SEPTEMBER 9, 2010 ISSUE
Honoring Our Blue Ridge Heritage
Blowing Rock Celebrates Parkway Anniversary with Series of Events
This photo, also from the 1949 Parkway guidebook, shows a family enjoying the view of the mountains from Fox Hunters Paradise Overlook at Milepost 218.6. 
This map of the Blue Ridge Parkway was featured in a 1949 Parkway guidebook and shows the route of the Parkway from Shenandoah National Park to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. “The Blue Ridge Parkway, high road through Virginia and North Carolina, designed especially for the leisurely tourist, represents a new conception in roads,” begins a Parkway guidebook dated 1949. “It is not an express parkway of the type built about the big cities, but a quiet way through a distinctive part of the American scene—a road intended for gypsy-like travel on the ride-awhile, stop-awhile basis.”
Most likely, the majority of High Country residents have traveled the Parkway for some amount of distance at least once. With easy access available in the area, this road—the longest planned as a single unit in the United States—has provided millions with panoramic views, glimpses of deer, foxes and other wildlife, places to camp and gathering spots for friends and family.
On September 11, 1935, construction began on the first 12.5-mile section near the Cumberland Knob, and now, 75 years later, the Town of Blowing Rock will honor the Parkway’s anniversary with events and activities beginning this Saturday, September 11, with Art in the Park. The celebration will continue through Sunday, September 19.
The main focus of Blue Ridge Heritage Days will be a downtown street festival Saturday, September 18, which will shut down a portion of Blowing Rock’s Main Street from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., something that hasn’t been done in more than 50 years.
The festival will include entertainment, artists and crafters, a farmers’ market, classic cars and a street dance with The Neighbors and caller Phil Jamison.
The caller for the street dance will be Phil Jamison from Asheville. Jamison has called dances, taught and performed at music festivals and dance events throughout North Carolina, as well as across the country and overseas, for the past 30 years.
The street dance, beginning at 7:00 p.m., will wrap up the festival, and participants will have the chance to be part of an event that was common in the town’s past.
“They had a regular street dance on Main Street in the 1950s,” said Stephanie Keener, member services director of the Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce. “This will be the first street dance since then.”
For those who want to reminisce about driving the Parkway in style, a parade of classic and current cars will begin at 2:00 p.m. on Sunset Drive, featuring vehicles for each year of the Parkway’s existence. Keener said there are actually between 75 and 80 cars signed up for the event, including a 1955 Ford Thunderbird Convertible and a 1966 Chevrolet Corvair.
Entertainment will begin Saturday at noon and will continue throughout the festival, including bluegrass group Diana & Sarvis Ridge, the High Country Magic Cloggers, the Mountain Mixers from Linville and storyteller Glenn Bolick.
For specific times, see the included schedule of events.
Although two blocks of Main Street will be closed for the festival, vehicular access to Main Street will still be available via Sunset Drive, Chestnut Drive, Chestnut Street and Park Avenue. Morris Street will be accessible via Chestnut Drive, and parking will be available at the Maple Street lot, the parking deck on Wallingford and Broyhill Park.
For more information on Blue Ridge Heritage Days, call the Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce at 828-295-7851 or click to www.blowingrock.com/heritagedays.htm.
Schedule of Events
Saturday, September 11
Art in the Park will kick off Blue Ridge Heritage Days from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the American Legion grounds downtown Blowing Rock. Art in the Park features the work of 90 juried artisans in metal, fiber, watercolor and oil painting, wood, photography, basketry, jewelry, clay, glass and more. Admission is free.
A reception will also be held from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Blowing Rock Frameworks and Gallery in honor of the invitational art show “Art and the Parkway: A Love Affair.” Twenty regional artists have art featured in the show, which will be on display at the gallery beginning Monday, September 6, until Saturday, September 18.
Sunday, September 12
As part of the Concert in the Park series, the Blue Notes Dixieland Jazz Band will play beginning at 4:00 p.m. in Memorial Park in downtown Blowing Rock. The Blue Notes play in the New Orleans style and features eight traditional jazz instruments, including clarinet, trumpet, trombone, tuba, tenor sax, piano, drums and banjo.
Friday, September 17
See history and heritage on tour beginning at 4:00 p.m. with various walking and trolley tours focused on the area’s chapels and churches, the historic downtown area, entertainment spots and area architecture.
The “Chapels and Churches” tour will be held at 4:00 and 6:00 p.m. and will be a one-hour trolley tour featuring history and anecdotal tales of each building. The “Yesteryear” tour, held at 4:00 and 6:00 p.m., is a one-hour walking tour of downtown featuring local narratives and town trivia. “Rough Side of the Rock,” also at 4:00 and 6:00 p.m., will feature a one-hour trolley tour with tales of boisterous ventures and entertainment of the past, including stops and tours of Bistro Roca and Canyons, notable locations for activity during prohibition years. This tour is geared for adults. The architecture tour “Sticks and Bricks” will be held at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. with discussion and highlights on notable architecture and building trends throughout village history.
Tickets are $7.50 for each tour, and advance tickets are now on sale at the Blowing Rock Visitor Center. There is limited seating available for the trolley tours, so interested individuals are encouraged to get their tickets fast. Walking tours meet at the Blowing Rock History Museum or Edgewood Cottage, and trolley tours meet at the First Baptist Church on Sunset Drive.
One last tour, “Spooks and Shadows,” will take place at 9:30 p.m. This tour will introduce participants to some of the area’s “unofficial residents,” as Blowing Rock is full of tales of the supernatural. Bring cameras to try to catch some evidence of the beyond. This tour costs $10 and is geared toward teens and adults. Advance tickets are also on sale at the Blowing Rock Visitor Center.
For those who wish to bypass the ghost tour, Disney’s Cars will be shown at the Blowing Rock School Soccer Field at 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for children 11 and under.
Saturday, September 18
The highlight of Heritage Days, the street festival will begin at 10:00 a.m. and will end at 10:00 p.m. on Main Street in Blowing Rock. Featuring artists, classic cars and entertainment, there will be something for everyone. Vehicles from the past and present will be on display beginning at 11:30 a.m., and a parade featuring the cars will take place at 2:00 p.m. on Sunset Drive.
Cars of the past—such as this 1955 Ford Thunderbird Convertible—and the present will be on display Saturday, September 18, beginning at 11:30 a.m. A parade of vehicles will begin at 2:00 p.m. on Sunset Drive.
Entertainment will begin at noon with Diana & Sarvis Ridge on the Laurel Lane Stage. A Liars Competition will follow at 4:00 p.m., with a prize awarded to the person who tells the biggest lies or tall tales. Contestants will be judged by applause from those in attendance. The High Country Magic Cloggers and the Mountain Mixers from Linville will appear on the stage at 5:00 p.m., and a street dance with The Neighbors, with dances called by Phil Jamison, will take place from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m.
Sunday, September 19
Beginning at 9:00 a.m., the Mountain Home Music Breakfast will take place at the Meadowbrook Inn. This multimedia concert will focus on the history of circuit riding preachers, weddings and funerals in the mountains, the area’s first African American church, Billy Graham’s legacy and the art and architecture of Blowing Rock’s places of worship.
Tickets are $24 for adults, $18 for ages 12 to 15, $11 for ages 5 to 9 and free for children 4 and under. A buffet breakfast, music by Strictly Clean and Decent and music and commentary by Joe Shannon of Mountain Home Music are included in the ticket price.
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