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  • SPINDLE CITY SCENES II
  • LOST AND ENDANGERED
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VINTAGEGASTONIA.COM

VINTAGEGASTONIA.COMVINTAGEGASTONIA.COMVINTAGEGASTONIA.COM

WHERE OLD GASTONIA LIVES!

WHERE OLD GASTONIA LIVES! WHERE OLD GASTONIA LIVES!

 JOURNAL

Observations, Opinions, Commentary...Yours and Ours.(From the early years of this site. We welcome yours from NOW!) 

Attention neighborhood historians! Send us stories about neighborhood "mom and pop"  grocery stores and hangouts that figured prominently in your childhood and youth on the "Contact Us" page.  

 INDEX


September 28, 2025

"WRBU, Gastonia's First Radio Station

November 3, 2023

"Murder at the Gastonia Cotton Manufacturing Company"

October 1, 2016

"The Final Crusade"
June 25, 2011
"Correspondence with Hugh E. White, Jr.

January 29, 2011
"The Origin of Sun Drop in Gastonia"

September 22, 2010
"Gastonia's Downtown Revitalization: A 40-Year Retrospective"

February 13, 2010
"Gastonia's Changing Skyline"

September 22, 2009
"Revitalization by Strangulation?"

July 30, 2009
"Let's Drag Main"

April 28, 2009
"Avenue of Ghosts"

March 13, 2009
"Boomers: Busted? or Saved in the Nick of Time?"

February 15, 2009
"Here We Go Again"

January 16, 2009
"The BIG SPLASH Arrives"

November 20, 2008
"This Is Our Property"

October 11, 2008
"Circular Motion"

September 17, 2008
"Thinking About the Mills"

August 14, 2008
"Update"

August 4, 2008
"Right Under Our Noses"

July 14, 2008
"It's A Shame"

May 6, 2008
"Remember Me As I Was"

 


BOTTOM OF PAGE

  

WRBU

Gastonia’s First Radio Station

Copyright 2025 Timothy Craig Ellis


     The two-story yellow brick building at the corner of East Main Avenue and South Broad Street (not the main artery of South Broad, but a short connector that ran west of Carolina Farm and Garden past the Gettys Hardware nursery and joined its namesake just before John’s Grill and East Franklin Avenue), today stands derelict and forlorn. Windows long- ago boarded up have been opened to reveal a glassless view to the sky above. Only upon closer inspection and a bit of knowledge of its history, can one see that this was not always a derelict; it was, in fact, the home of a once-elegant piano showroom, music store, and the home of Gastonia’s first radio station, WRBU.


     A.J. (Andrew Jackson) Kirby moved from Honea Path, Greenville County, South Carolina with his wife, Frances (“Fannie”) Louise Lawson Kirby to Gastonia around the turn of the twentieth century and established a business in the growing young textile town of Gastonia, North Carolina in 1900. 


     The A.J. Kirby Music Company sold pianos, sheet music, and phonograph records, and was one of the few, if not the only, dealer for these lines in Gaston County. Success of the business allowed the Kirbys to build a spacious home on “The” New Hope Road, which they named “Kirnolda.”


     In 1910, Andrew’s brother, Walter H. Kirby, died in South Carolina, followed two years later by his wife, Nannie Snipes Kirby, leaving six orphaned children. According to the limited information at this writer’s disposal, one of the older girls tried to keep the family together, but, since she was only twelve years old, she was unable to do so. Two went to live in an orphanage in Greenwood, S.C., two continued to live together until they were each married, and two boys, aged six and two, went to live with their aunt and uncle in Gastonia. It can be presumed that the two boys were adopted by A.J. and his wife, as their names were changed, the older to “Andrew Jackson Kirby, Jr.” and the younger to “Walter Lawson Kirby.”


     By the late 1920s, radio had become a promising communication medium with more than five hundred stations licensed by the United States Department of Commerce, the forerunner of the Federal Communications Commission. A.J. Kirby saw radio as a private venture for the advertising of his business and received a license to operate assigned radio station WRBU at a frequency of 1210 kilocycles (now called kilohertz) at a power of 100 watts.


