CityView Magazine

travelers of all categories since Fayetteville was the halfway point between New York City and the Florida hotspots. The city's classiest hotel was the Prince Charles. The Old Lafayette Hotel (at 207 Hay St.) and the Millbrook (at 101 Green St.) were nice but were beginning to show age spots then. The Rainbow Hotel, located at 221 Hay St., was the pick for many traveling businessmen. Trailer camps, motels, and tourist homes offered additional lodging. Travelers frequented tourist homes in part because of the Southern cooking and hos- pitality that were offered. Bender, Horne's, MacKeithan and the Fayetteville Drug Company were phar- macies where people would purchase Full Range of Dental Services To: Infants Children Adolescents Special Need Patients Services Include: Cleaning Restorative Dentistry Hospital-Based Surgery Nitrous Oxide Sedation Conscious Sedation 910.485.8749 1367 Walter Reed Rd. Suite 103 Fayetteville, NC 28304 www.highlandpediatricdental.com 40 | Anniversary Issue • 2011 medicine, first aid and health supplies. Since the nation was still segregated, the Henderson Drug Company on Person St. and Service Drug Company on Matthews Street were popular pharmacies for the city's black residents. Detroit's Big Three ruled the automo- tive industry and anyone wanting a new vehicle had an array of choices: Yarbor- ough Motor Company and Bleecker Mo- tors on Russell Street, M & O Chevrolet on Franklin Street, Wheatley Motors on Russell Street, T & B Super Service on Hay Street, Bryan Pontiac on Russell Street and Dickinson Buick on Maiden Lane, which is now the location of the Headquarters Library. "Buying a car was more of a pleasure than a chore back then," Gilbert said. "You were treated different and everyone waited in anticipation for the release of new models." Fayetteville had bubbling bottling business in the 1950s and its own ver- sion of cola wars, with Pepsi Cola, Double Cola, Royal Crown, Dr. Pepper, Grapette and 7-Up bottling plants here. Churches were a bigger part of the culture in 1951, making the downtown an inhabited hub seven days a week. There are at least six churches in the downtown area that have stood the test of time and today are on the list of the National Reg- istry. They include: First Baptist Church, Hay Street United Methodist Church, St. John's Episcopal Church, First Presbyte- rian Church, St. Joseph Episcopal Church and Evans AME Zion Church. Children were a part of the scenery downtown during the week as well, as Cen- tral School on Burgess Street, Fayetteville Jr. High on McGilvery Street, Fayetteville Sr. High on Robeson Street, Haymont School at the corner of Hay Street and Hillside Avenue, Person Street School, E.E. Smith on Washington Drive and Orange Street School (which is now on the His- toric Registry) were educational outlets. The four streets — Gillespie, Green, Person and Hay — that grew from the Market House were the arteries of the city. History spews from this centering point. The Market House was the original site of the State House. The current building was built in 1832. City Historian Bruce Daws had a simi- lar experience to that of Gilbert. He came to Fayetteville in the early 1970s, taking over his current position in 1996. While he wasn't in Fayetteville in the 1950s, he sees the imprint it left. "It was a different time, a hopping down- town that was the place to see and be seen," Daws said. "Houses were within walking dis- tance, people bought their necessities there and it was a place where it all happened." But so-called progress happened, too and the downtown was slowly abandoned. And while it will never be as it was in 1951, it has taken on a new image. Though it may never again be the commercial center it was in 1951, it is beginning to have the same feel as it once did. "It's become like a phoenix reinvent- ing itself," Daws said. "It's become a place of culture, studios, museums, art, theater, and so much more. "It's rising again. I'm very proud of our downtown." In the past 20 years scores of cities and towns across the country have tried and failed to revitalize downtowns, despite pouring millions of dollars into them. Judged against all others, Fayetteville's downtown ranks among the best. Daws said many "modern" structures built from 1950 through 1970s have been torn down. "We're losing them at an alarming rate because they're not historic in terms of age," he said. "Endangered modern archi- tecture looks dated to people even though I'd beg to differ." CV

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