September 17, 2024 • 26 mins
Unlock the secrets of Statesville's past with Dr. Steve Hill and Stamey Holland as we explore the evolution of the Statesville Historical Collection! From its humble beginnings to becoming a treasure trove of local history, you'll learn how community support and passionate individuals like Mayor Costi Kutteh, Bill Stiles, the Gordon family, and Jim Wilson played pivotal roles. Discover the Holland Building's remarkable transformation into the collection's new home, and how it now safeguards treasured artifacts.
Get a behind-the-scenes look at the monumental effort it took to relocate such an extensive collection and the meticulous care involved in creating thematic displays and restoring antique fixtures. This episode celebrates the tireless work of volunteers and the community's unwavering commitment to keeping access to Statesville's history free for all. Join us in paying tribute to the vibrant history and promising future of the Statesville Historic Collection!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Never a fee for history.
That's what my friend, dr SteveHill says when you asked him to
monetize his life's work.
Let's tune in now to learn more.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Welcome to Discover Statesville, the show that takes
you on a captivating journeythrough the heart of one of
North Carolina's most charmingtowns.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Welcome back to Discover Statesville.
Today we are joined with StameyHolland and Steve Hill.
We're going to talk about theStatesville Historical
Collection and the exciting newlocation here in downtown
Statesville.
Welcome, gentlemen, thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah, we're so excited to have you here with us
today.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
So, steve, I guess let's start with you and, if you
can, just kind of give us themaybe brief history of the
Statesville HistoricalCollection, kind of how you got
into this and when you startedand where it's gone from there.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Okay, well, the Statesville Historical
Collection, I guess, is about asold as I am, so it's not going
to be brief.
But the more recent history ofthe collection when I retired
back in 2009, I went to ourmayor, who just happened to be
Mayor Kosti Kute even back then,and I said, kosti, I know it's
(01:10):
hard to visualize this, but Ithink I have enough material for
a local history museumdedicated to Statesville and
Iredale County history.
He said okay, and I said Iwould like to find a building
somewhere in town where I canpull all it's been in storage
for many years where I couldpull it out and put it up on the
walls and invite people to comein and look at it.
(01:31):
So Costi said well, my friendBill Stiles has an old building
over across from Black Pontiacback then.
It's Black GMC now, I guess,but it used to be the balloon
factory where hot air balloonswere made Said I think Bill will
let you set up in there, and hedid.
(01:52):
He was very gracious and so fora year I set up my little
display in there and I invitedfriends and family and whoever
wanted to come in to look at thedisplay.
Well, after about a year thatbuilding sold.
So again, costi went to MarinTomlin and DSDC and talked to
(02:15):
them about the old Army Navystore building there on South
Center Street 212 South CenterStreet that had just been
vacated.
So they graciously allowed meto set up in there.
And I was there for five or sixyears and it came up for sale.
So I figured it's probably agood time to move.
And then the Gordon family,another gracious family, came
(02:38):
and said hey, come down and useour old furniture store, stay as
long as you want.
You can stay forever if youwant to.
And the Gordon family, thewhole family, welcomed me.
They helped me, they helped memove, helped me set up, they
paid the utilities, they did itall and they were just so kind
and I didn't think I would everfind another person or another
(03:04):
family as loving and asthoughtful as the Gordon family.
But I have.
Then I ran into Stamey Stamey, afellow named Jim Wilson.
Jimmy Wilson was always cominginto the collection.
He would always ask me what'sgoing to happen with all this
stuff when you're gone?
That's not a question you wantto hear, is it?
(03:26):
I would always say well, that'sgoing to be up to Dr Poston.
Dr Poston was always there withme every day.
At the time he was like 95 to100.
I always said Dr Poston's incharge of that.
When I'm gone, of course itwould bring a good chuckle,
especially from Dr Poston.
(03:46):
Unfortunately, dr Poston passedaround his 100th birthday and
Jimmy came back in one day andsaid you know again, what are
you going to do with this stuff?
And I said well, it just sohappened that my wife Penny and
I we've just been to thelawyer's office and we did our
will, and my will says that theStatesville historical
(04:07):
collection will go to either thecity of Statesville or the
county of Iredell.
Whichever one will take it andtake care of it and use it.
Well, jimmy said oh no, thatain't gonna happen.
As Jimmy could say it.
Uh, we're gonna to do betterthan that.
And he said what if I providesome seed money and we find you
(04:33):
a large location, large enoughthat you can get all of your
collection?
He said what's the largestthing you have?
And I said well, the largestthing I have is the paddy wagon
from the Stateful PoliceDepartment in 1961.
He said all right.
He said we got to find abuilding where you can get a
paddy wagon from the StatesvillePolice Department in 1961.
He said, all right, he said wegot to find a building where you
can get a paddy wagon andthrough the door, so, but he got
(04:54):
the ball rolling.
He went and visited, we talkedabout buildings and he said if
you had your choice, what wouldbe the best building in
Statesville for a local historymuseum although I don't call it
a museum and I said well gosh,the most historic property in
Statesville is lot number 30,the Holland Building.
It was the first business intown, it was the first house in
(05:16):
town.
It was Patrick Huey's Tavern.
When Statesville was just acrossroads town even back in the
1700s just a crossroads town,even back in the 1700s.
It was site of the largesthotel between probably
Winston-Salem and, I don't know,atlanta at one time.
