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BackNational Register of Historic Places Registration FormUnited States Department of the Interior: National Park ServicePrepared by David Hood of Isinglass 11/14/1994 Opera
House/Starnes Jewelers Building 7.
Architectural Description The
Opera House/Starnes Jewelers Building, standing at 127-133 West Main Street in
downtown Albemarle, is a well preserved two story with attic level brick
commercial building covered with a parapet front standing seam metal roof. The
handsome Colonial Revival style building, rising above its mostly two story
neighbors, was erected in 1907-1908 by Locke Anderson Moody, an Albemarle
contractor. Its original construction featured a pair of one story plate glass
storefronts, with recessed entrances, which flanked a center doorway: it opened
onto a stair which rose to the suites of rental offices and the opera house on
the second story. About 1939, these storefronts were remodeled and fitted with
black Carrara glass panel facades and plate glass and chromium display windows
and entrances. This treatment, representing an important, if modest, local
interpretation of the art moderne style, has survived intact to the present and
has achieved a significance in its own right. From 1908 until 1972 the handsome
five bay fenestration treatment of the second story and attic levels remained
intact and in public view. In November 1972, the Binswanger Company covered this
portion of the facade with a gold colored aluminum grill. In the autumn of 1990,
the grillwork was removed and S & D Construction Company of Albemarle
restored the facade for the owners. The architects for the project, which
included renovations to the salesroom of Starnes Jewelers, were Architectural
Engineering Concepts, P.A. For ease of reference the term “opera house”
rather than the full name will be used in this description to denote the
building. The
Opera House, forming a dominant part of a continuous streetscape of mostly turn
of the century commercial buildings, features a principal facade facing north
onto West Main Street. The facade and the rear elevation measure approximately
forty-six feet in width. The side elevations, extending a depth of about
eighty-six feet are concealed by the contiguous buildings to the east and west.
In practical terms, the facade has a two-part composition reflecting the two
principal periods: the original construction of 1907-1908, and the Ca. 1939
remodeling of the first-story storefronts. The first story level of the building
has a three-part division featuring individual commercial storefronts flanking a
central entrance, which opens onto the stair rising to the second story. These
storefronts, generally equal in width, are covered with black Carrara glass
panels and fitted with plate glass and chromium display windows and entrances.
This ca. 1939 treatment carries below a simple metal cornice, original to the
building, which stretches across the complete width of the opera house. The
storefront of Starnes Jewelers, at 127 West Main Street, has the name
“STARNES” in black letters on a white glass panel above the entrance: white
glass diamond shapes are positioned to either side. The recessed center entrance
is flanked by plate-glass display windows which splay in a four-part fashion
from the flush facade to the door. These windows are enframed by Carrara glass
and have flush edges held by metal clamps. The design of the storefront at 133
West Main Street, occupied by a succession of commercial tenants over its
eighty-six years, features the same materials. Here the center entrance is
deeply recessed between plate glass display windows which are flush with the
Street for parallel lengths, and then splay inward and south toward the door.
Clearly, the design of the Starnes Jewelers storefront was specifically geared
toward the display of small items of jewelry, silver, porcelain, etc., whereas
the storefront of #133 was fitted up in a more generic fashion to appeal to
various possible commercial tenants. The center, first story bay of the facade
contains the recessed entrance for the second story suites and performance
hall. Here, a short flight of poured cement steps rise to a landing protected
by a two-leaf metalwork security door. Behind it is a double leaf door
surmounted by an unusually tall single pane transom, which illuminates the
interior stairwell. The leaves of the door are original and feature tall panes
of glass above a pair of molded horizontal panels. In recent years a security
panel has been applied over the outside face of each leaf: these are ornamented
with simple applied moldings. The
second story and attic levels of the opera house are designed en suite and are
symmetrical in their balance and arrangement. The broad elevation is laid up in
one to five common bonds and is enframed by projecting pilasters at each side,
which rise to the corbelled cornice. Both levels have a five-bay fenestration
pattern. On the second story, a series of arch headed window openings hold
paired one over one sash windows below traceried fanlights. The fanlights are
enframed by three part header course surrounds, which rise from white marble
spring blocks to a like keystone. The keystone in the center bay is inscribed OPERA HOUSE 1907. Immediately
above each window opening, a series of five circular windows are set in the
upper attic level of the facade and illuminate the interior balcony level of the
opera house. The symmetrical tracery of these windows repeats the design of the
fanlight. They too, are set in three-part, header course surrounds
highlighted by four symmetrically placed keystones. These windows, side hinged
to tilt open for ventilation, are set in molded wood enframements like the
second story windows. There are two metal ventilating grills symmetrically
spaced above the second and fourth circular windows. The parapet top of the
elevation is corbelled forward and articulated by five recessed field panels,
which reflect the fenestration. The
rear elevation has a symmetrical arrangement of door and window openings on the
three principal floors as well as the basement levels. These openings have arched heads marked by two-course header lintels. The lintels of the
doors and windows are themselves flat. The basement and first story levels of
the building reflect the two storefront arrangement of facade. In the basement
level there are broad openings holding board and batten doors for receiving
merchandise: these are set in the westernmost bay per storefront. There are
window openings in the easternmost bays. The first story level of the building
has a six-bay arrangement with doorways in the center of each three-bay
storefront. The doorway of Starnes Jewelers has been partially infilled and
fitted with a conventional blind security door. A metal and neon sign over the
door bears the slogan “Starnes, Leading Jewelers Since 1898.” The window
openings to either side have been infilled with glass bricks. The doorway of 133
West Main Street retains its original double leaf doors below a four-plane
transom, as well as its double leaf screened doors. The original wood doors
feature six molded horizontal panels per leaf. The window openings to either
side contain two-over-two double-hung sash. Each of the two first story
doorways is preceded by a metal stoop with steps down to ground level. The stoop
at Starnes Jeweler’s door connects with the metal fire escape, which rises to
the third story. The
second story of the building, illuminating the rear mezzanine levels of each
storefront, has a symmetrical six-bay pattern of fenestration. Each of the six
openings holds original two-over-two double-hung sash windows. The third
story of the opera house repeats that same fenestration pattern; however, there
is a seventh bay in the center of the wall and a doorway (in the bay above the
entrance to 133 West Main Street): it opens into the west corner dressing room
adjoining the opera house stage. The six window openings on the third story are
all infilled with glass bricks. The
principal interior finish and arrangement of Starnes Jewelers dates to a ca.
