JOURNAL

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.”

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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.

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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

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(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.

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