Newspapers / Forest City Courier (Forest … / Jan. 3, 1929, edition 1 / Page 6
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Spindale House Plays Conspicuous Part in Welfare of People Building is a Memorial to One of The Most Interesting and Unusual Men in History of Cotton Manufacturing • in State BY MAUD MINISH SUTTON Organized community work in mill towns is no longer an experiment. It exists in some form or other in near ly all of the large textile centers. The origin of this movement is com paratively recent, and there are still conflicting opinions about its usefulness. Spindale house, one of the most beautiful community houses in any textile town, is an unqualified suc cess and its work surely justifies the existence of a community center with trained leaders in the little town in the foothills that calls itself, "The Home of Fine Textiles." A LIVING MEMORIAL. Spindale House is a living memo rial to one of the most interesting and unusual men in the history of cotton manufacturing in North Car olina. There is a bronze marker in the long hall of the house that bears this inscription: • "Spindale House For the recreation of the people of Spindale. Established in loving memory of Simpson Bobo Tanner Pioneer manufacturer of Rutherford county Dec. 8, 1854—July 3, 1924 And his wife, Lola Spencer Tanner, Dec. 30, 1865, Feb 22, 1920 and their son Jesse Spencer Tanner Aug. 31, 1902—Nov. 31, 1923." The house, a long low picturesque building of red brick in colonial architecture stands in a grove of big oak trees across the street from the clustered group of big factories that have grown up from the first mill established by Mr. Tanner some forty years ago. It is truly a beauti ful and fitting memorial to the life of a man who for Seventy-eight years thought, dreamed and worked . at Spindale. Tourists on Highway 20 admire it and comment on its beauty and the groups of people always in the grounds. For Spindale House is used. It furnishes wholesome amuse ment, never obtrusively uplifting in nature. Athletics, a play ground, court, a well equipped gym, with showers and lockers, a library, a games room, a community kitchen and dining room, an excellent audi torium and the beautiful grounds are the features of Spindale House. ALL FEATURES USED All of these features are used. The attendance at the house is remark ably large. The library shows a re cord of from 23 to 40 books loaned daily. It is one of the most inter esting places at Spindale House. Its six big windows, framing lovely views of green lawns and. big trees, give it beauty. It is a friendly room SORE | 5 Could Not Rest : S * Jj Mrs. J. EL Nichols, who lives at J * 613 Elm Tree Lane, Lexington, n C Ky., says: " jj "Some few years ago, my health [J N was bad. I had very severe pains n J in my sides. My nerves were in S J a terrible condition. I could not J n rest m £ "The lower part of my body S jj was very sore. I did not feel like J x eating, and did not sleep well at * £ all at nights. • J JJ "A Mend of mine recommend- J ¥ ed CarduL I began taking it and * 2 saw quite an improvement in my * JJ condition. I kept it up until I * I felt strong and welL" ME ! a year ago, Mrs. Nichols 3 J says, she found herself in a ner- jj « vous, run-down condition. *1 took « ! Cardui again," she adds, "and it * JJ helped me wonderfully. It is a * • splendid tonic." tf a Cardui is a mild, medicinal « J tonic, made from purely vegeta- J « ble ingredients. / J 4 ! At all druggists. ! MM 4 f IN USE BY [ |L WOMEN FOR OVER SO YEARS F with gracious proportions. Its fur niture is simple and well arranged and the books in the long book cases carry out perfectly the elusive spirit that, makes Spindale House unique. They are books well chosen "for the recreation of the people of Spin dale." They were evidently selected by some one with a Catholic taste, j who reads widely, knows and loves books and is not burdened with a desire to make a lesson of every story read. Most of the well known modern authors, realists, roman tisists and "in betweens," are repre sented; and the books by Sinclair Lewis show as may traces of usage as do those by Zane Grey or Mere dith Nicholson. . When I saw the library "The Ro mantic Comedians" and a number of good qiagazines lay on one of the reading tables and at another table two girls and a young man were working on an attractive poster that advertised a community activity. This work went on quietly while I talked to the director of the house about the library. None of the rules that are necessary in larger libraries govern the library at Spindale House. There are no fees except for over due or injured books and the maga zines and papers are read there dur* ing library hours. ROOM FOR GAMES. Across the wide hall from the li brary is the games room. It is ex actly like the library and from its windows a beautiful view of the Blue Ridge can be seen. It is equipped with tables, chairs and many varie ties of games. A checker tourna ment was a feature of the long win ter evenings last year and prospec tive entries for another this year are being discussed. „ The gymnasium at Spindale House is used continuously. The winter