1947 remodeling of the jewelry store by Morrison Furniture and Fixture Company
of Statesville. The blond mahogany display cabinets, counters, and wall units
reflect a simple art moderne styling with curved ends, which is in sympathy with
the ca. 1939 exterior remodeling. The front (west) three quarters of the space
is given over to the sales floor and features a generally symmetrical
arrangement of counters and display units to either side of the center passage
on axis with the front door. In the wall to either side of the customer entrance
are paneled doors, which open into small access closets behind the display
windows. The side walls of the sales floor are lined with glazed or open shelves
above drawers and cabinets. There are aisles for sales staff between these wall
units and glazed tops counters which carry in parallel fashion from the front of
the sales room toward the rear. On the west wall, there is a metal door into a
brick vault (positioned under the stairway to the opera house). The vault
contains a safe manufactured by the Cary Safe Company of Buffalo, N.Y.: the
company name and “F. E. Starnes” appears in gilt letters on the black door
of the safe. On the sales floor, the most visible effect of the
1990 remodeling project is the clerestory like ceiling treatment which features
recessed lighting. The floor is carpeted. The
stairway to the store’s rear mezzanine level, enclosed in tile in the rear southwest
corner of the sales floor appears to be in the position of the
original stair and perhaps incorporates parts of the old staircase. The
mezzanine level includes a landing with doors opening into a lavatory for staff
and the store office, which has always been located here. There is a large
storage closet/mechanical room off the office. The floor, wall, and ceiling
finishes of all these spaces are of various dates. Below the mezzanine, in the
rear (south) quarter of the store, are a series of rooms partitioned for use as
a diamond sales office, a laboratory, a jewelry repair room, and a
storage/wrapping passage. Here, also, is the board and batten door which opens
onto the stairway (below the mezzanine stair) down to the basement level. The
basement receiving room has a poured cement floor, exposed brick walls, and is
fitted with shelves, counters, and tables for receiving, processing, and
storage. The
interior of the storefront at 133 West Main Street, occupied by a succession of
commercial tenants, has a wide range of visible floor, wall, and ceiling
finishes, which are of an indiscriminate character. The original pressed tin
ceiling of this storefront remains intact and is now concealed by a later-day
dropped ceiling. Presently, the space is occupied by a bridal shop and has
partitions for dressing rooms and displays. There is a permanent partition,
which separates the rear quarter of the storefront from the public sales floor.
This back space, apparently long used for processing and other nonpublic
purposes, retains much of its original tongue-and-groove ceiling on the
walls and ceilings. There are two early partitioned enclosures in the southwest
corner containing commodes: the common sink is hung on the wall between them.
