This is an introduction to a project that I hope to partially fund with the money I earn from Steemit.
Let's start back in the first half of the 20th century when this building was constructed by Italian stonemasons in East Jenkins, Ky. The photo below shows a view across the street from the building.
Jenkins Was a "Coal Camp," which meant that the company who owned the coal mines owned everything from the houses the miners lived in to the food that they ate. Even the currency used to buy those things was from the company and was called scrip, like the old song "16 tons" says,
"Some people say a man is made outta mud
A poor man's made outta muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong
You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store"
Life was not easy for a miner, simpler maybe, but the bodies of so many miners were sacrificed to satisfy the intent of industry and what was decided to be progress for our nation. In the days when the Whitaker Music Store building was constructed, mines were smaller and driven by human and animal labor, there were no environmental regulations or workers rights. There wasn't even anyone to stop my grandfather from being recruited by his own father to wield a pick and start working on his ninth birthday, and that pattern continued to a lesser extent with my own father who took a job in a mines when he was fifteen. I'm sure we will find a lot of time to talk about the impact of the coal industry in future posts, but I think it's relevant to mention, as Jenkins now wears the slogan "A City Built on Coal," when it should read "A City Built on the Backs of Miners"
While Jenkins and all the other coal camps rode on the crest of the industrial wave, the people of the mountains became, shall we say, modernized. Let's look at what purpose the building in question served in its heyday.
Just imagine the excitement! Amusement machines, records, pinball, jukeboxes; these were there trade of Ervin Whitaker and Ervin Whitaker Jr, also the family had ran a bar out of the bottom of one of the buildings, sold firearms, served food to families whose men were away during World War II, sold army surplus, ran a coin shop, furniture store, and even a dress shop as depicted in an old advertisement I found dated March 1937. I heard that Jack Max moved to New York and ended up murdering his wife after a falling out with Whitaker over the business.
My Dad and his brothers used to run around with Ervin Jr. working on Jukeboxes and pinball machines, and one time Ervin even provided sanctuary for an uncle of mine who was running from the law! There are still certificates of achievement on the wall of the store for Ervin's success and innovation in Coin Automation world, but that wasn't his only claim to fame, he also served in the Navy, and was a father and grandfather. I never heard of Ervin playing an instrument though, even when I would make frequent visits to the music store to by the often rusty strings he sold. That whole family was business savvy and I learn more about them everyday. In some ways I feel like acquiring this building has given me a bit of an honorary position in the family.
According Ervin, he kept his shop open as long as he did because he was used to it. He knew that there was never going to be much money in it for him once the bypass was put in, he was right. The state brought a four-lane road, the new Route 23, which bypassed the old Route 23, which runs right in front of the store. It was such a slap in the face to him, and I can understand, especially when the state put up all these signs along the new four lane that read "The Country Music Highway." Ervin made sure I knew that the old Route 23 was the TRUE Country Music Highway. Ervin passed away a few years ago in a VA hospital, a couple years before that someone robbed him at gunpoint and assaulted him.
We got a heaping helping of "progress" here, but once the coal industry started mechanizing it offered fewer jobs, but at least people fought for unions and got higher wages and some benefits in the struggle. Then the destructive practice of surface mining or "Mountaintop Removal" further devalued the people and the mountains, by not only stripping away jobs but by stripping away the land that we had come to define ourselves by in many ways. When the progress outpaced us here, the vacuum flushed the businesses and so much more. The boom died down and people left for work elsewhere, like my Maternal grandfather who left to work in Detroit for forty years before he retired and headed straight back for the mountains.
So much of our identity has been lost in the push and pull from outside forces on this region, but music has preserved what might otherwise be lost. It's obvious how important music was to Ervin Whitaker, it gave him a purpose that undoubtedly has spread out in to the communities where his jukeboxes echoed in the hollows off the hillside. He even had a kind of hall of fame in the store, that depicted local talent in bluegrass, traditional, and country music.
So this is where I am at. Through a very generous personal loan from a previous employer and current friend/mentor, I am given the chance to give meaning back to this landmark. It all started with some videos I uploaded to facebook trying to get anyone interested in acquiring the building, i never imagined it would fall in my hands, but I gladly accept the responsibility. Currently I am working on securing the roof, but there has been a lot of clean up. The following pictures are too common in old structures like this, and they are also a testament to the results of the boom and bust of the coal industry, what it has promised and subsequently withdrew the people of Appalachia. There are two apartments upstairs, the ground level store portion, and the a full basement the last of which is not pictured.
This is after a couple days of clean up on the ground level.
This was the next step
And further
and this is a panoramic of the space
I have cleaned up some in the apartments upstairs, this is where we are with them. . .
The major concern at the moment is the roof,
I am cutting out a tarred-up, inadequately overlapped section
and then slipping new metal under
Then there is the old radio repair shop on another parcel nearby that I will post about later.
The working title of the project is "The Whitaker Mountain Music and Education Center" and I hope to expand some of the after-school programming in traditional music that is happening in the area, create a space that is kind of like a music museum/community space, facilitate other programs in the region that involve education, gardening sustainability, renewable energy, technology, and whatever need we decide should be addressed in our communities and the wider world. It's a seed in the ground, a big one, and I hope to show you all how possible it is to grow.
View from the Roof
Thanks for reading!
Love from sturdy stone foundations,
Tommy