Newton Falls – How much history can you fit into one half-hour phone call? If you are talking with Dr. Everard Smith of Wilmington, NC-consider it a challenge accepted! Dr. Smith informally serves as historian and advisor, especially of the USO buildings, to Heritage Accord. You may recall, Heritage Accord is the association raising money to renovate the Newton Falls Community Center, bring it to its former glory and make it a gathering place for generations to come.
There recently have been a few articles in this newspaper regarding the Newton Falls Community Center, and the efforts of Heritage Accord. Heritage Accord is a 501c3 nonprofit all-volunteer organization, dedicated to renovating this beautiful building to its former glory. The HA has a 5-member board and is headed by Connie Smith-Talcott. Rose Guerrieri is a retired research librarian, who is relentless in grant-writing for HA. Steve Simpson is the secretary treasurer. Douglas Fuller is a retired architect specializing in historic preservation. And Dr. Smith, shares his research and experience gained from preserving the Wilmington USO Building.
Let’s get to know Dr. Smith, shall we? His resume is impressive. He holds a Ph D in History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His undergraduate degree is in History, from Yale. He has served as professor and administrator at University of North Carolina Wilmington for many years. While there, he specialized in Information Technology. In his retirement, he serves communities as a local historian. He has dedicated much of his time to ‘making people aware of what they are about to lose’ in regards to historic buildings.
HA has tapped Dr. Smith specifically because of his Wilmington experience. There is a building there, also a USO building from World War II, that fell into disrepair. It also faced being demolished as a money-saving way to make room for progress. It also was saved by a team of local activists dedicated to preserving history. Sound familiar? It should…
According to Dr. Smith, the Wilmington building was built in 1941, prior to the United States’ entry to World War II. As part of a Public/Private partnership, which later developed into the USO, these buildings were built in key locations across the country. During the war, attendance at this one was as much as 94,500 a month! Soldiers and war workers were entertained there, often by the piano playing of Hannah Block, who became known as the Matriarch of Festivities as well as Mrs. WWII Wilmington. It closed as an USO facility in 1946, and became a community center. In the 60s the focus shifted towards the arts. As time moved on, much of the history of this building was forgotten, and it fell into disrepair. At one time, the city was deciding to tear it down. Through efforts of like-minded people, Dr. Smith helped to raise awareness of the building’s national, historical and architectural significance. This helped to save the building. The city approved 1.3 million dollars to gut and replace the interior plumbing and electric work, and restore the building. It currently is leased by Thalian Association, who sees as their mission, to ‘honor and preserve history, and make it accessible to all.’ It now proudly houses a museum and a performing arts center. Named after the Matriarch of Festivities, the Hannah Block Performing Arts Center has creative arts camps, performances and classes year-round. The center is flourishing. What a wonderful homage to its namesake! You can see for yourself by visiting their website, www.wilmingtoncommunityarts.org.
The Hannah Block Building seemingly mirrors the fate of our own Community Center. It was built for the USO, it helped to entertain the troops. However, ours is a bit different. This USO was also built to help the war workers of the area. Of special significance, it was in part funded by the YWCA, and intended for use by the female war workers of the arsenal. People came to the area looking for war work, and the Arsenal provided that. Following the war, many of the workers dispersed, but some settled in the area for good. These retired ‘Rosies’ often served as Hostesses for the center.
As the history lesson concluded, the discussion with Dr. Smith turned to current events at the Newton Falls Community Center. Recently, there have been a number of community clean-ups and volunteer meetings there. The lawn and greenery are now neatly trimmed, the interior cleaned and open for very specific HA events. One such event was the recent Alumni tour given following the Newton Falls Class Reunion. HA President Connie Smith-Talcott welcomed the visitors and outlined the needs of the Community Center, and the events planned for fund-raising.
Heritage Accord is still at it, raising money for this renovation. Commemerative mugs are on sale at local shops. (BTW, the mugs make wonderful Christmas presents!) The HA has maintained a booth at different festivals throughout the summer. Plans are in the works for the January 80th Anniversary Dinner. And they are selling ducks. Ducks to pluck. Hmmm?
HA has been selling rubber ducks (whew!) to release into the pond adjacent to the Community Center. Each duck costs $5.00 and proceeds go directly to HA. They are on sale at many of the downtown merchants; Fieldview Acres Mercantile, Riverview Inn, and TLC Hair Designs. There is now a display at the Commerce Park on the corner of Center and Broad. This shows the number of duck sales so far. After this weekend’s efforts by volunteers, that should be going up! The Laughlin family (Linda, Tom and Dave) were selling ducks at the Shop and Save the weekend of October 16. It was a convenient way for the community to support the HA and get their weekly shopping done. Steve Simpson plans to be ducking it at Ace Hardware on October 23. HA will also have a booth at the Autumn in the Falls Festival that runs from 10:00am to 4:00pm on the same day. Rumor has it there may be a giant strolling, fiddle-playing duck wandering the streets of the festival. Plenty of time and places to get a duck!
Steve Simpson, Treasurer of Heritage Accord, is the coordinator of the Pluck-a-Duck event. He is assisted by Vonda Vencel, owner of Faces Café. Steve wishes he had half of her energy! They have put together quite a day of fun. Running noon to three, they will be there much earlier. There will be a ‘Chinese Auction’ for many great baskets. You can purchase 25 tickets for $10.00. There will also be a live auction for donated items. Music will be in the auditorium. There will be 3 to 4 different acts on stage. Matt Kadish will be doing his unique take on acoustic folk-rock. Then Jesse Carter will share her Americana repertoir of covers and originals. This will be followed by It’s About Time Duo, performing folk, pop and rock from the 50s and 60s. And perhaps a giant fiddle-playing duck might take the stage for a few jigs. Since all of this activity works up an appetite, Big D will be grilling burgs and dogs! (If you haven’t stopped into Big D’s Newton Grill on Milton Blvd, you are really missing out. It boasts the most creative burgers around.) The Mahoning River Dirty Ducks Kayaking group will be doing the plucking. Four of their members will be on the pond to pluck the winning ducks. Plucking will be happening at approximately 2:30.
Dr. Smith says it is important to make people aware of what they are about to lose. Only in that way can we save it. Heritage Accord, area merchants and community members have been sharing the historical and social importance of this building. Newton Falls Recalls was a featured article in this paper, sharing Evelyn Ballas’ stories around the building. Well, one more story…
Steve tells of his aunt and uncle, Ella May (they all called her Sam) and Shep. Sam was a recently divorced mother of two. She moved her family into a house in Warren. A friend talked her into going to a dance at the USO in Newton Falls. She met a soldier there, and they danced the evening away. They must have made quite a sight- Sam was all of 5 feet and Shep was over 6. Exactly one week later, he proposed. He said “I will show you the world if you will marry me.” They were married for 50+ happy years. True to his word, they lived in Germany, Japan, Guam and Australia. They settled in Australia, their favorite place. Their daughter, Blayne, is looking forward to coming from Australia to Newton Falls for the building’s grand reopening. She wants to dance on the same dance floor where her parents met. Let’s all be part of history, and Blayne’s dream. Get a duck, watch it get plucked, help an Aussie girl step into her history while preserving our collective history. See you in November!