The original stairways to the rear mezzanine and basement are separate here. The
staircase to the store’s mezzanine level has been taken down and it has long
been inaccessible to rental tenants. The basement has a poured cement floor,
exposed brick walls, and tongue-and-groove ceiling on the ceiling. Just
as the upper facade of the opera house has survived virtually intact from 1908,
so too, have the interior plan and finishes of the suites of offices and the
opera house and its balcony which occupy the second story and attic
levels, respectively. Here the only serious losses have been the alteration of
the stepped/sloping floor of the performance hall to a flat level, about 1919,
and the ca. 1990 removal of the pressed tin ceiling of the hall which was
seriously affected by water damage: sections of the tin ceiling panels have been
salvaged for reuse or possible duplication. In the 1920s or early 1930s, it
would appear, lavatories were enclosed in the second story hall, framed wall
mirrors were installed for use by the beauty shop operators, and some ceiling light
fixtures were added to both suites. Otherwise, these suites
and the opera house with its attendant dressing rooms and balcony represent a
remarkable survival of early twentieth century commercial/public spaces and
their finishes. The stairwell, hall, and office suites occupy, the front (north)
third of the second story: the opera house balcony is located on the level above
these rooms. The opera house takes up the rear two thirds of the second story
with the stage, flanked by dressing rooms, at its south end. The
double leaf doors, at street level, open directly onto the wood staircase, which
rises to the south to the hall. The stairwell has plaster walls with a molded
top baseboard and chair rail, which carries the handrail. The stairwell is
protected, at the hall level, by a three-sided turned baluster railing with
square newels and a shaped top handrail. The floor of the hall is oak and the
ceiling is sheathed with traditional tongue-and-groove ceiling. The walls in
the hall and the office suites have a tall dark stained wainscot of vertical
tongue-and-groove ceiling between a molded top baseboard and a molded
chair rail. The upper walls are plaster and painted. At the head of the stairs
is a broad opening fitted with original double leaf wood doors which opens
into the opera house: each door has a five, horizontal panel arrangement. The
plan of the hall is rectangular with an extension to the north, which
incorporates the center bay window for illumination. In this extension, a pair
of lavatories were enclosed, ca. 1930, along its east wall. From
the hall, doors open into the east and west suites of rooms which are slightly
uneven in their square footage. The principal doors into these suites, in the
northeast and northwest corners of the hall, feature a large glazed panel above
three horizontal panels: the doorways are fitted with glazed transoms and screen
doors for ventilation. There are two additional doors into the (four) rooms in
the larger west suite of offices. One is a conventional five panel turn of the
century wood door while the second one has a glazed pane above three wood
panels: it bears two slogans, “Colored Waiting Room” and “Laboratory.” The
west suite of offices contains four rooms of unequal size. They have pine
floors, the aforementioned tongue and groove wainscot, plaster walls, and
Celotex ceilings. The woodwork in these rooms has been painted. Three of them
retain their Ca. 1930 single globe pendant light fixtures. The extreme northwest
corner room has an early wall mounted porcelain sink. The smaller east suite
originally contained three rooms; however, the partition between the two rooms
on the east side was removed to create one large workspace for the beauty shop
operators. The room opening off the hall was a customer waiting room: it has a
ca. 1930 three light metal chandelier. On the west wall of the “back” room,
there are large mirrors mounted in rounded edge frames on the wall above the
wainscot. A door beside (north of) these mirrors opens into a storage closet
under the staircase, which rises from the opera house to its balcony. The
opera house’s performance hall is a large, tail space nearly square in plan
with the stage and its flanking dressing rooms on the south and the balcony
rising above the main level on the north. The pine floor of this hall is now
level whereas it was originally either stepped or sloped. The height of the
uppermost floor level would appear to be continuous with the elevated (about
eighteen inches) landing in the hall’s northeast corner from which the
enclosed stair rises to the balcony. Most of the opera house’s original tongue
and groove wainscot remains in place. There is a break in the wainscot and some
roughness to the plaster wall at the south edge of the east wall where Nearly
half of the south wall of the opera house is given over to the proscenium, which
fronts the performance stage. The arch is simply splayed on its three faces and
has a plaster surface over which pressed tin panels were applied. Most of this
decorative patterned tinwork, including a center shell motif remains in place.
Whatever curtaining once concealed the elevated stage has long since
disappeared. To either side of the stage, there are doorways at the extreme
edges, which open from the house into the side dressing rooms. Simple flights of
wood steps with plain handrails rise from the opera house floor to the doors.
The single doorway on the west is fitted with a door featuring a glazed pane
above three horizontal panels. The broad doorway to the east is fitted with
double leaf doors having a conventional five panel turn of the century
arrangement. In
practical terms, the stage and the flanking dressing rooms are one large single
space, which carries across the south end of the opera house. The dressing rooms
are partitioned to either side of the stage by simple wings, of unequal heights,
which are sheathed on the stage side with tongue and groove ceiling. The stage
and dressing rooms have pine floors, plaster walls, and a tongue and
groove ceiling. These spaces were originally illuminated by the six windows on the south exterior wall; however, these have been infilled with glass
bricks. The exterior door opens from the west dressing room onto the fire
escape. In each dressing room, and the stage, a single light socket hangs at the
end of a long cord suspended from the ceiling. The
balcony, carrying across the rear (north) elevation of the opera house, is
fronted by a low blind railing of vertical beaded boards. It curves from the
side walls inward and flattens where it carries above the double door entrance into the stair hall. ·On the aforementioned landing, a board and batten
door of tongue—and—groove ceiling opens onto the simple flight of wood steps
which rises to the balcony. In the balcony this stairwell is protected by a low
blind railing of vertical flush boards with round ball finials on the newels.
The floor of the balcony steps in six levels from the front (south) to the rear
(north). It would appear that there were no fixed seats in the balcony.
Spectators either stood or, probably, sat on portable benches. On
the floor of the balcony, there are stacks of the pressed tin ceiling panels
that were salvaged when the ceiling was taken down. Also stored here, in random
stacks, are panels of painted canvas scenery, which have survived from the
earliest days of the opera house and its live productions. They are painted to
represent walls with a wood grained wainscot, green walls, and a grained frieze
at the top. They have a maker’s stencil on the back, which reads: Built & Painted By The Sosman & Landis Co. 236 & 238 S. Clinton St. Chicago, Ills. There
is a further hand printed notation: Jas.
Pathe Co. Week
Feb. 15th 1909. Opera
House/Starnes Jewelers Building 8.
