What you will find is a beautiful space on the second floor of a restored building owned by Witt and Robert Barnes at 200 Sunset Street facing Howard Street. Witt & Robert are both natives of Rocky Mount, NC. who have a stake in the revitalization of historic downtown.
Cortne Pope, born and raised in Rocky Mount, NC across from City Lake has opened a new business on the second floor of the Sorsby Building. This beautiful young woman graduated from Rocky Mount High School. She attended Howard University in Washington, DC and Shaw University in Raleigh earning a biology degree. She fell in love with nursing at Nash Community College and continues to work in that profession today. In 2020, she found the space and location she’d been looking for. Emerson Esthetics opened in May of 2021 in the Sorsby Place building.
“The International Spa Associationdefines a medical spa differently than a day spa. A medspa has a licensed medical professional on-site, able to provide services not readily available through conventional spa facilities. The majority of medspas take a more comprehensive approach to treatments while simultaneously offering the relaxation and wellness attributes found in a day spa setting.”
Emerson Esthetics provides advanced treatments such as I-V and immunity infusions. I’ve had a facial with Cortne who explained step by step as we went along. When I look in the mirror, the effects continue to reveal themselves with dry skin renewing itself. One facial doesn’t make you a beauty queen, but I do look ‘more better.’
Cortne said, “I could have opened my business elsewhere, but it was important to me to open the spa in Rocky Mount.” We have a building saved and repurposed, a new business created, with spectacular results, a team of wellness and beauty specialists are waiting at the top of the stairs to take care of you. You will make a lovely new friend as I have, Cortne Pope, who has planted her flag in historic downtown Rocky Mount.
I feel lucky to have experienced a moment in time that is the emerging downtown. Standing with Cortne, we looked out the impressive palladium window on to Howard Street. A man was working on his car. He looked up and waved. We waved back. Cortne motioned him to come over. What a blessing this turned out to be. It was Garland Jones, pastor of Mount Zion Christian Church on the corner of Sunset and Main, backing up to Howard Street. At least 45 minutes later we hugged goodbye. Filled with good Garland Jones stories and a few history lessons, I was having a Stepheny kind of day. I’m still smiling! It was a Spa day and the company of lovely and interesting new friends. My photos never do things justice, but iI will give you a look into the new wellness and beauty world of Emerson Esthetics. Way Cool!
Head to the Salvage Store on Falls Road for a fun outing. How about taking in the Farmers Market while you are at it. Board Members worked hard cleaning up and organizing this past Saturday. Under Jean Bailey’s direction, Lea Henry, Whitney Shearin, Wanda Alford and Renny Taylor, all board members, spiffed things up. I took a before photograph of the sinks that are available. The shot to have gotten was after Lea decided she would clean them up!
This blog post salutes the volunteers in all the Rocky Mount organizations. For a love of the cause, volunteers put in amazing hours, doing all manner of things like our PRM President, Adrienne Copland who hauled a truck load of bagged ‘stuff’ to the dump. I’d say that is a “hands on” girl!
You have time to think about your restoration projects, your DIY needs. Bring your measurements with you for that door surround, mantle, door, and window you’re looking for. As I write this, I’m not sure if a food truck is still in play, but come have fun, shop, hang out with like-minded preservationists, get new ideas, be amazed over the inventory of the Salvage Store that is calling to you. See you soon! SFH
Main Street Rocky Mount and the surrounding streets (Tarboro, Washington, Thomas, Church to name a few) is the place to go for delicious food or a glass of wine, a cup of coffee, great Southern cooking. You can even have the ‘Best Sandwiches Ever’ on the Douglas Block. They all have their unique atmosphere and are welcoming. The restaurant choices continue to grow from the Rocky Mount Mill to the old standbys…Chew & Chat, The Central Cafe, The Shiny Diner, the area around Harris Tetter on Sunset Avenue. Covid knocked these businesses upside the head, but they survive to tell that story. Beyond ‘pick-up’ you can safely, park your car, and come on in.
With eyes to see and a heart for change, I hope you will acknowledge, that in spite of other things, SO MANY good things are happening each day. The preservation, restoration, and repurposing of the commercial buildings in the historic downtown area are becoming supercalafractiousexpalodous; a word we all learned from Mary Poppins.