     Kirby purchased a transmitter and installed it on the first floor at the rear of the store located at 255 East Main Avenue. It was later moved to second floor, where a dedicated studio was established. The January 16, 1930 edition of The Gastonia Gazettereported, “Announcement is made today of plans for a thorough reorganization of the policies of radio station WRBU, an expansion of its facilities, and a definite improvement in programs to be broadcast in the future.”


     In the beginning, with home ownership of radio sets becoming more common, a proprietor or sales clerk at a store selling radios would often call Kirby Music to request that a certain phonograph record be played to demonstrate the quality of the set. This was, in essence, an early instance of “request radio.”


     Originally, the only advertising on the station was for the Kirby Music, but, as time passed and other businesses saw the advantages of having their names mentioned over the airwaves, WRBU began to carry more and more commercial advertising. 


      A.J. Kirby, Sr. managed the station, with the younger Kirbys handling announcing chores, “Walt,” when he was home from attending Rutherford College (a forerunner of Brevard College). 


     In addition to playing music from phonograph records, WRBU programming grew to include local musicians and groups performing live, presenting to listeners examples of the rich history of traditional and folk music brought to the textile mill villages and towns of Piedmont North and South Carolina from the mountains and rural hinterlands. The origin of this musical heritage echoed generations of church singing, camp meetings, and front porch gatherings. Dressed up a bit for the general public, this “hillbilly” music became very popular and launched the careers of several performers and announcers. 


     Some of the notables who stood before the WRBU microphones included “The Three Tobacco Tags,” who went on to recordings and larger radio station appearances for a while. Russell Jenkins shared announcing duties with Walt Kirby (who, as a result, became somewhat of a local celebrity), as well as Wilbur Lewis, a man named Ogden, and Bill Bivens, who announced part-time, produced in-house skits, and swept out the station. He went on to a career with CBS in New York. 


     Mill worker Dave McCarn built a musical career by first playing and singing solo and with a group called the Yellow Jackets on the station between shifts at a Belmont mill. Thirteen-year-old fiddler Homer Sherril first played on WRBU in the late twenties.


     Later on, Prentice “Luke” Davis,” known as “Lonesome Luke, the Butterkist Boy,” got his start on the Gastonia station. He was later hired by Charles Crutchfield at WBT in Charlotte as one of the famous “Briarhoppers.”. He eventually moved on to appearances on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC).


     Gastonia evangelist W. Earl Armstrong, well-known for his “Gospel Tabernacle” on West Airline Avenue at the terminus of North Trenton Street, broadened his positive influence with regular broadcasts on the station.

 

     Other non-musical offerings for 1930 included a series of lecture lessons on music by Edwin M. Steckel, director of music in the Gastonia City Schools that was heard by 6,000 school children of Gaston County. The Gazette offered prizes for the best essays on the subject, “What the Radio Music Lessons Have Meant to Me.” 

The Gastonia Chamber of Commerce sponsored a weekly program featuring a different section of the city each week. On March 13, 1930, the subject was “South Gastonia.” Major A.L. Bulwinkle’s candidacy for the Democratic nomination for Congress from the North Carolina Ninth District was broadcast on June 5, 1930. Speakers included prominent Gastonians Stephen B. Dolley, Dameron H. Williams, and J.W. Atkins. An announcement of the Gastonia Junior American Legion baseball team’s regional championship was announced on August 16, and plans to broadcast  play-by-play coverage of the Eastern Championship games to be played in Charlottesville, Virginia the following week.

 

     A.J. Kirby announced on September 4, 1930 that WRBU stood a fair chance of becoming an affiliate of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). That eventually happened, but not while the station was located in Gastonia.


     Mayor Emery B. Denny gave a fifteen-minute talk on October 3, and City Schools Superintendent W.P. Grier opened a week’s program in observance of National Education Week with an address entitled, “The Schools and Enrichment of Human Life” November 10.


     The station operated under the WRBU call letters for about two years and five months. On November 29, 1930, the station changed its call letters to “WSOC,” supposedly meaning “We Serve Our City.”