Narrative Statement of Significance Summary
Paragraph The
Opera House/Starnes Jewelers Building, a two story with mezzanine Colonial
Revival style brick building, is of unusual significance in the history of
Albemarle, the seat of Stanly County. Erected in 1907-1908 by Locke Anderson
Moody, Albemarle’s foremost builder at the turn of the century, the
well-preserved and handsome building was constructed for Francis Eugene
Starnes, Doctor Franklin Parker, and Julius Caesar Parker: their descendants
continue to own the building. As with other downtown buildings of its period,
the Opera House/Starnes Jewelers Building was a mixed-use building, which
included commercial storefronts on the first story and rental offices on the
second story as well as the opera house performance hall. The building holds
significance in the areas of architecture, commerce, and entertainment/
recreation. The opera house is important in the architectural history of
Albemarle and Stanly County as an impressive, intact building, which reflects
the capabilities of Locke Anderson Moody (1862—1938), Albemarle’s most
prominent builder/contractor at the turn of the century. The opera house is also
important as the finest and best preserved commercial building of a series,
erected in the 1890s and 1900s, which marked Albemarle’s transition from a
village of mostly frame buildings to a bustling town of brick stores, houses,
and hotels which encircled the 1893 brick court house, which was also erected by
Moody. The Opera House/Starnes Jewelers Building is also important in the area
of commerce as the most distinguished building in Albemarle, which reflects the
emergence of the town as an important trade and manufacturing center at the turn
of the century. From 1908 until the present, it has housed the sales room of
Starnes Jewelers, the oldest continuously operating business in both Albemarle
and Stanly County. Established in 1898 by Francis Eugene Starnes (1874-1932),
the company has been successively managed by his son Francis Eugene Starnes, Jr.
(1914-1976) and his grandson Francis Eugene Starnes, III. Housing a large
performance hall on its second and mezzanine stories, the building also holds
significance on the local level in the area of entertainment/recreation. From
1908 until the end of 1913, the Opera House was the principal venue for
traveling vaudeville shows, theatrical troupes, and lecturers in Albemarle. It
was the first and only such hall erected for that purpose in the city. It might
well have continued to house traveling shows had not World War I curtailed them
and had moving pictures not superseded them as a principal form of public
entertainment in the later l9lOs. It was here, in the opera house, that moving
pictures were first shown to an Albemarle audience on Wednesday, May 20, 1914. Historical
Background, Commerce, and Entertainment/ Recreation Context The
Opera House/Starnes Jewelers Building (hereinafter called the opera house),
completed in 1908 by Albemarle’s foremost turn of the century contractor,
remains today the most impressive and best preserved commercial’ building in
the county seat. As one of a small group of surviving brick commercial houses
lining the blocks at the junction of Main and Second Streets, it stands above
its neighbors as a symbol of the dramatic flowering of Albemarle as an important
manufacturing and trade center in the decades at the turn of the century.
Prosperity had come late to Albemarle, over a half century after Stanly County
was formed in 1841 and Albemarle was designated as the county seat. The town,
laid out in 1841-1842 on the lands donated by Nehemiah Hearne’s heirs,
developed slowly in the half century from 1841 until 1891. Created as a
political center to serve the affairs of Stanly County citizens, the townscape
slowly enlarged beyond the courthouse and a few frame houses to include hotels,
stores, law offices, and a cluster of related buildings. The
key event which sparked Albemarle’s unprecedented growth occurred in 1891. In
that year, the Southern Railroad Company erected a connecting line through
Albemarle linking Salisbury, one of its principal hubs, with Norwood, a small
town near the Yadkin River in eastern Stanly County. This new railroad, called
the Yadkin Railroad, was not an isolated venture but part of the great expansion
of interconnecting railroad lines across the breadth of North Carolina and
indeed the nation at the turn of the century. In 1911 the Winston-Salem
Southbound Railroad was completed through Albemarle which, in turn, linked the
county seat with the rapidly growing town of Winston-Salem to the north and the
Seaboard Airline Railroad terminal at Hamlet, some forty-five miles away.
Additional rail improvements came in 1913; however, it was the opening of the
Yadkin Railroad in 1891 that proved to be the single most influential event to
occur in Albemarle since it became the Stanly County seat. During
its first years of operation, the Yadkin Railroad carried lumber, agricultural
produce, and other local resources out of Stanly County to faraway, more
lucrative markets. Its cars brought, in return, manufactured goods and other
products which found their way into Albemarle and Stanly County homes by way of
a growing number of stores in Albemarle, Norwood, and other, smaller places
along the line into Salisbury. Local manufacturing enterprises, principally
textiles, were developed in short order. The first to be organized in Albemarle
was the Efird Manufacturing Company which put its first plant into production in
1897: the company was a partnership of Irenus Polycarp Efird (1834-1902), a
local farmer and land speculator, and James William Cannon (1852-1921), the
founder and president of Cannon Mills in Cabarrus County. The opening
of the Efird plant immediately provided steady employment and a guaranteed wage
for those who departed the farms for factories, it created a quick increase in
the population of Albemarle as workers relocated to the town, and it was the
spur for the development of a significant commercial center around the town
square at the junction of Main and Second Streets. Clearly, Cannon had seen a
larger purpose and potential to his investment in the Efird mill. In 1898 he
organized the Wiscassett Mills in Albemarle and in 1899 he opened the first
Wiscassett plant beside the original Efird plant and on the edge of the Yadkin
Railroad line. Housing for mill employees was a critical part of Cannon’s
operation. In conjunction with the Yadkin Railroad, these two mills formed the
underpinning and the impetus for Albemarle’s industrial and commercial growth
in the opening decades of the twentieth century. One
impressive result of the new prosperity was the series of new construction
projects in the heart of Albemarle, which saw the town transformed from a
cluster of frame commercial houses and hotels encircling the brick 1893
courthouse to a new and impressive place distinguished by brick buildings. On 27
July 1905, the Stanly Enterprise published J. P. Cook’s assessment: “.
