A dance hall that is just a memory

  Thanks to...

Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center for sharing this on Facebook.

"... This photograph by Don Talley features the exterior of the famous local juke joint, Roseland Gardens. Around 1920, or possibly as early as 1918, Horace Chambers Rutherford built a juke joint open to all people prior to integration in the U.S after he saw a need for a social gathering place for his friends and neighbors during a time when segregation prohibited the Black community from patronizing area restaurants, bars, pools, lakes, and music venues. Roseland Gardens’ reputation for lively entertainment spread quickly. Soon folks from as far away as Asheville, Old Fort, and Marion were regularly making their way up the narrow dirt road to Black Mountain’s Brookside community. Live music, performed by traveling musicians on juke joint circuits, helped keep patrons on their feet and dancing. Roseland Gardens closed in 1976.  

The building on Flat Creek Road that the renowned juke joint called home stood until the 2010s. However, despite many attempts to get the building registered as a historic landmark, it was eventually demolished in 2015. The original Roseland Gardens sign, as well as the movie projector, now reside at the Swannanoa Valley Museum and History Center in Black Mountain."

Early publication of this photo.

Later publication with some photo editing...not as clear for some reason!

Kat Debro in "Black Mountain News".

“People were coming here from all over, working at Montreat, Ridgecrest and Blue Ridge and of course those people had no way of socializing other than church,” said Rutherford’s granddaughter, Katherine Debrow, then 67, in a 2006 interview with Sally and Garry Biggers. “That’s why my grandfather built the juke joint. But he was also a businessman, and so he just came up with all these ideas of ways to make money." Quote above from "WNC History: 'Black Mountain Blues' at Roseland Gardens" By Anne Chesky Smith, in Asheville Citizen-Times, Feb. 19, 2023

When I arrived in Black Mountain in 2007, the building was already somewhat delapidated. Vines and a tree were growing over areas of it, and the roof canted a bit, as well as one of the walls. I learned that this used to be a dance hall for the Black community from my friend who lived up the mountain from its location.

I didn't go down that road often, so I didn't know when it was finally taken down.

Sepia Saturday suggests "short" for this week.

Today's quote:

'Your heart and my heart are very, very old friends.'

~ Hafiz