     After the name change came the debut of the “WSOC Players,” who presented weekly radio dramas. Featured regulars included Dick and Ruth McCluney (owners of McCluney’s Men Shop in the 1950s and City Newsstand on West Airline Avenue in the '60s then on East Main in the ’70s), Dr. Charles H. Pugh, with Owen Ogburn, the station’s program director, providing background music on the organ. Modeled after “The Grand Ole Opry” on WSM, “The Saturday Night Barn Dance” was hosted by Walt Kirby and featured local talent, such as “The Happy Five Jug Band.”


     With the continuing of the Great Depression, the station began to be unprofitable. The chief engineer, Robert S. Morris, purchased and moved it to Charlotte in 1933. Initially WSOC broadcasted from the Mecklenburg Hotel on West Trade Street next to the Southern Railway station with the transmitter installed in the basement. The station remained there until relocating to the new studios on North Tryon Street in the late 1950s.

  

     WSOC operated as a middle-of-the-road NBC affiliate until the 1970s, when it switched call letters and formats several times. Today it broadcasts as Christian radio station WYFQ.


     Joseph B. Roberts, Sr. received a permit to operate station WJBR but never exercised his franchise, and the permit eventually expired.


     In 1939, industrialist and philanthropist Floyd C.Todd began operation of WGNC with Spartanburg transplant Broadus (Pat) McSwain as manager. The first studios were on the top floor of the First National Bank building (later the Lawyers Building, and now the Esquire Hotel) then moved to the station’s permanent home just off US highway 32l north of the city. McSwain married Catherine Todd, the owner’s daughter and eventually became owner of the station, guiding WGNC for decades. The McSwain family sold the station in 1986.


     A.J. Kirby, Jr. died in 1966 at the age of 60. Walter Kirby, who was managing the piano business, died in 1970, also at the age of 60. Kirby Music Company later closed and was forgotten…until now.



Sources


“Radio – TV Broadcast History,” www.broadcasting.fandom.com.

 

“Radio Station WGNC Ended Gastonia’s Radio Silence in ’39,” The Gastonia Gazette, February 21, 1955.


“U.S. Radio Stations as of June 30, 1928,” www.jeff560.tripod.com.


“Radio Service Bulletin,” United States Department of Commerce, February 28, 1929, Washington, D.C.


“Andrew Jackson Kirby,” www.findagrave.com.


“Andrew Jackson Kirby, Jr.,” www.findagrave.com.


“Walter Lawson Kirby,” www.findagrave.com.


“Death Takes W.L. Kirby at Age 60,” The Gastonia Gazette, November 25, 1970.


Conner, Wilkie, “Way Back When,” Charlotte Magazine, “Played Here: Musical Venues of the Queen City,” July/August, 1975, p. 43. Anna Boyer, contributor, Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library, Main Branch.

 

Coulter, Delia, “The Piedmont Tradition,” www.historysouth.org. 


“WHVN,” Wikipedia.


“WSOC-TV,” Wikipedia.


“Looking Backwards, January 16, 1930,” The Gastonia Gazette, January 15, 1955.


“Looking Backwards, February 21, 1930,” The Gastonia Gazette, February 21, 1955.


“Looking Backwards, March 13, 1930,” The Gastonia Gazette, March 12, 1955.


“Looking Backwards, June 15, 1930,” The Gastonia Gazette, June [15], 1955.


“Looking Backwards, August 16, 1930,” The Gastonia Gazette, August 16, 1955.


“Looking Backwards, September 4, 1930,” The Gastonia Gazette, September 4, 1955.


“Looking Backwards, October 2, 1930,” The Gastonia Gazette, October 3, 1955.


“Looking Backwards, November 10, 1930,” The Gastonia Gazette, November 10, 1955.


“WRBU,” The Gastonia Gazette, December 2, 1969, page 2.


Hill's Gastonia City Directory, Richmond VA: Hill Directory Co., Inc. 1960.

