Pastime: New buildings, old buildings create memories

There is much excitement over the opening of the new athletic facility in Warren, as there should be.

It is a new basketball gymnasium and much more. The District will showcase this by hosting the upcoming regional basketball finals this Spring and that, within itself, is also exciting.

I see from Facebook posts, there is a new facility of the same type opening in Monticello, named after long time coach, schoolman Dan Coston. Both buildings cost millions of dollars – hard earned tax dollars from each community. And both buildings I am sure are needed by the districts.

I hesitate to suggest this athletic building locally be named after someone as past attempts to name school buildings for people have met with some real resistance in Warren.

Given the pitiful condition of the Warren Cultural Events Center and all the finger pointing on who should have kept up the buildings condition, I am glad they did not name it after Curry and Mary Lou Martin, despite all their decades of work to make sure WHS students were well rounded in the choral and music arts. It is a shame the building is in such poor condition.

I recall the years after the new Warren gymnasium was opened. It was a modern marvel. Surrounding communities wished they had such a gym, big nice and well-appointed dressing rooms and all the amenities that the old building now a half-century later held.

Pep rallies, Jr. and Sr. Banquets, band concerts and every big-time community event for years were held in that echoing old gymnasium.

Some great basketball was played there by some very talented Lumberjacks back across the years.

But time has a way of changing things.

Also, many a tear will be shed over the outcomes of the old Edrington, Wayne’s and Hankins Hardware buildings, barely standing right in front of the historic Bradley County Courthouse.  

It looks like the wear and tear over the years and the reduced upkeep on roofs, facades and structure, many indeed have to be taken down. The age of the buildings, well over 80-to-100 years, is indeed prohibitive of many various stages of repair.  The buildings themselves are so fragile, engineers and inspectors tell us, that they may implode or collapse upon themselves in the next big wind storm, rain or snow storm.

I am privy to being all over these three buildings in my childhood.

I (more than once) rode the rope elevator to the upper reaches of the Hankins & Son Hardware building. And of course, I also rode it back down with a new recliner, couch or some other furniture item fetched from the upper store room.

And at Wayne’s I have climbed the back stairs to what was a wonderful wonderland of trophies, footballs, basketballs, mountains of athletic shoe boxes, uniforms of all sports and a machine, that back in the day would heat press numbers and names on all that sportswear.

At the back of the upstairs with a fantastic view facing south, Wayne Wisener held court, running at one time the largest athletic supply business south of Little Rock.

All that is gone now today.

I can still see the late Austin Rotton, back there scrabbling together trophies for all sporting events and running that steam press to put names and numbers on jerseys of kids, some virtual superstars to all of us back in the day on them.

Upstairs between Wayne’s and the Edrington Building was Dr. Hunt’s Hospital, a major medical clinic where Dr. James W. Marsh held his first medical practice.  Dr. Marsh was hired right out of Medical School, to come to Warren and the Bradley County Hospital (now called Bradley County Medical Center.) Dr. Hunt, it was said, greeted Dr. Marsh and then left the practice the next day for a three months long tour of Europe.

Once in my teen years, I ventured up the stairs following the late Tommy Edrington, up there to retrieve some forms for the Eagle. I remember it being quite the adventure of an old building back then.

My late uncle Lonnie Brown, recalled meeting Dr. Marsh upstairs at the Hunt Hospital on Marsh’s first day at work.

Lonnie and Frank Stone, were unloading sacks of feed at the Warren Depot on a side rail to take by pickup to their feed store just off Cypress Street.  Lonnie stepped between the rail and the railroad tie and severely twisted his ankle.

It was so badly hurt that he and Frank Stone had to do the three-legged march up those steep stairs to see the doctor. Once on a gurney, the nurse ushered in the willowy Dr. Marsh.  Introductions were made and suddenly Dr. Marsh grabbed Lonnie’s bare foot and moved it back and forth.

Lonnie told the tale that he literally rose up off the gurney, fists at the ready, and told the new doctor not to twist that foot again.

“It is not broken, I can tell you that,” said Dr. Marsh. “Go home, soak it in warm water with Epsom salts and stay off it for a day or two.”

The men, overcoming this rough introduction, became instant friends for the next 60 plus years.

There are no easy answers for the owners of the old buildings downtown, just like there is no easy answer for the Warren School District and the City of Warren to keep up the Cultural Arts Center or the new Gymnasium.

And like this Pastime – memories even difficult ones will live on about each building – long after the buildings are gone.