2025 are a bit different than they were in 2006. And third, many of those vibrant local people interviewed for the documentary have now passed on. Of course, we also note that twenty years ago, we remembered some things that we’ve forgotten now!
After we show this film–our “presentation”–we will go to a panel of local residents and historians to get their take on the documentary. What did it get wrong that we know now, butwe didn’t know then? What would we add? What did it get right that we might add on to, by our own experiences and study? What should a newcomer wishing to know about our German Settlement know, that we might be able to tack onto this documentary all this time later? What memories might we share, that help a person to understand us and our past?
And lastly, we turn to our loyal audience—you –for your observations, remarks, stories, and questions. It makes for a very interesting community afternoon.
We have a stretch break in-between each of these three parts so people can use the restroom, get water, etc.
As always with our Second Sunday programs, the program will be held at St. James United Church of Christ at 10 East Broad Way Lovettsville at 2:00 p.m. There is no charge for the program, but by long tradition, the Lovettsville Historical Society passes the hat to help defray our expenses. The public is invited!
The program will not be live-streamed, but a video recording of the event will later be posted on the Lovettsville Historical Society website.
For further information, contact:
Richard Gillespie 540-822-4351