[INDEX]


The Gastonia Gazette

October 19, 1959

    READ THE FASCINATING TRUE 1899 STORY OF "MURDER AT THE GASTONIA     COTTON MANUFACTURING COMPANY,"BYJARRETT E. BROWN.

    THE FINAL CRUSADE  

    (Public hearing on Gastonia plan to buy land for ballpark

    By Michael Barrett / Gaston Gazette

    Posted Oct 1, 2016 at 8:00 AM)

          

            Timothy Ellis practically grew up in the historic Trenton Mill along West Main Avenue in Gastonia. His family connections there are as solid as the building’s brick framework and nearly 1-foot exterior walls.


           Should city leaders go through with buying the mill and other historic buildings in that area, only to raze them and build a new baseball stadium and entertainment district, Ellis said it would represent a “complete lack of reverence for the city’s architectural heritage.”

    “I thought such architectural loss was a thing of the past,” he said last week. “It grieves me to think another round is about to begin.”


           Ellis said he plans to be in attendance Tuesday when City Council members hold a public hearing on a dramatic proposal for redeveloping several rundown blocks of land just west of downtown. The plan involves spending almost $5 million in tax dollars to purchase and prepare 16 acres of land for development of the Franklin Urban Sports District, known as FUSE. It would involve tearing down the Trenton Mill, the original Coca-Cola bottling plant to the south of it, and the derelict former Sears building on Franklin Boulevard, among others.


           With an affirmative vote Tuesday, the city could then move forward with committing another $15 million for construction of the baseball stadium. It’s envision as the potential anchor of the whole concept, which would include recreational, commercial and residential construction.

    The stadium would likely replace Sims Park as the home of the Gastonia Grizzlies, a locally based summer collegiate baseball franchise, while also hosting year-round events such as concerts, festivals and conferences.

           

           City leaders foresee it as a way to “fuse” Gastonia’s resurgent downtown with the recently redeveloped Loray Mill village, as well as the nearby residential York Chester Historic District. They point to the need to remove the blight that has marred that pocket of the city for more than 20 years.

    The vision has divided residents, with some heralding the entire proposal and opponents decrying it. Others like the idea of tearing down one or more of the buildings, but don’t agree with incorporating a baseball stadium into the idea.

           

           Local resident Sherry Carson said the only thing she wants the city to focus on is getting rid of the old Sears building.

           

           “Every time I ride by it, I get so upset seeing it just crumbling, and no one seems to care,” she said in an email to The Gazette. ”(But) most of the folks I’ve spoken to seem to think ... it would be the wrong idea to build a sports complex.”


           The city would buy the 16 acres for about $3.24 million, then spend another $1.7 million on environmental assessments, demolition and other cleanup costs. The stadium itself would cost another $10 million to $15 million, and would have to be financed separately, likely using limited obligation bonds that would be paid back over 25 years. City Council members are only considering a vote on the land acquisition Tuesday.


    Connection to the environment

           Ellis, a Gastonia native and longtime resident, now lives in Spartanburg, S.C., due to his career. But he still maintains deep ties here, regularly returns to attend Loray Baptist Church, and said he’ll one day be buried in Hollywood Cemetery.


           His love for the area prompted him several years ago to establish the website VintageGastonia.com, on which he celebrates the city’s architectural and textile legacy. He isn’t necessarily against the stadium and entertainment district concept. He simply thinks the city is making a rash decision in pushing to tear down historic buildings that could be incorporated into that plan.


           The old Sears and the Budget Inn, originally a Holiday Inn, have the least historic significance and could stand to be demolished, Ellis said. But he is adamant about saving the Trenton Mill, where a carpet and rug business is using some of the space now, and the Coca-Cola bottling plant, currently home to a machining and fabrication firm known as Fab-Tec,


           The nearly 1,800-square-foot Trenton Mill sits on 2.4 acres. From its construction in the late 1800s until its closure in 1973, it was a major hub for the processing of cotton and the production of combed yarn.