Come downtown and enjoy the evolving scene. My dream has come true! Saturday, March 20, first come, first served at The Prime Smokehouse or Tap 1918 at the Mill. I can’t wait to have trouble finding a parking place during the week so I can say to the naysayers…..”See I told you so.”
Below: Lou Reda’s on Sunset, Blanches Bistro on Tarboro, Larema Coffee on Tarboro, Moe & D’s on Church, Traxs at Station Square and MORE.
When you read about the new agenda and the upgraded version of PRM, I hope you will pay a single membership of $20.00 and add your voice to the year’s agenda, announced this evening by the new president. The presence of PRM in the community, their leadership, and commitment to the Preservation of Rocky Mount’s story and architectural assets is essential. With renewed energy and purpose, it is the time to get involved with a significant piece of the revitalization of Rocky Mount. Below you will find the new talented board members and the five returning members. Main Street is delighted to highlight these creative, knowledgeable, professional, people with their hearts for Preservation.
Block One: Adrienne Copland, Whit Barnes, Lea Henry
Block Two: Tessa Wood-Woolard, John Jesso, Tierra Norwood
Block Three: Sarah Tripolli Johnson
Block Four: Jean Bailey, Whitney Shearin, Stepheny Houghtlin
Originally, tossing a coin in the fountain was supposed to ensure good health. The meaning evolved. People believed that the dwellers of a well would grant them their wish if they threw a lucky coin to pay a price. The tradition of dropping pennies in ponds and fountains stems from this. While growing up, most of us put coins in a piggy bank, either breaking it open or pulling a plastic plug in it’s belly to remove the coins when needed. I have a grown-up piggy bank; a red tin English phone box that came with candy inside.
“What’s this about Stepheny?”
“Whitaker’s NC Preservation group had a spaghetti fund raiser this past fall on a Sat. It cost $7.00. I have a soft spot in my heart for this group. They asked me to come and speak when they were getting started. You couldn’t help but love them with their dreams, hopes, and plans to save their ‘Main Street.’ I decided I would save quarters from the day I read about the event until the day I got in my car to drive to Whitakers. I had $20.00 to take with me.”
Nancy Jones Taylor and Stepheny – not out best photo but all I have. Nancy is the wind under the sails of Whitaker Preservation
I hope you read the last blog post about the updated version of PRM. If not, please do. I invite you to start throwing coins in a Preservation Rocky Mount mason jar. I only saved $20.00 in my tin bank by the day of the Whitakers preservation fundraiser. Not much, but we all know every little bit helps. I don’t know the exact fundraising project that we will need your mason jar for, I only know it will be welcomed at the right time. I know the project will be worthwhile and you will want to help. The new board will be voted upon on January 25 at a 6:00 Zoom member’s meeting. I’ll be providing a link for the 1/2 hour meeting when it becomes available. In the mean time, if you hear someone humming in your ear, Three Coins in a Fountain, that will be me.
By now, the morning sun was just over the horizon and it came at me like a sidearm pitch between the houses of my old neighborhood. I shielded my eyes. This being early October, there were already piles of leaves pushed against the curb—more leaves than I remembered from my autumns here—and less open space in the sky. I think what you notice most when you haven’t been home in a while is how much the trees have grown around your memories. – Mitch Albom
705 Arlington Street
A block of homes on Arlington Street in Ward #3 provides another look at the heart of Rocky Mount; its neighborhoods. Walking the block with my camera in hand, it was an ‘if only’ moment when I wished I had the money to invest in Rocky Mount’s neighborhoods. I treated myself to some leaf-kicking while sauntering along. I refrained, however, from picking up leaves here and there as I once did on the way to school.
There is always a favorite find on a block where the trees have grown around it as if protecting a secret jewel only the neighborhood is privileged to see. I must say the house seems mysterious viewed through overgrown “stuff.” (731 Arlington Street will soon be featured on the Main Street Facebook page. Hope you’re following.)