I knew I liked that place Athree-story—it burned down,
(05:37):
though.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
I know, I know.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
All things happen for a reason, right, yeah, yeah, if
it hadn't, I don't know whatwe'd be talking about.
Yeah, so it was the center.
It was literally the center ofsocial activity in the States
for many years.
And then Stamey'sgreat-grandfather, Charles Hall,
charles Holland from Olin,north Carolina, came down.
(06:07):
He bought the hotel and ran ituntil it burned down in 1918.
And the Holland family hasowned that property since, I
guess, 1903, right?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Always reinvesting in it too and making it something
new.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
And they built the current building the Holland
building that's there now thathoused a huge department store,
and then it housed a Woolworthdepartment store and, most
recently, westmoreland Antiquesfor many years, 20-some years,
and now, if you haven't walkedby or looked in the window, I
encourage everybody to do that,because Stamey has literally
(06:43):
turned it into a show place fordowntown states.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I have been very, veryimpressed with what you guys are
doing there.
And first I want to say, sammy,it's such a pleasure to bring
(07:07):
that building back to all itsglory and then give it the
opportunity to house such anamazing collection, like what Dr
Hill has made.
His life's work is commendableand I personally want to thank
you.
As a business owner and someonewho lives here in Statesville,
I want to thank you for whatyou're doing and bringing this
for Statesville.
I think it's pretty amazing.
(07:28):
Would you be willing to share alittle bit of why the historic
collection in the building andwhy you're making this personal
investment to bring the buildingto where you're bringing it
today?
Would you be able to share thatwith our listeners?
Speaker 5 (07:44):
Well, like Steve said , jim Wilson sort of got the
ball rolling on this and he cameto me and said that he'd like
to be able to put Steve in thereand give him a permanent home.
And I've always been interestedin history and the Holland
(08:07):
family's been here for a longtime, a lot of it in Olin rather
than Statesville, but stillit's Statesville to me, yeah,
yeah horse and buggy days.
It was a little different though, but uh, anyway, the town's
been good to my family and I'vealways hadn't spent much time
(08:33):
over there.
But you can't go into Steve's,you know, be around his
collection and not just befascinated with everything he's
got.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Absolutely, oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:43):
And I just thought, if I was ever going to do
something for Statesville, thiswould probably be the best thing
.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yeah, well, it's a very cool thing.
There's more happening with thebuilding, though.
Right, there's some plans forupstairs and maybe downstairs.
Are there any things that youcan share as the building as a
whole, not just the main floorwith historic collection?
Is there going to be potentialoffice space opportunity, or
have you guys not decided allthat yet?
Speaker 5 (09:12):
Probably going to be doing some office space on the
second floor.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
We need it.
I've been looking for 30 daysfor an office space and can't
find one.
We desperately need it.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
So with the new space , you know, I mean I obviously
went in well at 212 and in themost recent space that you've
been in, you know, with the newspace, the larger space, are you
able to kind of displayeverything that you have in the
historical collection now?
Speaker 4 (09:38):
I'll be able to get most of the things that are
displayable In the collection.
There are a lot of things thatyou just don't want out in.
First of all, the light,because light damages documents
and it fades photographs andthings like that.
And also you don't want a lotof hands flipping through like
(09:59):
historical documents.
There's probably, oh gosh, tensof thousands of historical
documents, tens of thousands ofhistorical documents.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
There's probably a quarter of a million or half a
million photo negatives thathave not been looked at.
It's like some.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
CIA stuff it really is.
I mean, I'll never live longenough to look through all those
negatives, Microfilm.
They are from the Albert andVan Ammon Studio, back from the
1930s to the 1950s.
Just about everybody inStatesville had their photos
taken there, their portraits.
During World War II thesoldiers would, when they came
(10:43):
back from basic training and gotready to go across the ocean to
war, they would stop there andhave their portraits taken in
their uniforms.
So we have all those andfortunately Ms Ammon very
delicately wrote the names ofevery family on it.
So we have all the names withall the photographs.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
And it's literally hundreds of thousands of
negatives.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Three pallets of negatives.
Who started this charge Like?
Who started collecting andpreserving all these things?
Was this something that youstarted or was it something you
kind of took up the mantle fromsomeone that had commissioned?
Speaker 4 (11:13):
it as a kid.
I just loved my community andwas fascinated with history.
I had some great historyteachers in school and at
Mitchell College and I've alwaysbeen a collector, starting with
rocks and postage stamps, likemost kids, and coins, and but by
the time I started driving Istarted focusing on local
(11:34):
history, like any documents andphotographs and signs and just
anything old related to myhometown that I love so much,
and it just kind of grew fromthere.
Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Yeah, I was going to say you mentioned you when you
retired and then moving forwardfrom there, but maybe talk about
what you retired from.
You were an educator in ourschool systems and I think
that's very important that youand your wife Penny both worked
in the school system.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
She's my high school principal.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Oh, is she?
Yeah, so Richard grew up goingto every one of your spaces,
probably on his field trips andhis children now.
But tell us, because when you'retalking about for someone
listening to the podcast, whenyou're talking about each time
you move this collection, I meanyou're not talking about you
loaded up the back of your trunk.
I mean this is like you havestuff in tractor trailers, right
(12:28):
?
Like talk about the breadth ofmaybe even this move, um, and
how large the, how large thecollection is, um.
And then I'd also like to touchon, like I I kicked off the
show by saying never a fee forhistory, and you you've always
told me that our community andthe residents in our community
(12:48):
have given you and trusted youwith this, so you are not going
to monetize or make money on ontheir history so I'd like to
touch on that a little bit okay.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
well, I have so many people who come to me and say
these are the treasuredphotographs from my family, um,
I'm not going to be around muchlonger.
