Memories of change

Langhorne McCarthy’s memory spans decades of change in Lynchburg.

The 74-year-old remembers the downtown in its heyday and its gradual decline, as old buildings were torn down or left to rot. She was a student when the schools were segregated, and a mother when they were desegregated.

McCarthy’s family roots reach back long before these memories. She is from an old Lynchburg family that has lived here since the 1800s, a family that has helped to shape the city’s past and present.

For instance, her great-great-great-grandfather, Henry Langhorne, was part of the duel that gave Point of Honor its name. In Lynchburg’s early days, the hill where Point of Honor stands was just outside the city, making it a prime spot for men to duel and prove their honor. The duel that Henry Langhorne was supposed to have been involved in never happened, but the story lives on to this day. McCarthy’s father, Charles L. Lewis, founded C.L. Lewis & Co., a construction company that built local landmarks like the Lynchburg City Armory.

As a child, McCarthy spent five years in Virginia Beach. It was WWII, and her father scored lucrative construction work for the Hampton Roads military community. Back then, McCarthy says Virginia Beach was a “sleepy town with one road that ran parallel to the ocean.”

Life was anything but normal, however. McCarthy remembers the blackout curtains and routine air raid drills. Living so close to the naval harbor, she felt the ground tremble when there were explosions off-shore. In school, she had to memorize charts of enemy airplanes so that if one flew overhead, she could identify it.When the war was over, McCarthy and her family moved back to Lynchburg. She looks back on her formative years in Lynchburg with nostalgia.

“It was a lot tamer back then,” McCarthy says. “I would not want to be a teenager today.”

She was a 1953 graduate of E.C. Glass High School, the last graduating class from its former Park Avenue home, which she describes as “old” and “rundown.”

When she was a teenager, the downtown was vibrant and bustling, lined with popular stores and restaurants.

“Everything was downtown. All the stores, all the good stores. That was the real hub.”

McCarthy shopped for the latest fashions at Vogue and Milner’s department store. On weekends, there were sock hops in the basement of the YWCA on Church Street.

The nighttime hangout spot was the Hollins Mill Drive-In, a popular fast food joint on Hollins Mill Road. She remembers spending warm evenings there, hopping from car to car with her friends.

“It’s been torn down now. It’s hard to even imagine a drive-in was there.”

McCarthy went to college in South Carolina, and then returned to Lynchburg to marry and put down roots of her own. She has been a longtime community volunteer and active in the city’s music scene — two interests that she has kept up for years.

McCarthy is currently a board member of the Opera on the James and the Lynchburg Museum System. She volunteers for Meals on Wheels, the Academy of Fine Arts and at her church.

Singing is her lifelong passion. She is a former member of Fascination and current member of the Jefferson Choral Society, which mainly sings classical pieces. She has traveled to Europe five times to perform with the group.

McCarthy also audits courses at Randolph College. Right now, she is taking a political science course on the Middle East.

“I just like to stay busy,” she explains.

The former board member of the Lynchburg Historical Foundation has a strong interest in preserving the downtown. She says she is excited about the transformation of the old warehouses into space for lofts, art galleries, stores and restaurants.

“They are things worth saving,” Langhorne says. “It’s our history.”