(828) 526-0173 | [email protected] | Copyright 2024 – All Rights Reserved.
The Days of Helen’s Barn
Written By: Stuart Ferguson - Shakespeare and Company | Issue: 2020/09 – September | Photograph By: Marjorie Christiansen Photography
When Charles Nicholas Wright died in a car wreck in 1927, he left behind a widow in her mid 30s, and five young children. Wright — a former mayor of Highlands himself and father of Mayor Harry Wright — was famous for having won (along with his friend Will Dillard) the Carnegie Medal for his 1911 heroic rescue of Gus Baty, who had fallen down the slope of Whiteside Mountain, and was hanging above a 1,000-foot precipice.
Helen Cabe Wright (d. 1959) invested her late husband’s life insurance benefit in building a place on their downtown property where folks could gather for music and dancing.
Thus was born Helen’s Barn, which operated into the 1980s and is “sorely missed…and remembered with intense longing” in the words of historian
Ran Shaffner.
The first dance held was May 14, 1932; admission was 25 cents. The adjoining Shady Lane miniature golf course was considered “the best babysitter in town.” The original structure burned in mysterious circumstances soon after opening but a larger barn was quickly built and exists today as the Asia House restaurant.
Now Maxie Duke has compiled a memoir of her remarkable parents, with many contributions and stories from relatives. Charlie and Helen: Chronicles of Love, Heroism and Persistence ($15) is full of wonderful stories, photos, lyrics from the more popular dances as well as Highlands and Turtle Pond lore.
Ms. Duke was a school teacher in the Carolinas but spent her summer helping her mother run the Barn.
During a recent phone call, the author — who at 93 sounds lively and fun — explained she meant to publish the book last year, but a stroke delayed her efforts. “Charlie and Helen” was worth waiting for.
“People have more fun with you on one Saturday night,” a fan of Helen’s Barn said in a letter, “than they do all season long
in Atlanta.”
Helen was remarkable, but she never learned to drive — no matter how often she tried.
Vernon Ross Wilson, Helen’s son with her second husband, writes of her road test with officer Hooper: “They got as far as Drug Store Hill and her told her, ‘If you will stop, I’ll get out and walk back.’”
Charlie and Helen: Chronicles of Love, Heroism, and Persistence is available at Shakespeare and Company. 204 North Fifth Street in Highlands. For more information, visit the store of call (828) 526-3777.