Will you take them for me?
And I've had so many people tocome in and donate stuff and
then die just a few months later.
So I'm obligated to take careof all of these things, and I've
always promised when peopledonated things that I would
(13:19):
never make a profit off of this.
This is definitely not aprofit-making venture, trust me.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Nobody's getting a big salary.
Huh, Nobody's getting a bigsalary.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Huh, Nobody's getting a salary.
Yeah, and other than rent helpthat I've had over the years.
That's the monetary part I'vehad.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, that's protecting.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
And that's very appreciated, very much
appreciated.
But yeah, and I believe, andpeople say, why don't you charge
to come in?
I can't charge for our history.
I mean, our history is soimportant.
I don't want people to not comebecause they can't afford $5 or
whatever.
You would charge to come in, soit's going to be free.
It's free and it's going to befree as long as I'm around and I
(14:02):
hope after that, because that'sthe way it should be, because
that's the way it should be Ifyou want to pay and the tradeoff
is it's not really a museumbecause I don't have the fancy
slick signage and things likethat.
Inside.
I have homemade things thathave been done on a computer and
taken to Walgreens and printed.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
I think they look pretty good.
Give yourself some credit, theylook pretty good.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
So it's not a museum and not everything's labeled
like it needs to be.
I need to spend about a yearjust going through and labeling
all the photographs, butfortunately I have most of them
categorized and labeled in mycomputer so I can go back and
look and see what is what, andso never a fail.
I can never charge people tocome in, and the question before
(14:50):
that was the breadth of thesize of the collection.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
How much stuff.
How much stuff do you have?
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Maybe like stay me like, what's the size of that
floor, that first floor?
I mean it's going to be fulland Steve's not even sure
everything can fit.
I mean it's a very nice.
How many square feet is?
Speaker 5 (15:05):
11,000.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Yeah, how many square feet is it 11,000.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
Yeah, wow, most of the displayable stuff will be up
there when I moved from theballoon factory.
A family in North Iredellkindly donated the use of a
tractor-trailer how many feettractor-trailer units are and I
filled it up and still had stuffin the basement storage
buildings no big fancy movingcompany.
But now everything is in thebasement of the Holland building
(15:29):
and it's a mess because we justkind of put it in there as
quickly as we could.
But as we pull things out andreset it we can clean everything
up.
Really nice and the upstairs isso beautiful.
I feel a little bit guiltyabout putting some of that stuff
up there.
Some of it's kind of rougharound the edges, but we're
(15:52):
going to try to clean it up.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
So you will have, at least initially, have some
things on display on the secondfloor as well.
No, oh, no, okay, just the mainfloor, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
But the second floor is just as beautiful.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Oh yeah, I've been up there.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
I'm confident in that .
So when do you anticipate?
You guys have been doing a lotof work in the building, or
Stamey has, and GL Wilson hasbeautiful plans that I see there
in the window.
When do you anticipate?
We won't hold you to it, butwhen will you be opening your
(16:33):
doors again to the public?
Speaker 4 (16:37):
it.
But like when?
When will you be opening yourdoors again to the public?
Stamy and and and uh, tomwilson and julian all the gl
wilson team.
They have been so good to makesure everything is done just
right.
I mean, they're not cuttingcorners on anything.
If you stand outside and lookin the front windows and see the
beautiful uh in the in thewindow cases there, the
beautiful lights.
They could have replaced thosewith neon lights, but Stamey has
(17:00):
gone the extra mile and gottenbeautiful antique light fixtures
that are really going to justset off the whole thing.
Wilson, his genius as adesigner and architect, has
taken that space and createdlots of wall space for
(17:22):
photographs and it's going to beopen and airy but yet it's
going to be full eventually andthings will be categorized.
The little cubicles will havethemes, like military theme.
Here we're going to have a hotair balloon corner.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
I would have that for the hot air balloon capital of
the east.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Yeah, christy Darling and her team are working on
that.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Christy and Charles are amazing, aren't?
Speaker 4 (17:53):
they, yeah, they are Now is there going to be a
section.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Christine, charles, are amazing, aren't they?
Yeah, they are.
Now is there going to be asection?
I mean, are we going to Stamey?
Has your family been able topreserve a lot of the history of
the building and stuff?
Are we going to be able to kindof walk through the history of
the Holland Building itself inthe collections?
Speaker 5 (18:09):
I think Steve's got more than I do.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
Oh, we're going to.
That's going to be the firstthing that hits you in the face
when you come in the history ofthe Holland Building, because
it's so fascinating, sure yeah.
It is such a great place.
I was just telling Stameyoutside here today, august well,
this is August 29th, 106 yearsago today three famous men
walked into Stamey'sgrandfather's hotel.
(18:34):
They had just come in fromashville.
They were dusty from the rideand they went in and they got a
drink of water or maybesomething stronger, I don't know
, because there was a bar inthere.
But uh, they um, they went tothe candy.
There's a candy shop, candykitchen in there.
They bought, they boughtchocolate and they walked around
(18:57):
the streets of Statesvilleeating chocolate bars.
Those three men were Henry Ford, harvey Firestone and Thomas
Edison.
So when you walk into theHolland Building, you're
standing on the building thatreplaced that building, standing
on the building that replacedthat building, but you can
basically stand on the site ofwhere three famous men stood and
(19:20):
ate their chocolate bars beforestrolling around Statesville.
