JOURNAL II

Gastonia's Changing Skyline
(Posted February 13, 2010)

They pulled down the Gastonia Bonded Warehouse water tower yesterday. The old tower, which had stood as a faithful sentinel over the stored raw material of Gastonia's industrial might since 1919, was not even granted the dignity of being disassembled from top to bottom. No, the workmen just used a torch and cut its legs out from under it. It was pulled to the ground where it is being cut up for scrap.

That has been the fate of so much of Gastonia's built environment since city leaders declared it all obsolete by their actions in the 1970's. Since that time, one by one, the landmarks that watched over the lives of this once-vibrant city's citizens have been carted off to the scrap yard and the landfill. As is the case in our country today, where the coming generation is not taught to cherish and reverence the things of the past ("See! This our father did for us"--Ruskin), that past is simply forgotten and discarded. That makes it simple for those in power to have us believe just any old thing!

***

As I watched the tower fall over and over again on the Gaston Gazette's video clip this morning, my mind was swept back to a sunny day in 1969 (I believe), when I was waiting for the light to change at the Airline Avenue / North Ransom Street intersection. The tower had just been given a new coat of silver paint, and I remember thinking, as I gazed upon its crisp, glistening outline upon the backdrop of a cloudless blue sky, how good it was to be a Gastonian. I had been taught to feel that way as I was growing up by my parents, teachers at school and church, and most of the people I came in contact with. Most citizens still lived close to the center city, and its buildings and landmarks were still part of the daily experiences of most residents and were generally regarded with a sense of pride.

As time passed and the eastern suburbs became "Gastonia" (plastic subdivisions strung together like so many "pop beads"), the old places, filled with people and activity only yesterday, were allowed to crumble and were, one by one, removed from the landscape. An astute observer would think that eventually the few remaining landmarks would be cherished and maintained. (The buildings recently lost on West Main Avenue would still be standing if the City had been responsible simply in the maintenance of their roofs.) That will never happen as long as the idea of new being superior to old persists in society and politics.

***

I stepped out into the adult world (the world that I had been trained to live in and love) in 1973, just in time to watch it begin to disappear like a receding tide. I have, as I suppose many others have, lived my years with a constant sense of loss and longing for the things that had been traded for others that were perhaps a little less human. I know, after many battles to save the old places, that the most I can really do is to preserve the memories of these once-cherished spots so that a future generation in a yet-undreamed-of time might find that the old familiar ways were superior to a constant headlong rush toward the new, especially if the result often proved to be cheap and empty. Thus, I will continue.

By the way, the Gazette stated that the tower had once served a mill.

Point proven!

TCE

[INDEX]

Revitalization by Strangulation?
(Posted September 22, 2009)

I've seen it all--Gastonia's seemingly drunken attempts at revitalization of its Uptown/Downtown, that is. I have walked the streets, alleys, and forgotten places of the old Spindle City with my Minolta SRT 101 35 millimeter camera since 1972 and recorded the ebbing of its life. I have seen it all, and I have proof in thousands of photographs. I have also winessed the devastating results of political meddling and the irreplacable loss that has resulted.

***

"Revitalization" is a word that is thrown around carelessly by planners and politicians. In fact, it has been used so much through the years to describe so many acts carried out supposedly for the benefit of Gastonia's urban fabric, I looked it up in the dictionary to discover its true meaning (even though I thought I knew what the word meant). In fact, I looked it up in several dictionaries that I own and was surprised to find it missing. But my disctionaries (four of them, all old, including an ancient unabridged edition) only gave the root word, "vitalize," which means "to give life." So, the word, which was apparently coined during the disastrous destruction of U.S. cities called "urban renewal" that began in the mid-1960's, actually means to give life...again.

But in order to give life again, a reasonable person would look into what sort of life had existed before. That is not being done in regard to the puzzling and frustrating activities presently happening in and around Main Avenue, nor has it been the rule since the retail hemmoraging of the mid-to-late 1970's.

Most of Gastonia's "revitalizing" efforts have been attempts to remake the area into a desirable place to visit without ever considering what might be the underlying reason to visit in the first place. Narrowed streets and decorative planters installed in 1976-77 were supposed to bring shoppers back, but the Mall was the big thing. Downtown lacked choice, appeal, and convenience, and was quickly discarded as a place to go, except for necessary visits to government offices. (The street people loved the landscaping!)

In spite of the decline of the central business district, city leaders continued to pursue the 1950's dream of lowering the railroad tracks into a ditch. Instead of making Downtown a more desirable and convenient place to shop, the misguided project destroyed about one-third of the existing commercial structures, disconnected the cental city from the railroad (which had given it life in the beginning and offers common sense transportation options for the future), and filled the pockets of local contractors with taxpayer funds.

Benign neglect settled over the area.

Then Gastonia Downtown Development Corporation began its work, guided by solid proven priciples that, if followed to their conclusion, would have truly "vitalized" Downtown again. Their efforts toward success were based upon an understanding of the elements that could have given the city vitality as it once possessed.

