Headline about changing downtown evokes reverie
I’ve put the TV on mute, laid aside the N.Y. Times, to contemplate some current pages from The Commercial Dispatch, the newspaper of my formative years.
In the time since, friends and family have kept me updated on goings-on as varied as the closing of the Princess Theatre, development of Riverwalk, the transformation of McClellan’s to an Arts Center, the Tenn-Tom Waterway, Birney’s early morning walks to the Farmers’ Market and beyond, and way back. What to do with the Magnolia Bowl? These references to old haunts don’t make me homesick, (well, a little, but I get over it), but they have made me acutely aware of the city’s “moving forward” and the suggestion “You Can’t Go Home Again” that time has a way of imposing.
But, accepting years of change, I can and do go home again. I’m happy, however, to find churches I knew on the corners where I left them, (though column after column lists dozens of new ones I didn’t know). The main Post Office with Japanese magnolias in front is in place, the frontage of The W campus is blessedly intact, but I still miss the vertical spelling of R U T H S logo there on the corner of Market and Main.
Your Dec. 1 headline warns of “Downtown changes in store.” That’s a biggie. Plans for the demolition at the end of Main Street will make way for a “child-focused discovery center.” I’m glad to know the Elks Club building will survive.
Still, I’d be lost on a future visit, expecting the Gilmer Hotel (the one razed to make room for the present structure) there at the end of Main Street and Bob’s Place waiting on the other side of the bridge.
Marion Whitley
New York City
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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