This article was written in 2010 for the Henderson County Chamber of Commerce

By Jennie Jones Giles
Stand on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant at the corner of Main Street and Fourth Avenue West. Look down at the concrete sidewalk pavers. Notice the 12 slabs of darker concrete in two rows, six in each row.
Those dark slabs now cover the old glass blocks that for 35 years let sunlight into the rooms below.
Take note of the dark concrete slab near the light pole, planter and street. That slab covers the staircase entrance that once led to underground businesses and later a teen canteen.
Today, the only entrance to this “underground” is through the basement level of the building that houses the restaurant and several offices.
Gray and black ceramic-tiled walls, graffiti-covered boards or empty “storefront” windows, and the patterned ceramic sheet tile on the floor are seen today in the basement.
Instead of storage boxes, these rooms were once filled with young people. This was the home of the city’s teen canteen from the mid- to late 1940s until the early 1960s.
“When I was a kid there were stairs leading down from the sidewalk,” said Bill Gray. “There were several rooms where kids hung out.”
Underground stores
It was in the early 1920s that the city’s most renowned architect, Erle G. Stillwell, drew up the plans for a bank at this site – Job No. 1177, March 1922. The original architect drawings for the “Bank and Office Building, First Bank and Trust Co., Hendersonville, North Carolina,” show clearly the basement of the bank.
The vault is noted. The original vault with its heavy door is still there, along with the same elevator area. The drawing displays the boiler room and the fuel room behind the vault. The 20-inch coal holes above the fuel room carried the coal to the boiler room next door.
It was April 28, 1926, that the headline from the Hendersonville Times announced that the First Bank will add rooms under the sidewalk.
“Space is becoming so valuable in the heart of the business district that the First Bank and Trust Co., which is four stories above the ground and one below, is making a development that will give the bank three additional store rooms under the sidewalk in front of the building and to the east end of the structure.
“The sidewalk has been removed and so has the dirt under it to a depth of about 12 feet. This space will be ornamentally covered with tiling and the sidewalk will consist mostly of glass, which will make three well-lighted rooms suitable for offices, barbershops and other business.
“Entrance to the basement rooms will be made from the eastern side of the sidewalk.”
R.C. Clarke was president of the bank at the time.
Within four short years the bank closed, a casualty of the Great Depression and the stock market crash. It quickly re-organized as the State Trust Co., later merging with the Northwestern Bank, then First Union. In 1998, the bank sold the building.
But at some point, date not known, the plan to use the basement space for businesses came to fruition.
Listed in the City Directory, 1939-40, are two businesses utilizing the basement space of the now State Trust Bank. Tom’s Barber Shop and the Blue Bonnet Beauty Shoppe are located at 407 N. Main St. When the two businesses opened their doors or closed their doors is not known for certain.
But by World War II, the space no longer housed businesses. The rooms were filled with music and young people.
“They held dances for World War II soldiers down there when I was growing up,” said Leon Pace.
Nat King Cole to Chubby Checker
At the conclusion of the war, high school students filled the rooms, always with a chaperone.
“We went down from the old State Trust Co.,” said Dave Cooley. “Light entered from the stones on the sidewalk. There were three or four rooms. We had a pool table, a jukebox and a couple of couches.”
Young people were enjoying the music of Woody Herman, Doris Day, Bing Crosby, Guy Lombardo and Patti Page. They were dancing to “Buttons and Bows” by Dinah Shore and “Nature Boy” by Nat King Cole.
“We could dance or sit around and gab with each other,” said Don Michalove. “It kept us teenagers out of trouble. It was a place to go and have fun and a good time.”
“It was a place all the kids could hang out in the late 1940s,” said Jimmy Edney. “Everybody had a great time. We danced to the old 78 rpm records in the jukebox.”
Buster Livingston owned the jukeboxes, Edney said. Mack Aiken operated and serviced them.
Folks remember a Coke vending machine in the basement. But no other refreshments were served.
“There was a drug store on every corner,” said Edney.
Beginning at Third Avenue West and up to Fifth Avenue West, the drug stores – Justus, Roses, Economy and Freeze – had soda fountains serving milkshakes and other treats.
By the early 1950s, Hendersonville High School graduates can’t remember if the pool table was there. But, there definitely was a ping-pong table.
“One room had a ping-pong table,” said Art Cooley.
“I remember going down there as a teenager,” said Hal Hunter. “It was a hang-out place for teenagers. There was a jukebox.”
By the mid-1950s, the jukebox was playing the songs of Mitch Miller, Pat Boone, the McGuire Sisters, Perry Como and Frank Sinatra. Students were dancing to “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and the Comets.
It was definitely a basement area and lighting was not great.
“It was drab under the street and bank,” said Joe Poole. “But it was a place we could hang out.”
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the city’s young people were still utilizing the place weekdays after school and Friday nights after the ball games.
By then, there was some type of concession stand, said Jim Austell.
“There was a jukebox, a dance floor, seating area and a ping-pong table,” he said.
There was also a television.
“We used to watch “American Bandstand,” Austell said.
Brenda Lee, Connie Francis, Paul Anka and Percy Faith sang one hit song after another.
“We had a wonderful time down there,” said Cam Boyd. “One small room had a counter and bar stools. There was a jukebox in another room and tables in a second room.”
Students were learning to dance the “Twist” by Chubby Checker, and “slow dancing” to “Cathy’s Clown” by the Everly Brothers and “It’s Now or Never” by Elvis Presley.
The bank’s basement area closed sometime in the early to mid-1960s. City and county residents held a fundraising campaign to build a new teen canteen. The newer, lighter, roomier building was located in Boyd Park, across from Hendersonville High School’s Dietz Field. It opened just in time for the British invasion of the Beatles and the appearance of local teen bands. The location is now the site of the Hendersonville Fire Department.