But as success began to be evident, local politicians hijacked the process and smugly announced that Downtown would be their legacy. With suburban mentalities and a hireling who neither knew nor cared about the city's built heritage, this bumbling bunch of boobs continued doing things that had been attempted before and had been declared failures by the passage of time.

Their condescending creative process consisted of (as it has always been) building "destinations" for the use of suburbanites, parking lots where usable structures once stood, and parks--even parks strangling crucial connecting streets. Their reality is vinyl-siding, cul-de-sacs and strip shopping centers. They seem to know little, if anything, of the intricate workings of a healthy urban neighborhood.

Downtowns were created as strictly utilitarian places. Each was the axis and soul of its community. They met the commercial and governmental needs of their residents, and they were central points with which their citizens could identify. Downtowns were the hearts of cities, and the streets and avenues that radiated outward and interconnected pumped the lifeblood of civic, commercial, and religious life. This central concept is necessary for any success at "revitalization" to occur.

While Americans are looking with alarm upon a federal government gone mad with its own power, Gastonians should also look at their local representatives with close scrutiny and do evertything they can to rein in the haughty independence and elitism that has found a home in City Hall.

TCE

[INDEX]

"Let's Drag Main!"
(Posted July 30, 2009)

During my childhood in the 1950's, growing up in a Gastonia that most current residents cannot even imagine, one of my fondest memories was when, upon returning from somewhere in the evening, Dad would say to Mom and me, "Let's drag Main!" What he meant, of course, was for us to drive the length of Main Avenue before going in for the night. (The direction was always west to east, because Main was a one-way street from Chester to Broad in those days.) The response was always enthusiastically positive, for a mini-adventure was more enticing than bedtime, especially for a little boy.

The drive was often interrupted by a convenient parking place at the curb and some window shopping. We were not the only ones with the idea of extending the evening's pleasures, and often we encountered moviegoers heading to or coming out of the Temple (Center) or Webb Theaters. Mom often saw something interesting about which she remarked that she would call about the next day, while I just enjoyed walking with Daddy and looking at the brightly-lit displays. The dime store windows were always my favorite.

Then, usually within a few minutes, the "adventure" was over. It was off to home a few blocks west, a night's sleep, and another day in old Gastonia.

***

All that is gone. Some of the loss was due to the natural events of time's passage and is what supplies aging residents with things to reminisce about. But much of the old Uptown's demise was the result of greedy, selfish, short-sighted decisions that revealed the thought processes of an elite who seemed to feel that, because their ancestors began this city with ideas and capital, they continued to have more claim to its present and future that the multitudes who built it up with their toil, sweat, and vitality and loved it with all their hearts.

The same ideas persist, perhaps even stronger, today. An elite group, including a handful of petty politicians (who seem to be drunk on their own sense of importance) are wiping out the last vestiges of that once vital, healthy, and normal world that seemed so permanent and unshakable just yesterday. A generation has grown up in the city who know nothing of what I described at the beginning of this article.

It's amazing how much destruction can be unleashed by a little power and ego, mixed with willful ignorance of history and a generous portion of short-sightedness and stupidity.

***

Ah, it was not so long ago. Remember?

TCE

[INDEX]

Avenue of Ghosts
(Posted April 28, 2009)

We can really only know the present. The past is a memory without its roughest edges, and the future is a dream, either bright or gloomy. But the present is useless without the bookends of "will be" and "was." One is a course to be followed, and the other is a reverse azimuth, ensuring that we do not stray onto a parallel path that will lose us just as surely as if we had no guide at all.

These are difficult days, we must all agree. Fear and foreboding enshroud any tenuous hopes we might still possess for a brighter tomorrow. It is often sufficient just to salvage the current day and retire for the evening with our personal worlds intact. But there will be a tomorrow for all who live into it as it becomes today. Of that we can be sure. In uncertain times, though, it is often more comforting and reassuring to remember pleasant things that were part of former days.

Memory is prompted by all of the senses, the most powerful of which is sight. To see that which was and still is propels our thoughts backwards through time. Our souls are refreshed by places that are still recognizable as we remember them. The sense of being grounded in place acts as an oasis in an otherwise chaotic world.

Unfortunately, many have lost this understanding of the importance of place in the lives of human beings. They have become so wound up in themselves and the insatiable drive to accumulate possessions, prestige, and power that they have forgotten about things that are simple, pure, and true. When the soul is weary, it is good to gaze upon a sweet scene of "home," even if that consists only of a lone building that evokes pleasant recollection.

Gastonia, to be a relatively young city, has a reckless and cavalier attitude toward its built heritage. To some in positions of power, buildings are impediements to ego, and ego trumps everything else.

If the Big Splash project succeeds, the mid-1960's YMCA on West Franklin Avenue will relocate Downtown, leaving another full block of old West Gastonia desolate. To those who seldom venture west of New Hope Road, here is a short list of that which has been lost in the two blocks from Chester to Trenton streets since the early 1970's. Some of the buildings remain but are barely-recognizable to those who knew them in their former glory.