So to me that's pretty andthere's just all kinds of
stories like that.
I was telling Stamey.
The first female barber in towncut hair in the barber shop
there in the hotel.
That was literally our firstshopping center, the hotel we
(19:41):
had, and I keep a running tallyof all the businesses that have
been in there.
It's been a saloon.
It's been a liquor store, it'sbeen a general store, clothing
store, hat shop, several grocerystores, barbershop, music
studio, telegraph office,telephone office, restaurants.
It was the closest thing we hadto a hospital for many years.
(20:02):
Lots of surgeries were done inthere.
Doctors would put ads in thepaper and they would come from
Winston-Salem and Charlotte andsee their patients, ride the
train in, see their patients andthen ride back home at night.
So, interestingly, just shortlyafter Henry Harvey and Tom
(20:25):
Thomas Edison spent their timethere at the hotel and bought
their candy at the candy kitchen, the candy kitchen caught on
fire and burned down the wholedarn hotel.
So they were some of the lastcustomers Glad they moved on
before that happened.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
And so all these great things that have been in
the Holland building and I justyou know I'll be remiss to not
say and then the rest is history.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
Absolutely, and it's an opportunity.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
This is free history.
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
So you're thinking beginning of 2025?
I'm comfortable with that,maybe.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Yeah, but, like I said, we won't hold you to it,
but we're very excited to get inthere and be able to see well,
like Richard was asking, thewhole collection.
I mean where you've beenpreviously.
Not even half the collectionsfit right.
So you may have rotated in somestuff, but I don't think
anyone's seen everything thatyou've spent your life work.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Well, the coolest part to me, I think, is like you
touched on earlier.
It's all so compelling andinteresting.
You might look and think maybeI don't have any interest in
going in there, but you go inthere and there's a whole lot
more to this community than mostpeople realize and there's
something in there that you'regoing to find interesting.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
That's what I tell people.
You'll find something in herethat'll strike your interest,
whether it's sports, ballooning,civil rights we have a civil
rights section.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
More to come on that.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
It's really an amazing space.
I can't wait to see what itlooks like now that you get to
pull more things out of your bagof tricks there.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Well, steve, I personally I know I said thank
you to Stamey, but your life'swork is very impressive and I
feel very blessed to call you myfriend Well thank you.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
I consider it an honor to be your friend and
Richard's friend.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
And I just I can't reiterate enough, friend, thank
you, and I just I can'treiterate enough these things.
Our history would be packedaway in a warehouse if not for
lots of people like you guys,who love their community.
Stamey loves his community, allthe others, I mean.
There are lots of us out there,yeah, and it's always
(22:34):
refreshing to know that thereare people who love this
community as much as we do.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Right and to wrap up, because you kind of talked a
little bit about your plans andyour will and I hope you never
go anywhere, but you havesolidified that right.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
So the yeah, now the sorry city.
I'm going to pull that back.
I'm going to change my will.
Now it will be.
It will go to PreservationStates, which is a nonprofit
that Jimmy Wilson wanted to makesure that everything was set up
and in place.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
And preserved.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
And poor Jimmy, he died shortly after that.
He was such a dreamer.
I mean, if it weren't for Jimmy, my dream was like maybe I can
get this stuff out of storagesomeday.
But Jimmy's dream was let's putit at the most visible, most
historic place in town and let'slet people see it.
So he's a much—and Stamey's abig dreamer too.
(23:32):
Between the dreams of those twoguys, my dreams are just
nothing.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Well, thank you, Jimmy Wilson, because I know
you're smiling down on us and Iknow he's going to be super
proud.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
I tell Stamey.
I have to pinch myself everytime I walk in the building to
say is this true?
It's like a dream and I don'tknow whether to laugh or cry and
sometimes I do both, but it'svery emotional.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
That's okay.
Thank you, Stamey.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Crazy to think how far it's come since you started.
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
We can't wait to see it come to life and are so
thankful for people like you,stamey, your family, the Holland
family, the Wilson family, forloving our community so much and
wanting to invest in it,reinvest in it and preserve it.
It's important and we want tocelebrate that so.
State's historical collection.
The address of the newcollection, when it opens, is
(24:25):
117 South Center.
Yeah, and you can come.
You do have some stuff in thewindows, you can see some
drawings and some of the thingsthat are happening, and it'll
have regular hours when it opens.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
Yeah, we'll actually have extended hours.
I think it's so important nowto make sure, and I'm going to
have to have some volunteers forthat.
I'm going to need somevolunteers to help me staff and
man the place.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Meredith and our team had the distinct pleasure of
sitting down with you.
We had some summer interns thissummer who were thrilled to
hear everything you had to share.
So not only did we record thispodcast, but Meredith Collins
has written an amazing story.
Couldn't fit it all into onestory, but a story about the
collection and kind of how we alonger version of how Dr Hill
(25:11):
got where we are today and theHolland family's involvement.
So please, in the descriptionsection of this podcast, take a
time to click on the link andread the whole story and, if
you're interested, get involved.
Like Steve just said, it'sgoing to need volunteers to make
all this happen and weappreciate you guys.
(25:32):
We appreciate you being such acrucial part of I haven't said
this in a long time, richard,but the patchwork, the patchwork
that makes up our amazing homecalled Statesville, so the
Statesville Historic Collection.
We invite you to DiscoverStatesville everyone.