. . the old frame store houses
have given away to splendid, modern brick buildings, and all over the place you
see elegant and handsome houses of modern architecture.” Most of these brick
stores and buildings were two-story with Italianate detailing. Two years
later, Francis Eugene Starnes and Doctor Franklin Parker would undertake the
construction of a “house of modern architecture” which remains today the
handsomest surviving commercial building of its generation in Albemarle. The
construction of the Opera House/Starnes Jewelers Building reflected both a
decade of business experience in the county seat and an investment which
provided new quarters for Mr. Starnes’s jewelry house and a performance hall
in which all the citizens of Albemarle could enjoy traveling shows, lectures,
concerts, plays, and other presentations. Francis Eugene Starnes (1874-1932),
the son of Babel Alexander Starnes (1839-1882), had opened a jewelry store in
Albemarle in 1898: during its early years it was located in a building on Second
Street. In 1902 Starnes was married to Letha Parker (1884-1964). The company
and Mr. Starnes prospered and at the end of his first decade in business his
store was housed in handsome new quarters. Starnes’s partner in the
construction of the new building was his father-in-law Doctor Franklin Parker
(1850—1932). On 28 February 1907, the Stanly Enterprise informed its readers
of proposed new buildings for Albemarle: one of these was “.
. . a brick building by F. E. Starnes with upstairs planned for a hall or
club room.” Three months later the Stanly Enterprise provided further details
of the building in its 23 May 1907 issue: “Messrs F. E. Starnes and D. F.
Parker have purchased 25 feet frontage on Main street, in addition to that
purchased sometime ago, and they will soon erect a two story brick building,
adjoining
P.
J. Huneycutt & Co’s store.” The newspaper’s promise held true, and on
11 July 1907, the Stanly Enterprise provided a full account of the new building
under the heading “NEW BRICK BLOCK.” Messrs
F. E. Starnes, D. F. Parker and J. C. Parker have united in the erection of a
handsome brick building to adjoin the Smith & Biles building now occupied by
P. J. Huneycutt & Company, on Main Street. The
building is to be two stories, covering 60 x 80 feet. The lower floor will be
finished for store rooms, using the Crane patent front, with solid plate glass
joined by metal clasps. The second floor will be finished for an opera house, a
thing much needed in our little city for various public gatherings. The
contract has been awarded to L. A. Moody, and the work will be prosecuted just
as fast as material and labor can be applied. Thus
it will be seen that Albemarle continues to grow. Apparently
construction on the brick building began in the summer or early autumn of 1907.
The building was sufficiently finished in May of 1908 so
that the senior class of the
Albemarle Graded School could perform Thomas Dennison’s play, “The Danger
Signal,” in the opera house on Thursday, 21 May. On Sunday, the 24th, the
baccalaureate address was given in the opera house to the graduating class and
on Monday evening the graduation exercises were held in the new public hall. A
month later the building was nearing completion. The Stanly Enterprise carried a
notice to that effect in its local news column on 25 June 1908: The
large Crane’s patent plate glass front for the Parker-Starnes building has
arrived and the finishing touches are fast being put on. The New York Dry Goods
Store, under management of A. N. Dry, will occupy one room and Mr. Starnes the
other. The
brick building completed in 1908 for Starnes and Parker was a two story
mixed-use building that was typical of its period. On the first story, at street
level, there was a pair of storefronts, which flanked the center doorway opening
onto the stair to the second story. The storefronts contained a large
rectangular selling floor with a shallow mezzanine at the rear: they also had
in-store access to the basement receiving and storage areas, which, in turn, had
exterior doors on the rear of the building. The storefronts were virtually
identical in design and size. The staircase, enclosed between the stores, rose
from the street to a hall, which was illuminated by the center window of the
facade. At the top of the stairs a pair of doors open into the opera house: The
stage and dressing rooms of the theatre space were also accessible by way of a
metal stair on the exterior rear of the building. There were/are also doors
opening from the hall into two small suites of rooms/offices which were laid out
in the front corners of the second story. As
the Stanly Enterprise noted, one of the building’s two storefronts was
outfitted and occupied by the jewelry store operated by Francis Eugene Starnes
(1874-1932). Since 1908, Starnes Jewelers has been operated here at 127 West
Main Street, by Mr. Starnes, his son Francis Eugene Starnes, Jr. (1914-1976),
and his grandson Francis Eugene Starnes, III (born 1941), the current owner. The
Starnes jewelry company is the oldest continuously operating business in both
Albemarle and Stanly County and has occupied these premises for eighty-six
years. The storefront to the west, at 133 West Main Street, has been a rental,
income-producing commercial space from the beginning. The first tenant was Mr.
