1897: Lewis Ginter died at age 73.
  1913: Grace Arents, Ginter’s niece, bought and remodeled the abandoned Lakeside Wheel Club. She added a second story and made it a convalescent home for sick city children. Eventually Arents moved into the house with her companion, Mary Garland Smith, and called it Bloemendaal in tribute to the Ginter family’s Dutch ancestors. She developed gardens at Bloemendaal, which means “valley of flowers.“

Jobs and money are coming to the Martinsville area of Southside Virginia. American Foods Group LLC sold its meat snack division to a Tennessee company that plans to invest $3 million to expand production at a plant at Patriot Centre Industrial Park in Henry County near the city of Martinsville. Employment at the facility will nearly double from 130 employees to 250 in October when the expansion is expected to take place, said Karl Schledwitz, chairman and CEO of Monogram Food Solutions LLC, based in Memphis.

For many people, yesterday was just a normal day as they strolled through the collections at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. But for the museum itself, it was the last day of normalcy for nearly a year as the galleries closed in preparation for the completion of a $150 million expansion that almost doubles the amount of gallery space.

Time is running out to view exhibitions at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The galleries will close Sunday at 5 p.m. for 10 months as construction is completed on the new James and Frances McGlothlin Wing. The grand reopening will be May 1. “People should look forward to 10 months from now, for this fabulous new museum . . . that will be nothing less than spectacular,“ said Alex Nyerges, the museum’s director.

Three days ago, the youngest soldier at this Prince George Army post was called to the command sergeant major’s office. That’s not usually a happy event for a 17-year-old trooper. But Pfc. Maria Morgenstern found out she’d been tapped to help the governor of Virginia and a galaxy of generals cut the ribbon for Fort Lee’s $49million Sustainment Center of Excellence.