It turned out to be another “Honey, what you doin'” moment. I made a new friend, Keith Graham, who lives and is restoring his home at 727 Arlington St. Mr. Graham is a tight bundle of strength; his energy makes him appear bouncing on his toes as he showed the work he has already accomplished. Lucky for Rocky Mount, he owns some other rental properties that he is working on with the same enthusiasm. Mr. Graham showed me the small tree he has planted in the front yard for a nephew who has died. I listened to several other family stories that I felt privileged to hear. Image what an example this would be if this one block of homes on Arlington Street, a major artery, was restored. The revitalization of neighborhoods for our housing needs is a necessity and the answer to many of our problems.
Mr. Graham’s House 727 Arlington711 Arlington Street715 Arlington Street719 Arlington Street723 Arlington Street727 Arlington Street -A Different View735 Arlington Street
One of the payoffs of revitalization in Rocky Mount is people being able to say, I am living as a person who is Somewhere and not just Anywhere. I encourage you to drive through downtown and through the Wards, to reconnect with Somewhere! I often say, “Wow, look at that…or with dismay, “Oh, my goodness, how can this be?” Neighborhood after neighborhood, there are homes like these on Arlington Street. With a plan, ingenuity, investment, neighbors helping neighbors to even rehang a shutter, things can change for the better. Community Buy-In is my newest bumper sticker. You have to Believe!
One of my favorite renditions is Willie Nelson singing September Song – – Oh, it’s a long long while from May to December but the days grow short when you reach September….I’m sure you can’t believe, nor can I, that June, July, and August are behind us. A summer not without blessings, but over-all, a horrendous time.
At the beginning of most summers, I make a mental list of what I want to do again as in my childhood summers. To walk barefoot in the dew-wet grass, eat homemade peach ice-cream, lug books home from the library, run under the sprinkler, catch fireflies in a Mason jar, swing on the porch, have a picnic, see the fireworks at Northwestern’s Dyke Stadium, and ride my bike. The list goes on. I did eat watermelon, walked barefoot in the grass, and read books to my heart’s content. The rest of my list didn’t materialize. I traded it all away with the time spent watching the horror of mobs running loose, looting and burning, our historical monuments being pulled to the ground, jumping up and down over the Rocky Mount shenanigans of old. A terrible trade-off!
I’m not naive enough to think that because we have crossed the threshold of September that our troubles are over. Particularly, as we battle down the field to the elections. It isn’t a bad idea to pick one of your sacred places, like the beach, or a hidden spot in the garden, perhaps your favorite chair, and shelter there, if only in your imagination to put yourself right again when the world’s woes are over-bearing.
This brick wall is going to be my sheltering place, which I only discovered when a friend invited me over specifically to place my hand on her back garden wall. This wall is made of Silus Lucas brick. (Below). Mr. Lucas had a major brickyard here and sold brick in other states from the Civil War era to the early 1900s. This wall was laid around 1955 when the homes on Marvelle Avenue were being built in the West Haven area.
A brick can be used to build a courthouse of reason, or it can be thrown through the window. – Gilles Deleuze
Going back for photographs, I found the owners had pulled away some of the ivy. This fall I will think of this brick wall and remember how strong it is, how it has endured all manner of elements, its age has not mattered, it continues true to itself, a thing of beauty and stability. The same attributes I associate with America, the shining light on the hill that must prevail.
PS: The lovely home on Marvelle is for sale.
PPS: These are precious days I spend with you. SFH
I tend to romanticize things on Main Street…..I offer no apology. This tendency explains how I came to believe there is a Band of Brothers changing the scene in historic downtown. I love meeting and writing about individuals from various walks of life and backgrounds investing their time and resources. It is these people saving and repurposing Rocky Mount’s commercial architecture who provide a necessary economic driver.
When Troy White’s building came tumbling down in an 80 mile an hour wind, it felt like someone slapped me upside the head with some of the comments left on Concerned Citizens; a group of important voices who try to serve as watchmen on the tower. While reading, I thought, “Wait a minute, this isn’t right!” What happened to ’We few, we happy few, we band of brothers?’ -from a speech in Shakespeare’s Henry V.