1. Western Auto Family Store,
2. Piedmont Lincoln-Mercury
3. Sisk Barber Shop,
4. Smith Chevrolet,
5. Powell Oldsmobile,
6. Harris-Teeter Supermarket,
7. Citizens National Bank-Franklin Avenue Branch,
8. Sunrise Dairy,
9. National Guard Armory,
10. Coca Cola Bottling Company,

and just across Trenton Street, occupying two city blocks, sit the remains of Sears, Roebuck, and Company.

If you wish to perform a fascinating experiment, take a photograph of your favorite street in the Downtown area. Put it away, and take another from the same spot five years later. In most places, one would be shocked and amazed at the changes. In Gastonia, one would more than likely be saddened.

TCE

[INDEX]

Boomers: Busted? or Saved in the Nick of Time?
(Posted March 13, 2009)

We are the Baby-Boomers.

More correctly, we are the Post-World War II Baby-Boom Generation. We have witnessed more, possessed more, and lost more, without really knowing it, than probably any generation before us in the history of our nation. We came along, from 1945 through 1964, and inherited a world that was (for many of us) new, clean, shiny, exciting, and without limits. Our parents vowed that we would have it better than they, and most were able to live up to their promise. We grew up in television families, wore television clothes, and played with television toys. We went to schools and churches, but our lives revolved increasingly less around them. We finally thumbed our noses at the traditions of our parents, embraced every imaginable taboo, and then went out into the world that we had irreversibly changed to make our collective mark.

An eye winked, and we were old.

After continually doing the activities reserved for the young long after we were, we found that sixty was not the new forty, but perhaps the new seventy. We took the suburban migration of our youth to its logical extreme, and realized that our hearts and our minds were distant from our neighbors (and perhaps even God) as well as from the old centers of things. We discovered that self-gratification led to emptiness and failed to see that only by giving could we receive. We realized our mortality and found ourselves searching the obituaries for the latest of our number whom we had outlived and looking for a quickly-cobbled “legacy.” We found faith in the value of our homes and our retirement accounts: without heart and soul, they alone could be trusted to remain faithful to a generation that had grown to view faithlessness as a virtue.

An eye winked, and they were gone.

What now. Is it all over? Bleak? Hopeless? Are the Boomers busted? Or have we been saved in the nick of time?

We, tasting a bit of inconvenience, disappointment, and frustration, can now curl up and die or we can remember that adversity—real, crushing, long-term adversity—is what made our parents and grandparents the tough and courageous people who gave us such a hopeful and well-meaning start only yesterday. Our course can remain centrifugal, or we can begin today to travel back toward the center, where we were once surrounded by the warmth of familiar ways and places, friendship, encouragement, and love.

Whew! That was close. Just in the nick or time!

TCE

[INDEX]

Here We Go Again!
(Posted February 15, 2009)

This afternoon I took the final pictures of the series recording the lost battle for the preservation of five Uptown/Downtown buildings that were removed by the city manager under the direction of city council. We now have much less of what we were bequeathed as our city to pass on to those who will follow. The main block of the old central business district now resembles a war zone. If the "BIG SPLASH" eventully becomes a successful reality, we who struggled to save this remnant of our built heritage will be forced to admit that we were wrong and that the elected leaders and the one they picked to perpetrate this destruction were indeed wiser than we were. Perhaps it will happen. But, if history is an indicator of future events, the hard work to resurrect the area as a vibrant and dynamic heart of Gastonia will now be much more difficult.

The pressure is now on city government to produce, and the electorate should expect things to happen in a hurry in the same manner in which demolition was pursued. We'll see.

An observer of this unthinkable tragedy should now logically believe that at least the threat to the remaining center city structures has been reduced for awhile. Not so! It appears that Gastonia's city manager thoroughly enjoyed seeing what was not his transformed into piles of rubble and wishes to do some more.

On Thursday, January 29, an article appeared on page 5A of the Gazette that should cause an immediate and deafening public outcry to cease this madness. It appears that, even before the citizenry is shown plans and a timetable for the swim center, the CM is moving on to another act of destruction.

Gaston County owns the old Citizens National Bank building (which the city wants) and the old Gaston Memorial Hospital complex on North Highland Street (which the county does not want). An earlier effort in the CM's plan was to swap Paysour Mountain property that was part of a land grab to build a new airport by a previous council (another bright idea that resulted in a clean sweep clearance of council members in the following election) for the bank building, which had been a county administrative center for many years. It turned out that the Paysour property was toxic, so the county wanted no part of the deal.

The county no longer needs the old hospital (which is historic in its own right), so it is discussing giving both properties to the city to be rid of the hospital, which it considers surplus. The city manager, fresh from his success in knocking a hole in Downtown, blatantly said that the hospital would be demolished for $500,000 to $700,000 (Guess who the demolition contractor will probably be?) so that the land could be sold to a developer (Wonder who that is?).

