It was 26 years ago, but I remember that weekend stroll better than I can recall yesterday’s breakfast. It’s a strong and lasting memory — my first impression of downtown Fayetteville.
It was early May, and I’d just unloaded the big U-Haul trailer into the Haymount house that would be home for a year while I looked for a place to buy. My dog — a scruffy mutt named Picasso — had already introduced me to most of my new neighbors. He was an irrepressible, exuberant soul who never met a stranger.
We dropped the trailer off at a U-Haul dealer and headed down the hill to take a look at our new downtown, which I’d driven through a few times in the previous week as I began my new job as The Fayetteville Observer’s editorial page editor. But if you really want to know a place, you’ve got to walk it.
I was floored by the beautiful new U.S. Army Airborne & Special Operations Museum. It was, and still is, one of the city’s crown jewels. Nearby, an oasis — the thriving Huske Hardware Restaurant & Brewery.
There were a few other businesses, some struggling to survive, others recent arrivals — optimistic pioneers. But much of Hay Street was underwhelming. Some of it, I decided — litter-strewn vacant lots and gutted shells of once-grand buildings —would make a good set for a movie about a bombed-out city in postwar Europe.
Rebuilding would be a project — one that an editorial page editor would need to heed, watch, encourage and try to help guide. Downtown’s revival became one of my passions, one of the editorial page’s frequent topics.
Shortly thereafter, I met architect Robert Marvin, who had developed a magnificent, detailed, visionary plan that would have remodeled downtown into a modern Eden, complete with a towering “mound” and a lake, as well as a host of cultural venues. Unfortunately, most Fayetteville City Council members at that time weren’t excited about being visionary. Instead, they saw a daunting price tag. Implementing the “Marvin Plan” could have been a tax-rate nightmare and the council knew it.
But that didn’t stop downtown from taking off. More “pioneers” were arriving every year, buying and restoring properties, building new structures. Sidewalk cafes appeared, along with culture — anchored by the Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County and abetted by places like the Cameo Art House Theatre and City Center Gallery & Books. Then came Festival Park and most recently, a magnificent ballpark. In 25 years, downtown has blossomed.
But the job’s not done yet. At least one critical element is still missing — an indoor performing-arts center that can host concerts, plays, small conventions and similar gatherings.
Robert Marvin’s vision included such a venue downtown. The county commissioners had other ideas. They voted to build the Crown Coliseum out in the boondocks, near the airport, instead of putting it downtown. And where Marvin saw athletic facilities downtown, the commissioners — who should have been part of downtown’s redevelopment — put a sprawling county jail.
They decided to make do with the old Crown Theatre, out on the same property where the coliseum was built. Even then, the theater was tired and worn. Today, it’s dilapidated and unsafe.
A much more recent board of commissioners agreed that a new theater belongs downtown, and they ordered up plans for a gorgeous facility, on one end of the county courthouse’s big parking lot. The project is on hold, though, while the current board takes a new look at the plan’s costs. Talk of an alternative — rebuilding the Crown Theatre — still hasn’t gone to the grave it deserves. It’s time, I think, to give that idea a funeral, once and for all. The Crown Complex is, to be kind, in a lousy location. Talk of large-scale urban renewal around it has remained just that — idle talk with few plans and less money. It won’t happen.
Meanwhile, downtown needs another crown jewel — a showplace for the performing arts that can draw people from near and far. Fayetteville residents deserve that, and the city deserves a cultural magnet that will inject even more vibrance into downtown’s life.
I find old photos of Picasso now and then, and it gets me to thinking about the wonderful dog who introduced me to so many of my neighbors. Lately, I’ve been thinking about walking him downtown today. With so many people to meet, we’d need a few weeks just to get through one block of Hay Street.
In a quarter century, downtown has risen like the phoenix from its ashes. It’s a great story. Don’t stop now.
Tim White is vice chair of the News Foundation of Greater Fayetteville, the nonprofit organization that supports CityView. For two decades, he was the editorial page editor of The Fayetteville Observer. A former longtime Fayetteville resident, White now lives in Moncure.