Thank you Till next week.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Thank you for joining Discover Statesville.
You can email us at discover atstatesvillenccom.
Check us out on Facebook atDiscover Statesville NC hashtag
Discover Statesville and ourwebsite, statesvillenccom.
Catch us next week as wecontinue on our journey to
uncover the hidden gems,culinary adventures,
entertainment, and to beinspired and enlightened as we
(26:13):
Discover Statesville.
Never a fee for history.
That's what my friend, dr SteveHill says when you asked him to
monetize his life's work.
Let's tune in now to learn more.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Welcome to Discover Statesville, the show that takes
you on a captivating journeythrough the heart of one of
North Carolina's most charmingtowns.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Welcome back to Discover Statesville.
Today we are joined with StameyHolland and Steve Hill.
We're going to talk about theStatesville Historical
Collection and the exciting newlocation here in downtown
Statesville.
Welcome, gentlemen, thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah, we're so excited to have you here with us
today.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
So, steve, I guess let's start with you and, if you
can, just kind of give us themaybe brief history of the
Statesville HistoricalCollection, kind of how you got
into this and when you startedand where it's gone from there.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Okay, well, the Statesville Historical
Collection, I guess, is about asold as I am, so it's not going
to be brief.
But the more recent history ofthe collection when I retired
back in 2009, I went to ourmayor, who just happened to be
Mayor Kosti Kute even back then,and I said, kosti, I know it's
(01:10):
hard to visualize this, but Ithink I have enough material for
a local history museumdedicated to Statesville and
Iredale County history.
He said okay, and I said Iwould like to find a building
somewhere in town where I canpull all it's been in storage
for many years where I couldpull it out and put it up on the
walls and invite people to comein and look at it.
(01:31):
So Costi said well, my friendBill Stiles has an old building
over across from Black Pontiacback then.
It's Black GMC now, I guess,but it used to be the balloon
factory where hot air balloonswere made Said I think Bill will
let you set up in there, and hedid.
(01:52):
He was very gracious and so fora year I set up my little
display in there and I invitedfriends and family and whoever
wanted to come in to look at thedisplay.
Well, after about a year thatbuilding sold.
So again, costi went to MarinTomlin and DSDC and talked to
(02:15):
them about the old Army Navystore building there on South
Center Street 212 South CenterStreet that had just been
vacated.
So they graciously allowed meto set up in there.
And I was there for five or sixyears and it came up for sale.
So I figured it's probably agood time to move.
And then the Gordon family,another gracious family, came
(02:38):
and said hey, come down and useour old furniture store, stay as
long as you want.
You can stay forever if youwant to.
And the Gordon family, thewhole family, welcomed me.
They helped me, they helped memove, helped me set up, they
paid the utilities, they did itall and they were just so kind
and I didn't think I would everfind another person or another
(03:04):
family as loving and asthoughtful as the Gordon family.
But I have.
Then I ran into Stamey Stamey, afellow named Jim Wilson.
Jimmy Wilson was always cominginto the collection.
He would always ask me what'sgoing to happen with all this
stuff when you're gone?
That's not a question you wantto hear, is it?
(03:26):
I would always say well, that'sgoing to be up to Dr Poston.
Dr Poston was always there withme every day.
At the time he was like 95 to100.
I always said Dr Poston's incharge of that.
When I'm gone, of course itwould bring a good chuckle,
especially from Dr Poston.
(03:46):
Unfortunately, dr Poston passedaround his 100th birthday and
Jimmy came back in one day andsaid you know again, what are
you going to do with this stuff?
And I said well, it just sohappened that my wife Penny and
I we've just been to thelawyer's office and we did our
will, and my will says that theStatesville historical
(04:07):
collection will go to either thecity of Statesville or the
county of Iredell.
Whichever one will take it andtake care of it and use it.
Well, jimmy said oh no, thatain't gonna happen.
As Jimmy could say it.
Uh, we're gonna to do betterthan that.
And he said what if I providesome seed money and we find you
(04:33):
a large location, large enoughthat you can get all of your
collection?
He said what's the largestthing you have?
And I said well, the largestthing I have is the paddy wagon
from the Stateful PoliceDepartment in 1961.
He said all right.
He said we got to find abuilding where you can get a
paddy wagon from the StatesvillePolice Department in 1961.
He said, all right, he said wegot to find a building where you
can get a paddy wagon andthrough the door, so, but he got
(04:54):
the ball rolling.
He went and visited, we talkedabout buildings and he said if
you had your choice, what wouldbe the best building in
Statesville for a local historymuseum although I don't call it
a museum and I said well gosh,the most historic property in
Statesville is lot number 30,the Holland Building.
It was the first business intown, it was the first house in
(05:16):
town.
It was Patrick Huey's Tavern.
When Statesville was just acrossroads town even back in the
1700s just a crossroads town,even back in the 1700s.
It was site of the largesthotel between probably
Winston-Salem and, I don't know,atlanta at one time.
I knew I liked that place Athree-story—it burned down,
(05:37):
though.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
I know, I know.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
All things happen for a reason, right, yeah, yeah, if
it hadn't, I don't know whatwe'd be talking about.
Yeah, so it was the center.
It was literally the center ofsocial activity in the States
for many years.
And then Stamey'sgreat-grandfather, Charles Hall,
charles Holland from Olin,north Carolina, came down.
(06:07):
He bought the hotel and ran ituntil it burned down in 1918.