Only preliminary talks have been held, but Gastonians must be made aware of this idiocy before it results in a bigger mess to be dealt with by Gastonians after the CM and Mayor have both moved on to their next jobs [the Mayor's in Raleigh, perhaps(?), and the city manager to another town full of gullible, apathetic citizens].

So, what should be done with the hospital?

Before Gaston Memorial moved to East Gastonia, it anchored the North Highland neighborhood, which was once the most beautiful in the city. The 1973 relocation caused the area to be written off as worthless as had been most of West Gastonia since the late 1960's. Removal of the buildings that could, in a future filled with possibilities not able to be comprehended by most of the city's current leadership, would doom the area to be forever a receiver of social services rather than a thriving, self sufficient, diverse residential area.

Save the buildings! Stabilize them! Make them secure until a day when the old places are again appreciated. That day is coming because of common sense that has been forced upon the American people by volatile gas prices, an end to a long, drunken credit binge, and the soul-deadening effects of living in suburbia.

This poem is a fitting conclusion to my comments. (It has been attributed to Edgar Guest, the "People's Poet" of the first half of the twentieth century, but it has often been credited to "author unknown.")

Wreckers or Builders

I watched them tearing a building down,
A gang of men in a busy town.
With a ho-heave-ho and lusty yell,
They swung a beam and a sidewall fell.

I asked the foreman, “Are these men skilled,
As the men you’d hire if you had to build?”
He gave me a laugh and said, “No indeed!
Just common labor is all I need.

I can easily wreck in a day or two
What builders have taken a year to do.”
And I thought to myself as I went my way,
Which of these two roles have I tried to play?

Am I a builder who works with care,
Measuring life by the rule and square?
Am I shaping my deeds by a well-made plan,
Patiently doing the best I can?

Or am I a wrecker who walks the town,
Content with the labor of tearing down?

TCE

[INDEX]

BACK TO "LOST AND ENDANGERED"

The BIG SPLASH Arrives!
(Posted January 16, 2009)

Gastonia's elected leadership has proven its love for Uptown/Downtown; it is knocking down some more buildings. Citizens of "The City of Growing Beauty" should not be confused by this action. It's called "tough love," and it clearly demonstrates that the Mayor and Council (except for Dr. Kirlin, who has demonstrated that he doesn't fully understand the superior wisdom of his fellow leaders in adopting the enlightenend vision of Gastonia's City Manager/Savior) know much more about all this city stuff than do the people they are charged to represent, most of whom seldon go around Main Avenue anyway. And the CM/S said that old buildings are "functionally obsolete," so, of course, they should come down to be replaced by castles in the air.

Anyone can change his mind, and I have channged mine. I have decided to become all wet along with the other BIG SPLASHers since I saw the completed Phase I of the project. The muddy water at the bottom of the canyon where once stood the Gastonia main office of First Citizens National Bank made me want to dive right in! And even if the whole thing falls on its face (Have we heard that before?), we will at least be rid of those ugly old buildings, and the new Palenick Park will bring crowds of suburbanites to the center city for picnics!

TCE

[INDEX]

TOP OF PAGE

"This is Our Property!"
(Posted November 20, 2008)

Well, it's over.

The battle has been fought to its conclusion, and, once again, big government has defeated small business. The old power-elite has again proven its ability to crush the little guy. Egotism has again bested common sense.

Again old buildings will fall at the promise of a magical solution to Uptown/Downtown's problems. Benign neglect has been supplanted by destructive interest.

Tuesday night, November 18, 2008, the Gastonia City Council voted 5 to 1 to demolish the two buildings that once housed the F.W. Woolworth store (including the late 19th century Long Brothers building), the Temple Theater, The 1956 National Bank of Commerce building, and the late-1960's First Citizens National Bank (later Fidelity Bank). This wholesale destruction is for the purpose of constructing an aquatics center on the site, even though a site plan for the center has yet to be delivered.

Once again, we who have known and loved the center city all our lives will lose landmarks and memories. The dust will fly, the rubble will be cleared, and newcomers will eventually ask, "What was once there?"

They will wonder at the incongruity of such a facility in a place that cried for homes and small businesses (unless the facility was in actuality a new YMCA). Some will lament that Gastonia, after losing so much of its built heritage to past stupidity, greed, and short-sightedness, would again sacrifice some of its most well-known landmarks for the vanity of City Council and Mayor and to provide an additional resume line for a questionable City Manager who would soon move on to greener pastures after the damage was done.

Adjacent business owners and lovers of the old familiar places poured out their hearts as usual, but it was easy to sense that a decision had already been made. In spite of the common sense comments of Dr. Dave Kirlin of Ward 2, there was no doubt that the balance of Council and the Mayor wanted to knock something down to show that they cared about the central city and that they were in charge. Mayor Stultz ended the months-long struggle by emphatically announcing, "This is our property," in spite of the fact that it is actually the taxpayers' property and that an earlier offer to purchase it by a developer already active in Uptown/Downtown was flatly denied before the previously-proposed project for the site fell on its face.The comment resulted in a vote that the future will possibly condemn.

