Martinsville isn’t your typical Virginia town. It’s been the plug tobacco capital of the world and the sweatshirt capital of the world. It hosts two stock-car races each year at the oldest speedway on the NASCAR circuit. And Patrick Henry once lived just down the road.

Martinsville is a place of verdant beauty and blue skies a few miles north of the North Carolina state line, in the Goldilocks zone: seldom too hot in summer or too cold in winter. It has thrived as the town with the nation’s most millionaires per capita and struggled through factory closures during the era of globalization.

Packed with more than 300 images and chock full of details, Martinsville Memories is a look at a diverse town built on tobacco, textiles and furniture that occupies a unique place in the nation’s fabric and history. From its the town’s historic beginnings through its 20th century heyday, this volume offers a nostalgic trek through time, with stops at drive-ins, old hotels and iconic storefronts along the way.

Martinsville Memories doesn’t stop at the city limits, but gives the reader a tour of surrounding communities such as Collinsville, Ridgeway, Bassett, Axton, and Spencer as well.

With a foreword by author and Martinsville native Stephen Mark Rainey, Martinsville Memories captures the triumphs and struggles of a city at the heart of the South and the soul of America.