And the Holland family hasowned that property since, I
guess, 1903, right?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Always reinvesting in it too and making it something
new.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
And they built the current building the Holland
building that's there now thathoused a huge department store,
and then it housed a Woolworthdepartment store and, most
recently, westmoreland Antiquesfor many years, 20-some years,
and now, if you haven't walkedby or looked in the window, I
encourage everybody to do that,because Stamey has literally
(06:43):
turned it into a show place fordowntown states.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I have been very, veryimpressed with what you guys are
doing there.
And first I want to say, sammy,it's such a pleasure to bring
(07:07):
that building back to all itsglory and then give it the
opportunity to house such anamazing collection, like what Dr
Hill has made.
His life's work is commendableand I personally want to thank
you.
As a business owner and someonewho lives here in Statesville,
I want to thank you for whatyou're doing and bringing this
for Statesville.
I think it's pretty amazing.
(07:28):
Would you be willing to share alittle bit of why the historic
collection in the building andwhy you're making this personal
investment to bring the buildingto where you're bringing it
today?
Would you be able to share thatwith our listeners?
Speaker 5 (07:44):
Well, like Steve said , jim Wilson sort of got the
ball rolling on this and he cameto me and said that he'd like
to be able to put Steve in thereand give him a permanent home.
And I've always been interestedin history and the Holland
(08:07):
family's been here for a longtime, a lot of it in Olin rather
than Statesville, but stillit's Statesville to me, yeah,
yeah horse and buggy days.
It was a little different though, but uh, anyway, the town's
been good to my family and I'vealways hadn't spent much time
(08:33):
over there.
But you can't go into Steve's,you know, be around his
collection and not just befascinated with everything he's
got.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Absolutely, oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:43):
And I just thought, if I was ever going to do
something for Statesville, thiswould probably be the best thing
.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yeah, well, it's a very cool thing.
There's more happening with thebuilding, though.
Right, there's some plans forupstairs and maybe downstairs.
Are there any things that youcan share as the building as a
whole, not just the main floorwith historic collection?
Is there going to be potentialoffice space opportunity, or
have you guys not decided allthat yet?
Speaker 5 (09:12):
Probably going to be doing some office space on the
second floor.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
We need it.
I've been looking for 30 daysfor an office space and can't
find one.
We desperately need it.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
So with the new space , you know, I mean I obviously
went in well at 212 and in themost recent space that you've
been in, you know, with the newspace, the larger space, are you
able to kind of displayeverything that you have in the
historical collection now?
Speaker 4 (09:38):
I'll be able to get most of the things that are
displayable In the collection.
There are a lot of things thatyou just don't want out in.
First of all, the light,because light damages documents
and it fades photographs andthings like that.
And also you don't want a lotof hands flipping through like
(09:59):
historical documents.
There's probably, oh gosh, tensof thousands of historical
documents, tens of thousands ofhistorical documents.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
There's probably a quarter of a million or half a
million photo negatives thathave not been looked at.
It's like some.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
CIA stuff it really is.
I mean, I'll never live longenough to look through all those
negatives, Microfilm.
They are from the Albert andVan Ammon Studio, back from the
1930s to the 1950s.
Just about everybody inStatesville had their photos
taken there, their portraits.
During World War II thesoldiers would, when they came
(10:43):
back from basic training and gotready to go across the ocean to
war, they would stop there andhave their portraits taken in
their uniforms.
So we have all those andfortunately Ms Ammon very
delicately wrote the names ofevery family on it.
So we have all the names withall the photographs.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
And it's literally hundreds of thousands of
negatives.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Three pallets of negatives.
Who started this charge Like?
Who started collecting andpreserving all these things?
Was this something that youstarted or was it something you
kind of took up the mantle fromsomeone that had commissioned?
Speaker 4 (11:13):
it as a kid.
I just loved my community andwas fascinated with history.
I had some great historyteachers in school and at
Mitchell College and I've alwaysbeen a collector, starting with
rocks and postage stamps, likemost kids, and coins, and but by
the time I started driving Istarted focusing on local
(11:34):
history, like any documents andphotographs and signs and just
anything old related to myhometown that I love so much,
and it just kind of grew fromthere.
Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Yeah, I was going to say you mentioned you when you
retired and then moving forwardfrom there, but maybe talk about
what you retired from.
You were an educator in ourschool systems and I think
that's very important that youand your wife Penny both worked
in the school system.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
She's my high school principal.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Oh, is she?
Yeah, so Richard grew up goingto every one of your spaces,
probably on his field trips andhis children now.
But tell us, because when you'retalking about for someone
listening to the podcast, whenyou're talking about each time
you move this collection, I meanyou're not talking about you
loaded up the back of your trunk.
I mean this is like you havestuff in tractor trailers, right
(12:28):
?
Like talk about the breadth ofmaybe even this move, um, and
how large the, how large thecollection is, um.
And then I'd also like to touchon, like I I kicked off the
show by saying never a fee forhistory, and you you've always
told me that our community andthe residents in our community
(12:48):
have given you and trusted youwith this, so you are not going
to monetize or make money on ontheir history so I'd like to
touch on that a little bit okay.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
well, I have so many people who come to me and say
these are the treasuredphotographs from my family, um,
I'm not going to be around muchlonger.
Will you take them for me?
And I've had so many people tocome in and donate stuff and
then die just a few months later.
So I'm obligated to take careof all of these things, and I've
always promised when peopledonated things that I would
(13:19):
never make a profit off of this.