The King proclaims….But we in it shall be remember’d;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother…
As fate would have it, Troy and the team arrived an hour before the storm hit. They were there to assess the next steps in bringing the building back to life. Engineers were involved with the necessary procedures to save the building. Then the wind took the structure into its own hands. Troy White, has already demonstrated how vested he is in the mission of saving downtown’s future. He could have used some support that at least said, “Your loss is our loss.” For the record, Mr. White paid for any and all clean up that was necessary. There are now design plans in the works for a new building, which will be sensitive to the continuity of the historic downtown setting.
When we lost this building, I was certain of the downtown Band of Brothers. They would offer help. Maybe drop water bottles off because of the heat. They would bring encouragement with their ‘one for all’ attitude, perhaps bring a push broom or shovel? With little, if any, sign of these Brothers, coupled with the comments that followed, we are damn lucky Troy White didn’t give us the famous Duke basketball gesture when opponents foul out – – SEE YA
This ‘all for one’ attitude is imperative. Everyone who is involved in creating the new emerging downtown scene deserves respect and shall have a turn leading the Main Street Parade. If you doubt the necessity of this investment money, think about the majority vote on the City Council who have served 20 years or more. Under their watch, statistics show a decline in homeownership, a loss of jobs, higher crime, and commercial and residential housing boarded up and deteriorating.
The City Council Chambers
We need individuals who are vested in the historic collection of architecture on Main Street, and beyond. The real issue behind the smokescreen-cry of racism, is the “My Will Be Done” agenda. Anyone that does not support this agenda will have to endure intimidation, the threat of losing a job, actually losing that job, or threats concerning their businesses. People are hired and fired according to their willingness to serve this agenda. It is no longer a carefully held secret. The names of the usual suspects are spoken every day. Should you need further evidence of what this so-called leadership has accomplished, go, and look at the shameful decline in the neighborhoods. It is obvious that nothing comes from nothing. It is new investment that is saving Main Street.
It may be a Chicago thing, but are you familiar with the expression, no tickey, no washey? There is an economic imperative at stake here. Vested individuals are essential. Those profiting from the “My Will” agenda have tried to sabotage the word investor. “These ‘carpetbaggers’ are taking away what belongs to us.” Don’t believe that for a moment. Instead, believe that all those vested in building a future for Rocky Mount deserve our thanks and prayers.
The “My will Agenda” is the real issue. The plan we already have, bought and paid for, doesn’t support “The Agenda,” so we need a new one. The Main Street program is dismissed for the same reason. Think about The Carlton House that was sabotaged for the sake of a new hotel and parking garage. Does anyone doubt that the usual people will line their pockets with that deal? The Band of Brothers faces this agenda every day. If these people would accept the notion that alone we can do so little, but together, accomplish so much. it is a reality that should be embraced. We need black and white-owned businesses scattered throughout the historic downtown. Together, the obstacles that the agenda mandates can be addressed.
Ben Braddock at Station Square- A Main Street Campion
When I read the erroneous remarks from the City Council meeting that keep declaring there is no difference between Main Street Accreditation and Affiliate, I repeat, there is a difference, dagnabbit! An Affiliate status has resources that help new communities get started with this successful program, BUT, Accreditation comes along later when you submit the yearly paperwork proving that you are following and achieving the Programs guidelines. If that is accomplished and you are given accreditation status, you become eligible for grants that affiliation cannot participate in. No accreditation, no money. If you missed my recent blog about this subject, CLICK HERE
In March I attended the NC Main Street Program in New Bern, NC. Kevin Harris was the only one from our City Government. I met the whole planning and development staff of other counties. City Managers attended. CLICK HERE for the post I wrote -We’re On The Road to New Bern.
This isn’t the TV show, Kids Say The Darndest Things. It is the reality show on City Council where those who are committed to the MY WILL BE DONE agenda make no room for this valuable and proven program to assist cities in reinvigorating historic downtown. To insist that there is no difference between an affiliate designation and an accredited status hopes you aren’t that interested in the first place or likely to give much thought to what losing our accreditation may have cost us. It isn’t that the MY WILL BE DONE agenda doesn’t know better, they don’t want you to know better. Here is what you hear.