Dry’s New York Dry Goods Store. Thereafter, the space was occupied by a
succession of operations, including dry goods, shoe stores, and pawnshops. It
now houses a bridal apparel shop. In the late 1930s, both storefronts were
remodeled and fitted with one story black Carrara glass facades: the recessed
entrances of each store are flanked by plate glass display windows. The
suites of rooms at the front of the second story have likewise housed a
succession of commercial tenants and professional offices. According to family
tradition, the east suite of rooms was used for a period of time by Francis
Eugene Starnes for his optometry offices. For a period of time, probably
beginning in the later 1930s, these rooms housed a beauty shop operated by Ruth
Peeler (born 1912) who had married F. E Starnes, Jr., in 1937. A beauty shop was
operated in these premises as late as the 1960s. The suite is now used for
storage by Starnes Jewelers. The west suite of rooms have mostly housed
professional medical and law offices. At different times, George Dana Broadman
Moore, an attorney and the husband of Julius Caesar Parker’s daughter
Elizabeth, had his offices in the chambers. In the 1940s, the suite was occupied
by Dr. Cecil Duckworth, an optometrist. Presumably, it was for his practice that
a door opening from the hall into a small room in the suite was painted with the
term, “Colored Waiting Room,” which survives in place. These rooms have
remained empty for several decades. The
railroads, which carried goods into and out of Albemarle, and brought it an era
of prosperity at the turn of the century, were also critical factors in the life
of the opera house. The traveling performers and theatrical companies who
performed in the opera house from the time of its opening in the autumn of 1908
until it ceased to present live entertainment in 1913 all came into Albemarle on
one or another of the three railroad lines. Although the Albemarle Graded
School’s graduating class held three events in the opera house in May 1908, it
is clear that the building was incomplete at that time. The Stanly Enterprise ENTERPRISE,
on 25 June 1908, reported in its local news column that “The new seats are
being placed in the opera house, which with the new curtains to be provided,
will make it quite a handsome interior and a distinct credit to the town.” The
same paragraph informed readers that “The new opera house will book one of the
most attractive plays on the boards at its fal1 opening. The management has closed contract for THE CLANSMAN, Tom Dixon’s well-known play, and it has
been booked for October 6.” As events have proved, the performance of “The
Clansman” was not the opening event in the newly completed opera house. That
honor was bestowed on a minstrel show staged in the opera house on Monday
evening, 14 September, by “Polk Miller, The Famous Story Teller, and his Negro
Quartette.” Three weeks later, “The Clansman” was performed in the house. From
a review of the advertisements and notices in the local newspaper in 1908 and
early 1909, it is apparent that F. E Starnes and his colleague Mike Peeler were
determined to bring good and varied shows to the opera house for opening season. The Wake
Forest College Male Quartette performed on 21 December. Barnard’s Orchestra
Concert Company performed on 9 January 1909. Luther Manship presented two
lectures, “The Dialects of Nations” and “Lights and Shadows of Slavery
Days” on 20 February. On 18 March, Dr. Oscar Haywood of New York presented a
lecture. The second season of the opera house was under the management of Dr. S
B. Kluttz and S. D. Arrowood. From
1909 through 1913, plays, concerts, lectures, and other events were staged in
the opera house on a regular basis. The invention of motion pictures spelled the
end of the short but brilliant period in Albemarle’s cultural life played out
at the opera house. On 4 December 1913, the ALBEMARLE ENTERPRISE carried an
advertisement for the three day series of performances by the “Williams
Vaudeville Co. and Big Indoor Circus” to be held in the opera house on 4-6
December. It appears that these performances were probably the last live shows
held in the opera house: at least, the advertisement for them is the last one
which has been found in the scattered issues of the surviving local newspapers
of the period. Ironically,
the era of moving picture shows at the opera house also proxied to be short
lived and by about 1919 the opera house ceased to be the venue for public
entertainments. According to local tradition, the first moving pictures were
shown at the opera house in 1914 under the auspices of Lane Ode Parker, the son
of Doc Franklin Parker, and a colleague. An advertisement announced
“Edison Talking Pictures” show, to be held on Wednesday and Thursday, May 13
and 14, 1914, appeared in the Albemarle Enterprise on 14 May 1914. This is the
first known showing of moving pictures in the building. Moving pictures were
shown in the opera house for the next two years until the Alameda Theater,
Albemarle’s first movie theatre, opened in 1916. From
1916 until 1919 the opera house was apparently little used. The public’s
preoccupation with moving pictures and the opening of the new theatre was one
reason. Another was the reduction in the ranks of touring companies, which
paralleled the rise of the moving pictures and the United States's entry onto
World War I. In 1919, P. J. Huneycutt, the proprietor of a furniture aria
undertaking business in the building to the east of the opera house, leased the
opera house for use as an annex of his undertaking operation. A passage was cut
in the building’s east brick wall, near the steps leading from the house to
the east corner dressing room: its location is now marked by architectural
ghost marks. Huneycutt
is also said to have removed the original sloping or stepped floor of the main
level of the opera house and installed a level floor when he began his lease of
the space. The original height of the floor at the rear of the house remains
visible where a section survives at the landing at the foot of the stair to the
balcony. Huneycutt leased the old opera house chamber until about 1929. For the