           Ellis believes city leaders should be creative, seeking grants and working with developers to create the FUSE district around buildings such as the mill. He points to success stories such as the former Gaston Memorial Hospital on Highland Street, which was on the verge of being demolished several years ago. But seemingly at the last second, city and county leaders came together with a historic preservation developer to convert the huge building into an affordable senior housing complex, which has been infinitely successful.


           “We need to stabilize these buildings and just leave them alone,” he said. “There will come a time that there will be a need for the buildings, and their value will prove itself to someone with a vision for redeveloping them.”


           When cities tear down historically important buildings, replacing them with antiseptic new structures with no cultural significance, it rips away connections that generations of families have to an area, Ellis said.


           “One of the important keys for people to be able to live a good, solid, productive life,” he said, “is to know who they are, why they’re there, and to have some connection to their environment.”

    (INDEX)

     

    RECENT CORRESPONDENCE WITH HUGH E. WHITE, JR. (POSTED JUNE 25, 2011)

         My grandfather was brought to Gastonia in conjunction with the supervising of the Post Office construction and found the town and area so pleasing he settled his family there.  We have been most fortunate to have been able to keep intact his flat files for all of these years and are excited to finally "bring them to the light".  Our motives are not wholly for profit but hope to achieve a self sustaining enterprise which will enable us to archive and more widely share the drawings.  My partner, Ken Beebe of Kuglers Studio in Charlotte, can well assist anyone interested in obtaining a "museum quality" reproduction of any of the works.


         Thank you for your good work.  Perhaps we can meet someday on your side of the river.


    Sincerely,

    Hugh E. White, Jr.

                            

                                                                      ***


    Good morning Mr. Ellis,


         Thank you for your correspondence.  I look forward to re-visiting your website.

    You may certainly use my comments if you think appropriate.


         My father says they gave me the Jr. because my Grandfather had passed away prior to my birth.  I think my Dad now regrets not keeping the order more consistent, but I really broke the pattern by splitting the names between my two sons: Thomas Edward and Walker Hugh.  My aunts, if still alive, would whip me good for that.


    Hugh Edward White, Sr. (1869-1939)

    Hugh Edward White        (1914-     ) Called Ed, Architect with Walter Hook Associates followed by Freeman White Associates

    Hugh Edward White, Jr.  (1952-     )  Called Hugh, Land Surveyor-Carolina Surveyors, Inc.


         I would like very much to bring my father (97 yrs old and getting a bit frail) to Gastonia for a couple more visits to gather his recollections.


         Thanks again for your interest.


    Yours,

    Hugh, Jr. 


    [INDEX]

    [Back to "Bulletin Board."]

    BACK TO "VIEWS AND NEWS"

       THE ORIGIN OF SUN DROP IN GASTONIA
    By  David P. Nanney, Jr. and Joe DePriest
    (Posted January 29, 2011)

         With all the recent hoopla about the Dr. Pepper Snapple parent company deciding to take Sun Drop national via MTV, everyone in Gaston County should proudly be reminded that the first franchised bottler of Sun Drop was my great uncle Charles "C.P." Nanney in Gastonia.  The text of Joe DePriest's article (below) "Soda Evokes Memories" of July 29, 2007 is by far the most accurate printed description of what actually occurred with the first distribution of Sun Drop, as confirmed by my 92 year old father and long-time Gastonia resident D. Powell Nanney.  (Note the only inaccuracy in Mr. DePriest's article is the reference to "soda".   Sun Drop type drinks are known in these parts as "soft drinks", not “sodas”.  And using the "pop" reference in Sun Drop country should be an offense punishable by death.)


         My father Powell, who now lives near me in Raleigh at an assisted living facility, was C.P.  Nanney's nephew who worked with him beginning in 1946 at the bottling plant in Gastonia  (fka the Orange Crush Bottling Company,   Double Cola Bottling Company,  and Sun Drop Bottling Company; nka Choice USA Beverage and owned by the Falls family).  Powell officially retired from Choice a few years ago because of health reasons.

         

         You might want to add these tidbits to your mention of CP Nanney and his soft drink bottling business in the Gastonia History II section of your website, article 12, part 2 --Merchants Build a City.    


