By Terry L. Hapney, Jr.
The Ironton Tribune

For those who “need a little Christmas, right this very minute,” you are in luck—thanks to the Lawrence County Museum & Historical Society.
The organization held its annual Christmas tea Saturday. The menu consisted of “savory cranberries,” cream cheese scones, lemon delight scones, Devonshire cream, holiday pinwheels, chicken croissants, merry cheese bites, snowballs and Christmas tea.
Nicole Cox, president of the Museum & Historical Society, said the fundraiser drew 44 people to the Museum.
“Typically, we do a fashion show, but this year we had four actresses from the cemetery walk that we didn’t get to do this year,” she said.
The annual cemetery walk was canceled due to the aftermath of inclement weather. Sue Lunsford said the organization sells tickets to its two tea events—the other held in the spring.
“We can only supply so many due to space,” she said. “We used the Christmas china this time.”
Cox said the scones were a hit.
“They are homemade and hard to make,” she said.
The fundraising and awareness event helps pay for general maintenance of the building, Cox said.
“Gas, water, electric,” Lunsford said.
“It funds anything we can’t do with grants—like the general operation,” Cox said. “It gets people in the building. We show them around. It’s a very fancy event. We have people wearing the dressy hats, gloves. There aren’t very many events you get to get glammed up for.”
“We had several with hats on, high heels,” Lunsford said.
People of all ages attended. Cox said there were young girls all dressed up with gloves on—all the way up to attendees in their 90s. She said Museum officials are “grateful that people spent the afternoon with us.”
“We hope they had a good time,” she said. “It’s a great way to kick off the holiday season. We’re grateful for our patrons.”
The Museum & Historical Society’s next and final event for 2024 is the Annual Downtown Ironton Historic Church Walk. The event is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7 at First Baptist Church, 5th and Vernon streets.
The eight participating historic churches are decorated for Christmas and attendees will walk to each one to see its halls decked for the holiday season and to learn history about the buildings.
“It’s a great opportunity to see the architecture of the churches,” Cox said. “Some of them have been here since Ironton was founded.”
Cox said some churches incorporate Christmas carols or scripture into their parts of the event, but it is also about the history and architecture of the buildings. Attendees on the walk are led through town by candlelight by a couple of Museum trustees.
“The churches do their own luminaries,” Cox said.
At the end of the event, those in attendance meet at the Museum for refreshments.
This year Quinn Chapel will be the final stop on the walk.
“They haven’t done it for the last several years because they were closed,” Cox said. “It will be nice to include Quinn Chapel back in the mix.”
Other churches participating in the walk—in addition to First Baptist and Quinn Chapel—include:
• Christ Episcopal Church.
• First United Methodist.
• First Presbyterian.
• St. Paul Lutheran.
• St. Lawrence O’Toole.
• Gateway Baptist.
The event is free and open to the public.  Attendees of the walk event should bring a flashlight.
Lunsford said when attendees meet at First Baptist Church there is a man from the Museum who starts the tour.
“He has a top hat on,” she said. “They follow him from church to church so they don’t get lost.”
This is the final event for the Museum & Historical Society for 2024 before the organization closes for the season.
“We close after that and reopen in April,” Cox said. “When we open, it will be the 100th year of the Historical Society—in 2025.”