schedule, which opened November 5, offers classes for boys from 8 to 12, girls of the same age, girls 12 to 16 and boys 12 to 16, in the after noons and there are three night classes that meet twice weekly. An athletic club that puts out one of the best basket ball teams in the state is one of the most popular and in teresting uses to which the gymna sium is put. The clean sportmanship and fine spirit of this basket ball team was praised last season by every team that played against them. This in itself is evidence that the spirit of Spindale House is a living, vital thing. When a man is a good sport he has fulfilled all of the law and most of the prophets and the qual ity of sportmanship shown by the Spindale team is one of the finest manifestations of the soul of the house that can be observed. VOLLY BALL CLUB. The Men's Volley Ball Club is an other interesting gymnasium class. It is a year round organization and meets twice weekly. There are from 10 to 18 older men who attend this class regularly. They are very much interested in playing volley ball and have a splendid team. There are three good tennis courts at\the rear of the house and a tour nament with twenty-two entries has just closed. There are from 15 to 18 players every pleasant day, and the well equipped play ground that adjoins the tennis courts has a group of children on it all the time. The kitchen and dining room of Spindale House are used by all the organizations of the town. The Pa rent Teacher Association, the var ious clubs and church groups meet and hold their public entertainments there. A lyceum course sponsored by the Spindale Textile Club gives four entertainments a season and the price for them is very low. The Textile Club is an organiza tion at Spindale that is as fine in its way as Spindale House. It is made up of the foremen of the var ious mills and sponsors many worth while enterprises. Community Night at Spindale House is always interesting. The programs are unusually good. The I Spindale Band, the Spindale Quar itette, and any number of small 'groups and individual performers [put on a "rousing good show" j these nights. They are literally com munity nights, for everybody comes, and everybody is ready and willing to do his part toward making them ■ a success. An old time* fiddler may play "Git Along Home Cindy", and the town quartette may sing a mod ern popular song on the same pro gram. The crack basket ball team Iwill play an exhibition game, be jtween the halves of which, the "fats" jand "leans" play a game that makes THE FOREST CITY COURIER, THURSDAY*, JANUARY- 3, 1929 i i up in fun what it lacks in skill. The whole souled, happy spirit of these evenings would in itself justi fy the existence of Spindale House. Modern Recreation too often re solves itself into a system of enter tainer and entertained. Eighteen hired baseball players play a game which hundreds of spectators pay to see and three-fourths of these! spectators would regard a stroll around the bases of the diamond as an over exertion. | Two professional boxers fight before REMARKABLE NEW RADIO DISCOVERY % SPAKTON EQUJSONNE entirely new and tntly marvelous circuit! The "AC hum", interference and static amazingly reduced! The lower half of the dial as enjoyable as the upper! Vastly increased range! Most of all an improvement in tone that is truly amazing—deep, thrilling, rich beyond compare. ■ Just HfiiWß-'thc Sparton-before you buy—that's all we ask. * / ZrV« tfiiSiifi A- \3m xai * MS& MVNVnI JEtUSr y¥®{i A. L. McDaniel |pr S PARTON RADIO "The 'Pathfinder of the*Jir a "million dollar audience," and most j of that audience would not fight on j any terms. Our thrills are too often j vicarious. Community Night at Spindale House avoids this sort of thing. If any body has a talent he is urged to give his neighbors the benefit of it. The result of this is a fairly typical, unusually good "ama teur night." The finest - thing about Spindale 1 House and its activities is an intan- { gible, elusive, quality that baffles! description. There is none of the J ! domineering attitude of uplift that j antagonizes about the place. Nobody lis Enticed in by a promise of a good | time and forced to listen to a lot of j platitudes. High standards of con ) duct are established and observed, jbut seldom obstrusively enforced. The director, a young man from j Georgia, named J~ E. Berry, is a J well trained man, and works hard at l his job. His chief pride, to judge [from an hour's conversation with I hiift, is the older men's volley ball I club, and his greatest desire is to f get all the boys and girls in the to into some kind of gymnasium cla He lives in the house and his acts as librarian and manages j girl's clubs. Spindale House is an instituti that is giving a great deal of h, piness to an entire community, purpose, expressed simply was "} the recreation of the people of Spj dale", recognizes a fundameu need of humanity. It is impossil to imagine a more beautiful or j ting memorial.
Forest City Courier (Forest City, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Jan. 3, 1929, edition 1
6
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