         You might also like to be aware that the Charles and Irene Nanney Foundation, established by my great uncle and aunt in 1961, is actively maintained and supported by members of the Nanney family.  It continues to make regular contributions to various charities in Gaston County. 

     

    SODA EVOKES MEMORIES


         In case you haven't noticed, you're in Sun Drop country.

    You're in the middle of where the legendary golden citrus soda bubbled up in 1953.

    You see Sun Drop trucks all over the place, especially in Gastonia where it was first bottled. There should be a monument of some kind.


         Sweet iced tea is an old Southern institution. Cherry-flavored Cheerwine

    - invented in Salisbury - is a Tar Heel favorite.

    But Sun Drop is a local product people like me have grown up with. The taste conjures up special times with family and friends. Just thinking about it helps smooth the rough spots in our lives.


         A quick history lesson: Although closely identified with the Carolinas, Sun Drop was invented in 1928 by Charles Lazier of St. Louis. A former carnival sideshow hawker, he sold the citrus soft drink on midways as a "cure-all."

    Lazier and Charles Nanney, head of Gastonia's Orange Crush Bottling, which later became Double Cola, became friends after meeting at national bottling shows. Lazier gave Nanney samples of the citrus drink, which he was calling Sun Drop.

    Nanney brought the concentrate back to Gastonia, tinkered with the taste and looked for a place to market the new version.


         He picked Bridges Barbecue Lodge in Shelby, run by his old friend Red Bridges. In July 1953, for a promotion of Bridges' new restaurant on U.S. 74 Bypass, Bridges gave away free barbecue and Nanney provided free 7-ounce glasses of Sun Drop.


         The new soda was a hit. Later that year, Nanney's Gastonia plant began bottling it.


         I don't drink much of any kind of soda anymore. I try sticking to juice and water. But I have to have a Sun Drop now and then. We go way back.


         Back to the beginning.


         For me, the summer of 1953 stands out because of the 3-D movie craze. I can't honestly say I did or didn't taste Sun Drop for the first time that summer.

    But it was pretty close. 


         In my home, we had Bridges barbecue about once a week and my earliest memories are of washing it down with Sun Drop, usually in front of the TV while watching "The Gene Autry Show" or "The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok." (Later, it was "The Mickey Mouse Club.")

     

         Livermush, another of my favorites, went down better with Sun Drop. So did burgers, hot dogs and fried food from the fish camp. In fact, the taste of just about anything got kicked up a notch with Sun Drop, which came in those super-sleek, long-necked green bottles. (It was also called "Golden Girl Cola." The original slogan was "Refreshing as a cup of coffee.")


         The world changed. No more cowboy shows on TV. "The Mickey Mouse Club"

    is long gone. But you can still get Bridges barbecue, livermush and fried flounder from the fish camp.


         And whenever you need it - a year, two years from now, or maybe within the next 15 minutes - you can wrap your taste buds around the same golden soda you discovered as a kid. Sun Drop: liquid memories forever flowing.


    Joe DePriest

    [Mr. DePriest's article first appeared in the Charlotte Observer on July 29, 2007.]

    Being born and bred in Gastonia, I very much enjoy your web site!

    Thanks--David


    David P. Nanney, Jr., Attorney/CPA

    Kirschbaum, Nanney, Keenan & Griffin, P.A., Attorneys

    Raleigh, NC


    [INDEX]


    [Back to "Bulletin Board."]

     (Image courtesy of  Keith Kennelly at Retroplanet.com.) 

     

    GASTONIA’S DOWNTOWN REVITALIZATION:
    A 40-YEAR RETROSPECTIVE

    (Presented at the Gastonia City Council meeting,
    September 7, 2010.) 


         Madam Mayor and members of the City Council.


         As do many of you, I remember Downtown Gastonia when it worked. It was the commercial, social, religious, and cultural center of the city. It provided almost everything local residents required to meet their needs from cradle to grave.