The Mayor, descended from the power-elite who deserted the center city after World War II and tried (and mostly succeeded) to take everything of value with it to the East Side, unmasked her arrogance with her comment and indicated to the regular citizens of Gastonia that she knows better than they the direction the city should take.

The Mayor and City Council have, for some time, been involved in a campaign of aggrandizement evidenced by the vote to extend terms to four years and by their obsession with "leaving a legacy," which is responsible for the vote of stupidity taken Tuesday night. (The "legacy" thing, by the way, is a commonly-occurring aging-baby-boomer activity, brought about by a late desire to give a "great gift" to the world after having lived a largely self-centered life.)

Tuesday's vote might have been the third government-produced strike against Uptown/Downtown, which was just beginning to redevelop itself through the initiative of the private sector. The first two (for those who think history is not important or that time began when they arrived on the scene) were the business-killing Main Avenue "beautification" of 1976-77 and the railroad-lowering project of the late 1980's, which destroyed one-third of the city's built environment and created a "picturesque" city-dividing canyon that has already evoked regrets.

A redevelopment project that would be of unquestionable value to Gastonia would be a "clean sweep" slate of candidates to purge City Hall of its current Mayor and Council. A good start would place Dr. Dave Kirlin at the top of that ticket as candidate for Mayor.

TCE

[INDEX]

[BULLETIN BOARD]

Circular Motion
(Posted October 11, 2008)

There are political scientists, philosophers, and historians who theorize that history and politics move in circular motion rather than in a linear fashion as most think. That idea would then account for the notions that "history repeats itself" and that there is "nothing new under the sun."

A new generation is preparing to usher in "hope and change." It will probably happen, because the pendulum of opinion is ready to reverse its swing. We must ask ourselves (and I will write of it here, while I may), what is it we hope for, and what will change bring?

Forces have been at work in the United States, most noticeably since the close of World War II, that seek to change the very foundation principles of our liberty. General failure to transmit our American values to the two generations that have come to adulthood during this period has aided the sinister and insidious cause that is now preparing to take control of the nation. We await leadership in vain. It will not come until we have traveled through the wilderness ahead. It is a good time to pray.

A few weeks ago, I was looking through the contents of one of my glass-front bookcases in my musty, dusty study, when I came across a bound volume of the Piedmont and Northern Railway Company Magazine for 1950 (which once belonged to Albert G. Myers of Citizens National Bank; Textiles, Incorporated; Wix Filters; and much influential Gastonia philanthropy). The following article apeared on the last page of the December edition. Read it for yourself, and draw your own conclusions.

TCE

[INDEX]

Thinking About the Mills
(Posted September 17, 2008)

Every once in a while, the local newspaper ventures into the city's past, and the result is usually an article or a special section that supposedly features our "textile heritage." Those of us whose memories are full of the rich fabric of close-knit mill villages, community churches, mom and pop corner grocery stores, childhood friendships, sandlot baseball and football, and the colorful patchwork quilt of a thousand other simple things that filled the days of textile life are usually disappointed at the result.

In what seemed to be the wink of an eye, the mills closed and all the neighborhoods, where everyone once had been as close as family, filled with strangers or disappeared altogether. The much-publicized newspaper projects, instead of prompting a rush of pleasant memories, only spread sensationalized accounts of the industry's darker periods across its shrinking pages.

At a time when remembrances of those old days, which built a mighty industrial city and provided unlimited opportunities for the World War II and Baby Boom Generations, should be recounted and preserved before they are forgotten, the paper fills its pages with photographs of child labor (which was common in all industries as it had been on the farms from which the workers had come) and the strikes of 1929 and 1934.

Once, not too long ago, textiles was everything. It was what Gastonia was all about. We made something, and we were proud of it. Products from Gastonia mills helped win World Wars I and II and provided a decent living for thousands of the city's citizens. The best the Gazette can do is to display a caricature of our heritage.

Today it seems that many of Gastonia's "progressive" leaders wish for the city to distance itself from its textile past. (See the new city logo.) That is interesting, considering the fact that more than a few of them rose to their places of prestige, power, and prominence from the benefits provided by the labor of mill workers. Instead of celebrating that which their parents and grandparents did to allow them to secure their present positions, some seem to want to forget it and to merely have Gastonia known as place of short Charlotte commutes and cheap property.

We Gastonians should be proud of where we came from, and we should be very vocal about it. No one else will.