“But it seems to me there’s really not a big difference between being accredited and affiliate”, Knight said.“And plus all the work that we are currently doing downtown and what we are proposing to do downtown, I think would be more than an A-plus once these projects come into fruition.” The City Manager said, “I agree with you., the paper seemed to have been hung up on accreditation versus affiliation when, in fact, there’s really no difference at all.” This is wrong.
Here is the point of accreditation and what it means to have lost ours.
“Accredited communities are eligible for occasional funding opportunities through the National Main Street Center, that are only available to accredited communities, such as the National Park Service Main Street Façade Improvement Grant program that Lenoir, Elkin, and Elizabeth City received – $46,000 each for façade improvements in downtown; the Grills Fund for COVID recovery initiatives, that New Bern received; and from time to time, other opportunities that may arise. Accredited communities are eligible for awards, like the Great American Main Street award. Goldsboro was a runner up for this award a few years ago and it is a national recognition. Goldsboro received another grant for around $35,000. Again – only accredited communities are eligible.” —Elizabeth (Liz) H. Parham, Director, NC Main Street
To think that the City of Rocky Mount continues to be in the hands of but a few. What a power trip it must be to know that MY WILL BE DONE continues without a judgment day, allowing the MY WILL agenda to continue on. For this, we are facing immeasurable damage to our reputation, credit ratings; bullying, and deflection go on. If only our lost accreditation were a single problem before us. Alas, there is much more.
I want to tell you one of my many Main Street experiences. It happened this past Spring with a trip downtown to photograph some commercial buildings that Mr. Knight owns. (There is one in particular that I love and keep my eye on.) I first took these photos on July 17, 2018. Today, July 11, 2020, the building looks the same only ‘worser.’
I got out of my car that day in a state of mourning over the further deterioration of this structure. I took new photographs to prove that if Mr. Knight truly meant the things he waxes poetic about, he would have set an example, and at least stabilized this building to save it. He would act as a responsible property owner who cares about the historical significance of our facades that make a continuous blend of excellent commercial architecture.
I’ll get no satisfaction in this matter until more of the community gets proactive and sees Main Street for what it is: a valuable asset to be protected, an economic driver, a place people believe in, our investing in, and are the wind under the sails of the revitalization that is going on. It makes no sense to me that once segregated in the Douglas Block area, there is now this call for a black business area that segregates blacks all over again. If the point to this is to segregate white people, it is a miscalculation to think I, for one, would stop getting out of my car and talking to black people on the corner or in the middle of the street. Most whites are color blind as our most blacks. It’s only those who refuse to live their lives as free men and women and realize that today it is one’s heart that defines a person, not the color of their skin.
It must be true what they say, one who is abused can become an abuser. Those who were segregated, now want to be segregated again. A successful revitalization has no color attached to it but supports and encourages come one, come all, to honor the past, and help build a future. Mr. Knight, who owns buildings on Tarboro St. and Washington St. has my vote of no confidence because he protected his cronies, letting them ignore ordinances, and stood by while their buildings continue to rot and cave in. Those who could’a/should’a make a difference, didn’t.
The reason I tell this story: There were three men standing in front of a nearby building that same day. One of them, by himself, has renovated and repurposed a great looking barbershop on the 2nd floor of a Main Street building. I walked over to join them and we talked. Nice people who then led me to see the bar on the corner and further.
When I got ready to leave, the older of the three men said he would walk me back to my car. I took his arm. Upon reflection, I realize I do this as a sign of my affection and acknowledgment that I am in the company of a gentleman. I am grateful to these three men who included me, were willing to tour a bit with me, and showed no sign that because I am white, it made a difference to them. They being black certainly made no difference to me. We need to get a grip, as the younger folks say, and welcome any and all who believe in Main Street where ever they find a building in the downtown area. We better start looking through a better lens to size people up. I repeat, today it is people’s hearts, not the color of their skin that matters
I want to tell you one of my many Main Street experiences. It happened this past Spring with a trip downtown to photograph some commercial buildings that Mr. Knight owns. (There is one in particular that I love and keep my eye on.) I first took these photos on July 17, 2018. Today, July 11, 2020, the building looks the same only ‘worser.’
