CityView Magazine

16 June 2021 Fond memories of downtown Fayetteville: e way it was BY WEEKS PARKER W hen I was very young, the population of Fayetteville was less than 50,000 people. Today it is more than 200,000. ere were no shopping malls, and almost all major businesses were on Hay Street. e Cumberland County Public Library was upstairs in the Market House. As a child, I fondly remember climbing a narrow set of steps that led to the library. As I ascended those steps, I observed a very thick rope hanging only a few feet away. at rope is still there today, and it was once used to manually ring the Market House bells to summon volunteer firemen to start the boiler in the old Selsby steam engine that at one time stayed under the Market House. When I was a student at Fayetteville High School, aer the winning of almost every football game some of the students greatly enjoyed celebrating the victory by illegally driving their cars through the Market House. Some of them also liked to pull the rope and ring the bells that could be heard all over town. Years later, the City of Fayetteville put a stop to riding under the Market House by building a small wall around it so it is now impossible to drive through it. FAYETTEVILLE HISTORY The Pittman Hospital, above, was later converted into the J.C. Penney Department Store. The City Hall is now on the lot where the old hospital and J.C. Penney Company once stood. The Colony Theater opened on May 28, 1941 . The Cumberland County Public Librar y used to be upstairs in the Market House. In the 1940s all major businesses were on Hay Street.

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