This is definitely not aprofit-making venture, trust me.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Nobody's getting a big salary.
Huh, Nobody's getting a bigsalary.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Huh, Nobody's getting a salary.
Yeah, and other than rent helpthat I've had over the years.
That's the monetary part I'vehad.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, that's protecting.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
And that's very appreciated, very much
appreciated.
But yeah, and I believe, andpeople say, why don't you charge
to come in?
I can't charge for our history.
I mean, our history is soimportant.
I don't want people to not comebecause they can't afford $5 or
whatever.
You would charge to come in, soit's going to be free.
It's free and it's going to befree as long as I'm around and I
(14:02):
hope after that, because that'sthe way it should be, because
that's the way it should be Ifyou want to pay and the tradeoff
is it's not really a museumbecause I don't have the fancy
slick signage and things likethat.
Inside.
I have homemade things thathave been done on a computer and
taken to Walgreens and printed.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
I think they look pretty good.
Give yourself some credit, theylook pretty good.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
So it's not a museum and not everything's labeled
like it needs to be.
I need to spend about a yearjust going through and labeling
all the photographs, butfortunately I have most of them
categorized and labeled in mycomputer so I can go back and
look and see what is what, andso never a fail.
I can never charge people tocome in, and the question before
(14:50):
that was the breadth of thesize of the collection.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
How much stuff.
How much stuff do you have?
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Maybe like stay me like, what's the size of that
floor, that first floor?
I mean it's going to be fulland Steve's not even sure
everything can fit.
I mean it's a very nice.
How many square feet is?
Speaker 5 (15:05):
11,000.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Yeah, how many square feet is it 11,000.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
Yeah, wow, most of the displayable stuff will be up
there when I moved from theballoon factory.
A family in North Iredellkindly donated the use of a
tractor-trailer how many feettractor-trailer units are and I
filled it up and still had stuffin the basement storage
buildings no big fancy movingcompany.
But now everything is in thebasement of the Holland building
(15:29):
and it's a mess because we justkind of put it in there as
quickly as we could.
But as we pull things out andreset it we can clean everything
up.
Really nice and the upstairs isso beautiful.
I feel a little bit guiltyabout putting some of that stuff
up there.
Some of it's kind of rougharound the edges, but we're
(15:52):
going to try to clean it up.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
So you will have, at least initially, have some
things on display on the secondfloor as well.
No, oh, no, okay, just the mainfloor, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
But the second floor is just as beautiful.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Oh yeah, I've been up there.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
I'm confident in that .
So when do you anticipate?
You guys have been doing a lotof work in the building, or
Stamey has, and GL Wilson hasbeautiful plans that I see there
in the window.
When do you anticipate?
We won't hold you to it, butwhen will you be opening your
(16:33):
doors again to the public?
Speaker 4 (16:37):
it.
But like when?
When will you be opening yourdoors again to the public?
Stamy and and and uh, tomwilson and julian all the gl
wilson team.
They have been so good to makesure everything is done just
right.
I mean, they're not cuttingcorners on anything.
If you stand outside and lookin the front windows and see the
beautiful uh in the in thewindow cases there, the
beautiful lights.
They could have replaced thosewith neon lights, but Stamey has
(17:00):
gone the extra mile and gottenbeautiful antique light fixtures
that are really going to justset off the whole thing.
Wilson, his genius as adesigner and architect, has
taken that space and createdlots of wall space for
(17:22):
photographs and it's going to beopen and airy but yet it's
going to be full eventually andthings will be categorized.
The little cubicles will havethemes, like military theme.
Here we're going to have a hotair balloon corner.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
I would have that for the hot air balloon capital of
the east.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Yeah, christy Darling and her team are working on
that.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Christy and Charles are amazing, aren't?
Speaker 4 (17:53):
they, yeah, they are Now is there going to be a
section.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Christine, charles, are amazing, aren't they?
Yeah, they are.
Now is there going to be asection?
I mean, are we going to Stamey?
Has your family been able topreserve a lot of the history of
the building and stuff?
Are we going to be able to kindof walk through the history of
the Holland Building itself inthe collections?
Speaker 5 (18:09):
I think Steve's got more than I do.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
Oh, we're going to.
That's going to be the firstthing that hits you in the face
when you come in the history ofthe Holland Building, because
it's so fascinating, sure yeah.
It is such a great place.
I was just telling Stameyoutside here today, august well,
this is August 29th, 106 yearsago today three famous men
walked into Stamey'sgrandfather's hotel.
(18:34):
They had just come in fromashville.
They were dusty from the rideand they went in and they got a
drink of water or maybesomething stronger, I don't know
, because there was a bar inthere.
But uh, they um, they went tothe candy.
There's a candy shop, candykitchen in there.
They bought, they boughtchocolate and they walked around
(18:57):
the streets of Statesvilleeating chocolate bars.
Those three men were Henry Ford, harvey Firestone and Thomas
Edison.
So when you walk into theHolland Building, you're
standing on the building thatreplaced that building, standing
on the building that replacedthat building, but you can
basically stand on the site ofwhere three famous men stood and
(19:20):
ate their chocolate bars beforestrolling around Statesville.
So to me that's pretty andthere's just all kinds of
stories like that.
I was telling Stamey.
The first female barber in towncut hair in the barber shop
there in the hotel.
That was literally our firstshopping center, the hotel we
(19:41):
had, and I keep a running tallyof all the businesses that have
been in there.
It's been a saloon.
