Nearly every month of the year, the Earl Scruggs Center hosts a Coffee with the Curator program. These programs often serve as an opportunity for me to do a deeper dive into the ways that Cleveland County history is still being preserved in our community, often while covering historical topics that I feel are interesting and may often get overlooked. This program has been going strong at the Earl Scruggs Center for years, originally started by my predecessor, and the first one I ever did was on April 22, 2020. Due to the Covid epidemic, that particular program on the textile magnate H.F. Schenck ended up being a video that we posted to our YouTube channel. A little over six years and 58 total programs later, I am truly proud of what Coffee with the Curator has become. It acts like a book club for Cleveland County History, where people can discuss things they find interesting, learn from experts on specific topics, and make connections between the people of the past and the people we are today.
The Coffee with the Curator we had in June was especially exciting for me because it showed how spontaneous and fun the program can be. We had advertised it as a tour of the Fulenwider-Ebeltoft House, a beautifully original Greek Revival home that is located on perhaps my favorite street in Uptown Shelby, S. Washington St. In the late 1850s, Eli Fulenwider, a merchant with familial wealth, chose to build a home in the up-and-coming town of Shelby. At the time, Shelby was still a small farming community. In fact, Dr. W.P. Andrews kept an orchard behind his house just a few doors down. Today, Dekalb St. cuts through that area.
When I walked up to the house the night before the program, I was just as excited as I was the first time I walked through it almost a year ago. I dropped off the few items I had brought for the tour, and on my way back to my car, I noticed something behind the neighboring Fanning-Washburn home that I had seen several times but hadn’t fully processed. A stove tower! If you don’t know what a stove tower is, you shouldn’t be ashamed. According to architectural historians, this rare engineering marvel may be unique to only certain homes in Cleveland County from the late-19th and early-20th centuries. The stove tower is a solitary projection off the back of the house where the cooking stove would be placed. These were used to help ventilate the stove and keep temperatures down in the kitchen. They are fascinating, and here I was staring one down just across the alley. I turned to look at the other neighboring home, the E.Y. Webb home, and what do I spy? Another stove tower! Now I am just amazed. I am the type of person who, when excited by new information, has to tell anyone and everyone. Thankfully, my wife, who receives the brunt of these outbursts, is a very patient person. I just knew I needed to find some way to incorporate this amazing piece of architecture into the Coffee with the Curator program.
The following morning was beautiful. The sun was out and, because it was still morning, the heat of the day hadn’t set in. In the shade, it felt downright cool! It felt too great out to be cooped up inside, so I hatched a plan to give an abridged walking tour of S. Washington St. to the group to kick off the program. Not only would this allow me to provide context for the Fulenwider-Ebeltoft House, but I could also share the stories of some of the most significant homes in Shelby, and devote a healthy chunk of time to my beloved stove towers. I presented my idea to the group, admitting that I knew it wasn’t advertised. Fortunately, as always, they were not only amenable but excited. So we embarked on what I think was a fun tour where I shared some of the knowledge I have managed to cram into my head over the past several years and thousands of hours poring over the history of the community I am happy to call home. That is the magic of Coffee with the Curator programs: they are a place for people who get excited about our community to share that excitement with others.
If you have any interest in Cleveland County History and want to learn alongside like-minded individuals, including myself, I encourage you to give the Coffee with the Curator program a shot. The next one will be in August, so keep an eye out for our social media and website listings.