Louisa And Louisa County, VA

Rating:
Summary: Pattie Gordon Pavlansky Cooke, Images of America: Louisa and
Review: This book begins with a useful three-page introduction to the histories of the county and town of Louisa, Virginia (at pp. 7-9). While most of the high points are hit, important supplemental information is occasionally lacking; thus we are told that "[i]n 1973 Greensprings was named a National Landmark District" (at p. 8), but no mention is made of the fact that this was in part the result of a campaign to deter the mining of vermiculite in the county.

It is clear that this volume attempts to straddle the divide between covering the town's history and that of the county around it. Of the book's six chapters, the first two are split between town-county coverage, while the last four deal exclusively with the town of Louisa. By my count, Mineral rates four pictures, Cuckoo- one, Bumpass- one, and Greensprings- only one. Other county locations have similarly scant representation, and one wonders why the book did not simply concentrate on doing a more thorough job of covering the town.

The jacket blurb is incorrect in several assertions, although this is probably not Ms. Cooke's fault. While the book does contain "an impressive array of photographs," it in no way can be said to be "[f]illed with local stories and anecdotes" (jacket blurb). Similarly, none of the pictures are described as being "high school class pictures from the 1950s" and none document recent changes to the city or county (id.).

Monticello is not in Charlottesville, as stated on p. 17, and one Deputy Clerk of Court is variously identified as John Thomas (at p. 35) and John M. Thomas Jr. (at p. 39). The spelling of "Louise County" on the standard pint pot depicted ( at p. 13) is not explained, nor is the difference between the station sign "Frederick Hall" at Frederickshall (at p. 27). The photographs on p. 75 seem to bear no relation to the "Businesses" of the chapter, nor do other photos (at pp. 93, 100, and 102) have aught to do with "Residences." Many pictures (such as those at pp. 46-48) have no approximate dates, while noting who took other photographs (see pp. 39 and 83) is probably more information than most readers need. Finally, the captions at pp. 78-79 and 86-87 would have been clearer if the relevant buildings had been identified by letters or numbers on the relevant photographs.