past sixty-five years the opera house has been used for storage. For most
residents of Albemarle, it passed from memory. Recently there have been
discussions concerning a renewed, public use for the performance hall; however,
these have not been successful. From
the time of its building to the present the opera house has remained in the
ownership of the Parker-Starnes family. It appears that the original
construction of the building had been a joint venture of Doctor Franklin Parker
(1850-1932), his son-in-law Francis Eugene Starnes (1874-1932), and his
brother Julius Caesar Parker (1855-1939). The ownership of the building
devolved in one-half interests to the heirs of Mr. Starnes and Julius Caesar
Parker. The block comprising Starnes Jewelers, 127 West Main Street, passed from
Starnes to his son Francis Eugene Starnes, Jr. (1914-1976) and, thereafter, to
his grandson, Francis Eugene Starnes, III (born 1941), the present owner and the
proprietor of Starnes Jewelers. The west half of the building, 133 West Main
Street, remained the rental commercial property of Julius Caesar Parker until
his death on 15 July 1939. It was inherited by two of his daughters, Ina Parker
Atkins (1895-1989) and Gladys Parker Cotton: the west storefront is now the
property of Mrs. Atkins’s daughter, Catherine Atkins Pickler (born 1934). During
the eighty-seven years between 1907, when construction began, and 1994, three
projects have been undertaken by the Parker-Starnes ownership, which have
affected the exterior appearance of the opera house. From its completion in 1908
until the late 1930s the building stood virtually unchanged on the exterior. In
an absence of absolute documentation, it is tempting to suggest that the
remodeling of the first story storefronts coincided with the deaths of three
original owners in the building: Doctor Franklin Parker and his son-in-law
Francis Eugene Starnes both died in 1932; Julius Caesar Parker died at the age
of eighty-three years in 1939. While the entrance to the suites and opera
house on the second story remained unchanged, the original entrances of both
storefronts were remodeled ca. 1939. The first story elevations were sheathed
with black Carrara glass panels and the entrances reset between new plate glass
and chromium display windows. This replacement treatment has achieved
significance in its own right as an important, if modest, example of the art
moderne style in Albemarle. In November 1972, the Binswanger Company installed a
gold colored aluminum grill across the facade of the opera house completely
concealing its handsome brickwork. In September, 1990, the owners of the building
removed the metal grillwork, restored the handsome facade of the opera house,
and returned it to public view. In September, 1991, the Historic Preservation
Foundation of North Carolina awarded the Gertrude S. Carraway Award of Merit to
the owners, Catherine Pickler and Francis Eugene Starnes III, for their
sensitive and successful restoration of the opera house facade. Architectural
Context The
architectural significance of the Opera House/Starnes Jewelers Building derives
from two principal considerations. To anyone viewing the buildings, comprising
the historical commercial core of downtown Albemarle, the architectural merit
and character of the opera house is readily apparent. The opera house is the
most impressive and best-preserved early twentieth century commercial building
in Albemarle. The fact that the two story plus attic level building contains an
important and largely intact early twentieth century performance hall is little
known. The words “Opera House” and the date “1907,” inscribed in a
keystone on the facade of the building, garner little attention. Even less well-known,
until recently, is the fact that the opera house remains one of the best
preserved and handsome surviving buildings designed and constructed by Locke
Anderson Moody, Albemarle’s best known turn of the century contractor/builder. At
present a full understanding of Moody’s career as a builder and contractor in
Albemarle remains to be documented; however, the broad details of his life and
his association with certain important buildings in the county seat are known.
He was born on 14 January 1862 in Albemarle and was the son of John A. Moody
(1828-1902) and his wife Nancy (1829-1903): he was the second of at least
five sons born to the couple. In 1885, Moody was married to Louisa Burleyson
(1866-1893), the daughter of Absalom and Sarah Burleyson. When and under what
circumstances Moody came to learn the contracting business is not understood at
present. Family tradition confirms the fact that he drew the plans of many of
the buildings he erected. He did not erect any of the major textile buildings or
mill villages of the turn of the century in Albemarle: these were probably
handled by outside contractors until the arrival of D. A. Holbrook in 1913.
Instead, Moody appears to have specialized in residential commissions and in the
construction of smaller commercial and institutional buildings. The
first known building constructed by Locke Anderson Moody is the handsome Queen
Anne style house he erected in 1891 for attorney J. M. Brown, Sr., on Pee Dee
Avenue. The design of the two story weather boarded frame house featured projecting bays and a well detailed porch which terminated with an
octagonal pavilion: the exterior has been remodeled. The next documented
building erected by L. A. Moody was the brick courthouse which he completed in
1893 on the town square. Said to have been modeled on the nineteenth century
Moore County Court House, the two story public building featured symmetrical
elevations enlivened by arch headed window openings and corbelled brickwork. The
entrance was marked by a mansard roof tower, which rose two levels above the
principal roofline of the courthouse. The courthouse was demolished in 1973. The
Stanly County Court House was one of the first of a series of brick buildings,
which transformed Albemarle from a village of mostly frame buildings to a
prosperous looking town at the turn of the century. Moody is credited, by
family tradition, with the construction of many of these commercial buildings.