TCE

Postscript, October 13, 2008
When the Gastonia Gazette moved from its home on West Airline Avenue in the early 1970's to Cox Road, its reporting took on more of a countywide and regional character. With the arrival of the Gaston Observer and its challenge for advertising dollars, the focus of the paper moved farther and farther from the old center city as it followed action from a burgeoning Charlotte toward the eastern towns of Gaston County. Even as our onetime local newspaper became more and more of a stranger to its longtime readers, local reporter (and West Gastonia resident) Nancy Moore could always be counted on to present the city's often-ignored voices. Since her health-related retirement, few have been advocates for the parts of Gastonia that languish outside the spotlight of present popularity and acclaim. Daniel Jackson has given noteworthy effort to speak for the small voices, and he should be encouraged in his continuing career. The 130th anniversary of the City of Gastonia was mostly a botched effort, and many still await the bulk of that story.

That is the past. Upon those observations I wrote the article on September 17. But, since the series entitled "Our Textile History" has unfolded across the paper's pages, I have changed my mind. Editor Kevin Ellis (no relation, as far as we can determine) has allowed the wonderful story of the mill villages to be told accurately and sympathetically by the people who lived there.

I am sure that there will be a good reason to take issue with the Gazette again in the near future, but for now, I must express a hearty "congratulations" on a job well done.

TCE

[INDEX]

It's A Shame
(Posted July 14, 2008)

A developer has been quickly chosen for the proposed hotel/convention center Downtown. That decision likely seals the fate of five existing structures along West Main Avenue and South Marietta Street. Thus the gradual and growing private sector redevelopment of the old central business district now prepares to be overshadowed and imposed upon by yet another massive project directed by city government and funded by tax dollars. It took three decades for Downtown to recover from the first two (the Main Avenue "beautification" and the railroad trench) sufficiently enough to begin a true human-scale rennaissance. It is hoped that this project will be carried out in a manner that is sympathetic to the existing businesses and that it will not be the third strike for what remains of Downtown's built environment.

I have spent part of several Sunday afternoons walking around the area and photographing all the affected buildings from many angles. Only through the camera lens did I begin to see the possibilities reuse of these structures (with necessary infill) could present. As stated in the "First Union" article above, that building was built to withstand an atomic blast. (This, of course is an overstatement of the bank's strength, but it nevertheless demonstrated how well it was constructed.) I was a member of an Explorer Post sponsored by First Union in 1967-68, and our meetings were often held at the bank. During that time, First Citizens was constructing a new main office next door--the building that was later occupied by Fidelity Bank. For its foundation, a piledriver drove steel girders deep into the ground to allow for future multi-story additions to the structure. Much has already been said about the healthy probability of renovation of the historic Main Avenue buildings.

So, all of these familiar landmarks (we will only know how familiar they were after they are gone) could be reused and would probably form a more interesting hotel/convention center than will a new structure with a "historic" look. Instead, we will, more than likely, wind up with another failed government intrusion into the free enterprise system and an empty monument to the folly of current city leadership.

I have heard no one champion this idea.

It's a shame.

TCE

Update (Posted August 14, 2008)

According to the August 12 edition of the Belmont Ban...uh...the Gaston Gazette, Hotel Investment Services, the Michigan-based developer of choice for the Downtown hotel/convention center project, has been unable to obtain financing for the project., and, as a result, will be unable to proceed.. The Gastonia City Manager was, of course, disappointed at his setback, but it was a blessing for Gastonians. Dr. Dave Kirlin, the voice of reason on the Council, said we would be looking at a "totally different type of development." Thank the Good Lord! The City Manager said "the project will be market-driven, it won't be publicly subsidized for the long term and it won't create an inappropriate burden on the taxpayer." He went on to say, "The city is committed to partnering with the private sector to create a major downtown destination and a catalyst for other investment."
Everyone take a deep breath! Common sense rules for a while. (Enjoy it while it lasts.)

TCE

[INDEX]

BOTTOM OF PAGE

Right Under Our Noses
(Posted August 4, 2008)

Recently, I was able to spend several hours walking around Downtown on a work day and observing the amazing amount of activity going on there. The serendipitous series of events that allowed me to be in that location on that particular day placed me face to face with people and projects that will eventually change the face of the central business district and will likely return crowds to its presently lightly-traveled streets. Much is happening, and some of it is visible and exciting to sympathetic passers-by. Much more is taking place behind the scenes, and most of that is encouraging to the many who have always loved Uptown/Downtown Gastonia.

All is not encouraging, though. The City Manager's and Council's hotel/convention center silliness will not go away in spite of a growing tide of common sense that is rising from the Gastonia electorate. If someone with authority would simply stand and call for the thing to be done with once and for all, the steady, private-sector growth that can build a healthy Downtown of the future could continue unimpeded.

Government can never do as well as private investment can. Government spending is carried out with other people's money and usually has, at its root, the building of a few egos and a questionable "legacy" for some politician or group of politicians. (That term seems to be a foible of the Baby Boom generation, and its manifestation is usually as shallow as are some of our generations's members.)