         By the 1960’s, however, it, like almost every city in the United States, began to change as post-World War II suburban growth moved residential patterns outward in concentric rings of development. Downtown merchants continued to draw these early suburbanites back to Main Avenue, but as time passed and as shopping centers began to dot the landscape, a dark picture of the coming reality became clear to those whose lives and fortunes were invested in the center city. Downtown Gastonia would no longer be the first place to go for goods and services. Some business people, sensing the inevitability of once-prime locations falling from favor in the eyes of customers, relocated to survive.  Others decided to make the best of the changing landscape by using their reputations and creativity to attract enough business to remain profitable.


         When Matthews-Belk moved in 1976 to Eastridge Mall as one of the original anchor stores, the situation for the remaining Downtown businesses became more desperate. No longer would that giant retailer’s overflow fuel mutual prosperity for smaller merchants and service providers.


         The Matthews-Belk removal was followed in 1977 by a misguided Main Avenue “beautification” that narrowed the street and severely reduced the number of available storefront parking spaces. Already discredited in larger cities, this “pedestrian friendly” concept strangled out of existence several businesses that had survived to that point. Since when did inconvenience attract shoppers?


         Hardly before the dust had settled on Main, the city was busy at work demolishing its retail and service history on Airline and Long Avenues for the excavation of a railroad ditch that will forever divide the center city and make future access to passenger rail transportation much more difficult. In the process, approximately one-third of the city’s lower-rent commercial structures was lost, which could have provided affordable start-up space for new businesses. The same result as the ditch could have been obtained by the construction of two or three classically-inspired bridges across the tracks connecting to a human-scaled divided roadway straddling commercial structures north of the tracks. 


         The successes that took place over the next decade-and-a-half were due to the hard work and creativity of a handful of entrepreneurs, aided by the light touch of Gastonia Downtown Development Corporation. As hope was beginning to dawn again on Downtown, the heavy hand of government reentered the arena to swing what history will possibly judge as the third strike of intrusion into what should have remained a market-driven environment.


         It remains to be seen whether Downtown Gastonia will ever again become the true city center. Looking at the history of the area beginning in the early 1960’s, it appears that little was done to encourage the engines of vitality to remain in the first place. Instead of the cosmetic, failure-destined silliness that seems to be an obsession of the city’s elected officials, the reasons for Downtown’s demise should be studied along with creative ideas that would, over time, return 24-hour a day life to the area.


         Even before the 1920’s, it could be easily observed that the most desirable section of the city would eventually be its eastern suburbs. In 1961, the first major foundation stone, First Presbyterian Church, relocated to a spacious eastside campus. Since that time, except for government offices, almost all the anchor institutions that one would expect to be located Downtown have moved, most of them eastward. At present, there is not even a fire station Downtown.

    To further divide the city into two unequal halves with no tangible center, federal funds were used, beginning in the 1970’s, to place most public and subsidized housing west of Highway 321, often negatively impacting the old textile neighborhoods as well as newer suburban developments.


         Little has been done in the last forty years to return Downtown Gastonia to health. Suddenly the elected city officials decided that their legacy would be here without even demonstrating that they truly understood what “here” was in the past and should be in the future. The 1999 Master Plan for redevelopment was a good one. It has been largely ignored throughout the efforts of the past several years.


         If city leadership and the City Manager are really serious about redeveloping Downtown, you might begin now to lobby the county to locate a new main public library in the center city, since the Gastonia 2020 Comprehensive Plan indicates that the current site on Garrison Boulevard is no longer suitable. There is a great location available at the northwest corner of Marietta and Franklin.


         And why not work to bring branches of nearby colleges and universities Downtown, such as Gaston College, UNCC, Belmont Abbey, or Gardner-Webb? (The bank buildings that once stood on that nice big gravel lot would have made a great home for an urban campus.)


         If none of these ideas appeal to you, then please at least amend the City Charter to return council terms of office to two years. Then future elected officials will be limited in the time they have to demolish buildings and to embarrass themselves and the city.


         Thank you. 


    [INDEX]

    More Journal posts from the early days of www.vintagegastonia.com

    MORE JOURNAL POSTS

      

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