The most important group is the block of adjoining two story buildings, which
stand on the west side of South Second Street, between Main Street and South
Street. These buildings, erected mostly in the late 1890s, are crowned by
corbelled brick cornices of varying designs. The first story elevations of all
of these storefronts have been remodeled; however, the fenestration patterns and
decorative brickwork of the second story and cornices mostly remain intact. During
the first decade of the twentieth century, Moody is credited with the
construction of two major buildings on West Main Street. Of these, only the
opera house survives. Moody started work on the opera house in the summer of
1907 and completed the building in 1908. As with many commercial buildings
erected at the turn of the century, it was a mixed-use building which contained
commercial storefronts, suites of rooms for professional or commercial offices,
and the performance hall. The Maralise Hotel, completed at the southwest corner
of West Main and South First Streets, was a large three-story brick hotel with
arch-headed window openings and a paneled frieze around the parapet roof. It has
been demolished. It
would appear that when Mr. Starnes and the Parker brothers decided to build the
opera house, they also determined to build a stylish building which would
reflect larger architectural ambitions than those of their fellow merchants and
investors. They obtained from Moody a handsome Colonial Revival-style building
which appears likely to have been the first of its type in the county seat. On
the first store the two storefronts featured recessed entrances flanked by the
aforementioned “Crane’s patent plate glass front.” The second story and
attic levels of the building were treated in a consistent fashion. A quintet of
broad window openings with paired sash windows surmounted by fanlights carried
across the second story level. The circular form of the fanlights was repeated
in the circular windows, which carry across the front of the building at the
attic level and illuminate the opera house balcony. Moodys
final major building of the pre-World War I era was also designed in the
Colonial Revival style. Erected between 1910 and 1915, the John Solomon Efird
House was a very grand and handsomely finished two-story brick house dominated
by a two-story portico. It was probably the finest house of its generation in
Albemarle and was the home of Efird (1857-1927), the long time president of
the Efird Manufacturing Company, and his second wife Bertha Snuggs
(1875-1949). It stood on West Main Street until it was demolished Ca. 1968. The
Efird house was the last major landmark which Moody erected in Albemarle. It is
unclear now what prompted him to relocate to Washington, D.C. in 1915/1916;
however, it is reasonable to surmise that the arrival of Contractor D.A Holbrook
in Albemarle in 1913 might have been a factor. Holbrook is said to have come to
town to erect a residential village for the Wiscassett Mill Company. He stayed
in Albemarle and became the town’s major builder/contractor in the period up
to World War II. His firm and the company headed by J.D.
Harwood was responsible for most of the major buildings in Albemarle of the
1920s and 1930s. About 1926/1927, Moody returned to Albemarle and erected at
least two buildings: the Ridgecrest School and the West Albemarle Baptist
Church, which was dedicated in 1928. These two buildings are surely among the
last he built. Moody returned to Washington, D.C. ca. 1930 and died there on 9
April 1938. He is buried there rather than in Albemarle, the city whose
turn-of-the-century appearance he had largely influenced. Footnote 1.
There are two principal sources for the Opera House/Starnes Jewelers Building.
Donna Dodenhoff was the author of both. Chronologically the earliest is the
“Historic Preservation Certification Application: Part 1——Evaluation of
Significance” for “Starnes Jewelers and Opera House” which was prepared in
1991 while she was in Albemarle at work on the publication manuscript of the
county architectural survey. The second principal source for the building and
those related buildings, which form its architectural context, is STANLY COUNTY:
THE ARCHITECTURAL LEGACY OF A RURAL NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY. Lu
Koontz, heritage room librarian of the Stanly County Library, provided
assistance on the research of Locke Anderson Moody. 9.
Bibliography ALBEMARLE
ENTERPRISE, Albemarle, North Carolina, 14 May1914. ALBEMARLE
PRESS, Albemarle, North Carolina, 29 May 1929. Harkey,
Ruth Moody Barrier, interviewed by David Foard Hood, 11 November 1994. Dodenhoff,
Donna. STANLY COUNTY: THE ARCHITECTURAL LEGACY OF A RURAL NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY.
Charlotte, North Carolina: Wayne Wolfe, Herb Eaton Historical Publications,
1992. STANLY
ENTERPRISE, Albemarle, North Carolina, 27 July 1905; 28 February 1907; 23 May
1907; 11 July 1907; 25 June 1908; 10 September 1908; and scattered issues
thereafter. Starnes,
H. Gerald, and Starnes, Herman. OF THEM, THAT LEFT A NAME BEHIND. Baltimore:
Gateway Press, Inc., 1983. 10.
Geographical Data Verbal
Boundary Description:
The acreage included in this nomination is the site of the building,
which comprises parcels #016—26—5 and #016—26—6 on Stanly County Tax Map
#6548.13. Verbal
Boundary Justification:
The boundaries are drawn to include the lots on which the Opera House!
Starnes Jewelers Building was erected in 1907—1908. |