In a nutshell, this is the common sense course for Downtown Gastonia to follow in order that the amazing engine of free, private enterprise (which is the ultimate expression of our liberty as Americans) may produce the maximum benefit for the area:

Get government bureaucracy out of the process. There are entrepreneurs a-plenty who are waiting for things to happen. That time is not far off.
Stop demolishing buildings. Every structure built before the eastward exodus of the 1970's should be considered untouchable, because it was placed there when the central business district (CBD) was still the best location for business and demanded the highest rents. Many of those structures also promise tax incentives for developers who will rehabilitate rather than remove. Use all the power of a supposedly business-friendly city government to encourage private development of every vacant building in the CBD, and provide every tax incentive possible.
Follow through with the hotel/convention center project, but at a site on which the structures are already built. The Commercial Building, at the southeast corner of Main Avenue and South Street is available for development as a boutique hotel, and it is surrounded by the 24,000 square foot, 975 person capacity former Eagle's Dime Store (most recently Dino's). Those buildings stand silently, waiting for someone to figure out the common sense solution to the most recent City Council-produced "dilemma."

TCE

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Commercial Building, Gastonia, N.C. Published by the Asheville Post Card Co., Asheville, N.C., circ

Remember Me as I Was
(Completed May 6, 2008.)

        The City of Gastonia is planning to demolish several buildings Downtown for a proposed hotel and convention center aimed at revitalizing the area. There has been healthy debate over the haste in which demolition was being pursued, and, as a result, the project is advancing without first clearing a site.
       Most of the debate over demolition has been focused on the three storefronts on West Main Avenue. (These can be viewed as they appeared in happier days in several places on this website.) Almost nothing, however, has been said about the huge monolithic structure that occupies the northwest corner of Franklin Boulevard and Marietta Street and was most recently the First Union National Bank (now Wachovia) Gastonia main office. Like a frail, wheelchair-bound resident of a nursing home or an empty, forlorn Victorian house awaiting the inevitable bulldozer, that building was once young, vibrant, and full of life. Before it is gone and our hope for Downtown's future is pinned on yet another vacant lot, it might be interesting to take one final look...and remember.
      In the summer of 1887, Laban L. Jenkins, just out of college, and his brother-in-law, John H. Craig, organized the Craig and Jenkins Banking Company. This was the first bank in Gastonia, and its first "vault" was a money waist belt.
       As the city grew, so did its banking needs. On June 8, 1890, the First National Bank was organized out of the Craig and Jenkins Company with an authorized capital of $50,000. The original officers were J.H.Craig, president; G.W. Ragan, vice president; L.L. Jenkins, cashier; J.D. Moore, teller; and Miss Carrie Boyce, bookkeeper. Through the years, a list of the officers of the First National Bank would read like a who's who of the city's prominent citizens and leading businessmen and industrialists.(1)
       On Monday, March 13, 1916, ground was broken on the north side of the 100th block of West Main Avenue for the construction of a seven-story headquarters for First National Bank. The beautiful and imposing structure, built of the finest materials then available, was occupied July 28, 1917 . It remained the home of First National Bank and its successor until 1956 and remains to this day one of Gastonia's most recognizable landmarks.(2)
       The stock market crash of 1929 and the difficult economic times that followed in the early 1930's ushered in the Great Depression and forced many banks, including FNB, to close. In 1933 it went into liquidation.

***

        The NATIONAL BANK OF COMMERCE was chartered October 22, 1934 and assumed 70% of the deposit liability of the First National Bank of Gastonia. It operated out of the seven-story building originally built by its predecessor. This new bank that had its roots in the old successfully weathered the remaining years of the Depression and provided financial leadership during World War II. In the late 1940's, an annex was constructed on the west side of the building to house the bookkeeping and loan departments.(3) (This is the structure that will be removed as part of the forthcoming renovation of the First National Bank / Lawyers' Building.)
       In 1955, the National Bank of Commerce sold its Main Avenue headquarters to a local businessman and automobile dealer, G.G. Walker, and announced plans to construct a modern, up-to-date building on the northwest corner of Franklin Avenue and Marietta Street. The annex was sold to John K. Voehringer of Greensboro, who also owned the adjacent commercial buildings all the way to South Street. This property had originally been the town square, and then later it became the site of an imposing Post Office building.
       The site of the future bank building was occupied by the former home of Elizabeth Caldwell Wilson, the widow of Joseph Harvey Wilson. Franklin Avenue had originally been lined by the palatial homes of prominent leaders of the city, and the site had been a prime residential location for the Wilson home when it was built shortly before World War I.(4) The house stood across the street from the manse of First Presbyterian Church facing Marietta Street. As with the other homes along Franklin, time had not been kind to it. Until 1949, it had served as the headquarters for the Eagles Club, a fraternal order, and after 1950, it had been cut up into apartments.(5)