It's been a liquor store, it'sbeen a general store, clothing
store, hat shop, several grocerystores, barbershop, music
studio, telegraph office,telephone office, restaurants.
It was the closest thing we hadto a hospital for many years.
(20:02):
Lots of surgeries were done inthere.
Doctors would put ads in thepaper and they would come from
Winston-Salem and Charlotte andsee their patients, ride the
train in, see their patients andthen ride back home at night.
So, interestingly, just shortlyafter Henry Harvey and Tom
(20:25):
Thomas Edison spent their timethere at the hotel and bought
their candy at the candy kitchen, the candy kitchen caught on
fire and burned down the wholedarn hotel.
So they were some of the lastcustomers Glad they moved on
before that happened.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
And so all these great things that have been in
the Holland building and I justyou know I'll be remiss to not
say and then the rest is history.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
Absolutely, and it's an opportunity.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
This is free history.
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
So you're thinking beginning of 2025?
I'm comfortable with that,maybe.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Yeah, but, like I said, we won't hold you to it,
but we're very excited to get inthere and be able to see well,
like Richard was asking, thewhole collection.
I mean where you've beenpreviously.
Not even half the collectionsfit right.
So you may have rotated in somestuff, but I don't think
anyone's seen everything thatyou've spent your life work.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Well, the coolest part to me, I think, is like you
touched on earlier.
It's all so compelling andinteresting.
You might look and think maybeI don't have any interest in
going in there, but you go inthere and there's a whole lot
more to this community than mostpeople realize and there's
something in there that you'regoing to find interesting.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
That's what I tell people.
You'll find something in herethat'll strike your interest,
whether it's sports, ballooning,civil rights we have a civil
rights section.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
More to come on that.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
It's really an amazing space.
I can't wait to see what itlooks like now that you get to
pull more things out of your bagof tricks there.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Well, steve, I personally I know I said thank
you to Stamey, but your life'swork is very impressive and I
feel very blessed to call you myfriend Well thank you.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
I consider it an honor to be your friend and
Richard's friend.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
And I just I can't reiterate enough, friend, thank
you, and I just I can'treiterate enough these things.
Our history would be packedaway in a warehouse if not for
lots of people like you guys,who love their community.
Stamey loves his community, allthe others, I mean.
There are lots of us out there,yeah, and it's always
(22:34):
refreshing to know that thereare people who love this
community as much as we do.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Right and to wrap up, because you kind of talked a
little bit about your plans andyour will and I hope you never
go anywhere, but you havesolidified that right.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
So the yeah, now the sorry city.
I'm going to pull that back.
I'm going to change my will.
Now it will be.
It will go to PreservationStates, which is a nonprofit
that Jimmy Wilson wanted to makesure that everything was set up
and in place.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
And preserved.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
And poor Jimmy, he died shortly after that.
He was such a dreamer.
I mean, if it weren't for Jimmy, my dream was like maybe I can
get this stuff out of storagesomeday.
But Jimmy's dream was let's putit at the most visible, most
historic place in town and let'slet people see it.
So he's a much—and Stamey's abig dreamer too.
(23:32):
Between the dreams of those twoguys, my dreams are just
nothing.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Well, thank you, Jimmy Wilson, because I know
you're smiling down on us and Iknow he's going to be super
proud.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
I tell Stamey.
I have to pinch myself everytime I walk in the building to
say is this true?
It's like a dream and I don'tknow whether to laugh or cry and
sometimes I do both, but it'svery emotional.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
That's okay.
Thank you, Stamey.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Crazy to think how far it's come since you started.
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
We can't wait to see it come to life and are so
thankful for people like you,stamey, your family, the Holland
family, the Wilson family, forloving our community so much and
wanting to invest in it,reinvest in it and preserve it.
It's important and we want tocelebrate that so.
State's historical collection.
The address of the newcollection, when it opens, is
(24:25):
117 South Center.
Yeah, and you can come.
You do have some stuff in thewindows, you can see some
drawings and some of the thingsthat are happening, and it'll
have regular hours when it opens.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
Yeah, we'll actually have extended hours.
I think it's so important nowto make sure, and I'm going to
have to have some volunteers forthat.
I'm going to need somevolunteers to help me staff and
man the place.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Meredith and our team had the distinct pleasure of
sitting down with you.
We had some summer interns thissummer who were thrilled to
hear everything you had to share.
So not only did we record thispodcast, but Meredith Collins
has written an amazing story.
Couldn't fit it all into onestory, but a story about the
collection and kind of how we alonger version of how Dr Hill
(25:11):
got where we are today and theHolland family's involvement.
So please, in the descriptionsection of this podcast, take a
time to click on the link andread the whole story and, if
you're interested, get involved.
Like Steve just said, it'sgoing to need volunteers to make
all this happen and weappreciate you guys.
(25:32):
We appreciate you being such acrucial part of I haven't said
this in a long time, richard,but the patchwork, the patchwork
that makes up our amazing homecalled Statesville, so the
Statesville Historic Collection.
We invite you to DiscoverStatesville everyone.
Thank you Till next week.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Thank you for joining Discover Statesville.
You can email us at discover atstatesvillenccom.
Check us out on Facebook atDiscover Statesville NC hashtag
Discover Statesville and ourwebsite, statesvillenccom.
Catch us next week as wecontinue on our journey to
uncover the hidden gems,culinary adventures,
entertainment, and to beinspired and enlightened as we
(26:13):
Discover Statesville.
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