***

        On October 29, 1956, the Gastonia Gazette announced the official opening of the building. A photograph on the front page featured Mayor Leon Schneider cutting the ribbon to begin a new era of banking in the city. Beside him stood the president of the National Bank of Commerce, J.G. Reading, and crowded around inside the entrance were bank officers and special guests.
       A festive series of events accompanied the opening of the building. An official dedication was held on Sunday, November 4 at 3:00PM; on Monday, November 5, stockholders of the bank toured the building at 6:00PM and were treated to dinner at the Masonic Temple at 7:00; on Tuesday, regional bankers were given a tour at 4:30 and a buffet dinner at the Masonic Lodge at 6:30. On Wednesday and Thursday, November 7 and 8, the general public was invited to tours of the building from 5-10PM and to register for a chance to win $2,500 in cash prizes. Miss North Carolina appeared Wednesday night, and on Thursday evening, guests were treated to the music of the Dean Hudson Dance Band with vocals provided by nationally-known big-band leader, Vaughn Monroe. They performed on a stage that had been constructed in the parking lot of the bank.
       On November 5, 1956, the Gazette was almost completely dedicated to the opening of the new bank building, which was announced to be one of the most modern in the nation. That day the paper was filled with congratulatory messages from Gastonia businesses and organizations. No detail of the marvelous new structure was omitted from attention.(6)

***

      The architect of the new bank building was H. Lloyd Hill of Atlanta, who specialized in bank designs.(7) Ronald Greene, a Gastonia architect, was his associate on the job. Construction was by Ernest R. Morgan, a noted Gastonia contractor.
       The cavernous banking floor on the second level could be reached by one of three ways: stairs with sleek aluminum handrails; a gleaming elevator manufactured by the Otis Company; or, most popular, an escalator or "rolling staircase," the first in the city, also by Otis. Every feature was designed for convenience, comfort, and efficient banking operation.
       The National Bank of Commerce offered drive-in as well as walk-in banking with three drive-in windows, located under the building on the first level. Access to the bank was through sets of double glass doors located on Franklin Avenue, Marietta Street, and from the parking lot on the partially open first level. Inside, the building consisted of two floors, a mezzanine, and space for the future addition of another floor.
       The exterior of the building featured clean, unadorned lines that reflected the most up-to-date design of the time in which it was constructed. The front (south), west, and north sides were faced with Mingle Buff brick. On the front elevation, the bricks were arranged to give the building the appearance of having louvers. On the side and back, they were laid in a running or common bond. On the east side, Indiana limestone formed a solid wall from the second floor to the top of the building. The entrance was accented with Ruby Red Granux, a stone based, man-made decorative structural material. A large limestone band ran continuously around the building upon which the three brick walls were constructed. The structure was designed to withstand an atomic blast.
       "National Bank of Commerce" was spelled out in large lighted block letters on the upper left corner of the east limestone facade and on the same relative corner of the brick front facing Franklin Avenue. The letters were designed to be seen from one-half mile away.

Features of the building also included:

Vault equipment by the Diebold Company;
Space for 3,000 safe deposit boxes;
Time Payment Department (consumer loans) on the first floor with four teller windows;
Soft music piped throughout the building by the Seeburg Music System;
A three-foot-square dumbwaiter that ran all three floors to carry work and supplies (also by Otis);
A five-foot clock on the west wall, set by remote control;
Telephones in decorator colors (the first in Gastonia);
A 40 ton air conditioning system with five separate cooling zones (ten tons of sheet metal ductwork);
Nine water fountains with water cooled by a central refrigeration system;
An emergency power plant;
Custom carpet on the lobby floor woven in the Greek Key pattern;
Eleven teller windows on the main banking floor to ensure prompt service;
Plaster walls lining the cavernous enclosure that made up the main banking floor were painted beige. Those on the east and west were overhung with large cherry wood panels that extended fron the ceiling to nine feet above the floor. The north and south walls were decorated with four large sculpted plaques designed and created for the building by Charlotte sculptor B.L. Kesselik. These featured representations of a machine shop, a textile plant, a school or church, a family, an industrial water tank, a farmer, machine shop equipment, and children.

       Thus the new headquarters of the National Bank of Commerce began its life and took its place as a landmark and a cornerstone of the built environment of the city of Gastonia.(8-11)
       Mr. J.G. Reading, the president of the bank stated, "We believe we have ample facilities for many years to come. We think it is truly an addition to the City of Growing Beauty."
       A tribute to the new bank building offered by the Akers Motor Lines of Gastonia proclaimed, "The formal opening of this ultra-modern banking house represents a proud day in the annals of Gastonia's business advancement. The new building is not only beautiful to see, but has every conceivable facility for rendering the highest type of banking service with promptness and efficiency."

***

On October 18, 1960, a mere four years after the new building's completion, the National Bank of Commerce was merged into the rapidly-expanding First Union National Bank of North Carolina. It served as the main office of First Union in Gastonia until September 2001, when that organization was merged into the Wachovia Corporation. At that time the building, once the marvel of a new age, was abandoned and left to the winds of change and chance. Now it stands as the first obstacle to a plan that recognizes nothing of its former place in the fabric of Gastonia's architectural heritage.(12-14)

We should pause for a moment...and remember.

TCE

(Sources for this article will be furnished upon request by e-mail.)

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