Henderson County was still a destination for tourists during the 1950s. Hendersonville now had an organization specifically organized to increase tourist development. The Hendersonville Tourist Development Company was located at 430 N. Church St. Hugh D Randall was president and Donald A. Gilmore was the manager.
The total number of hotels, inns, motels and tourist courts in the county is not known, as only a few are listed in the “Miller’s Directory,” and none were listed within communities outside the immediate area of Hendersonville. It is known that the communities of Edneyville, Bat Cave, Gerton, Mountain Home, and Fletcher had hotels, inns, motels and tourist courts during the 1950s. These were the peak years for country dancing at the Flack Hotel in Edneyville. The peak years of the Huckleberry Mountain Artists Colony in the Clear Creek/Fruitland area was in the 1950s. The communities of Bat Cave and Gerton were hosting tourists from throughout the nation in the 1950s.
In Hendersonville and the immediate vicinity, there was still the Bowen Hotel, Duncraggan Inn, Hendersonville Inn, Skyland Hotel, Lakeside Inn, Osceola Lake Inn, Echo Inn, Poplar Lodge and Laurel Park Inn with its popular beach. The Colonial Inn became the Kentucky Home at 225 Fourth Avenue West. There were two new hotels in town, the Jefferson Hotel at 306 Third Avenue West and the Bruster on Maple Street. There were seven listings for motels in the vicinity of Hendersonville and Flat Rock: Bonaire, Briarwood, Druid Hills, Mountain Aire, Provincial, Rainbow and Terrace Court. There were 16 listings for tourist courts in the vicinity of Hendersonville and Flat Rock. These were primarily tourist cottages.
The Main Street dances with square dancing and folk dancing were still popular.
Based on early newspaper reports, the first Apple Festival in Hendersonville had a folk dance jamboree. The winners were the Connemara Farms dance team and the Vernon Rogers band. They won a trip to the Chicago Railroad Fair. In the early to mid-1950s, it was called the Folk Dance Jamboree and the Carolina Mountain Folk Dance Jamboree.
With the folk dance jamborees and the Main Street dances, Hendersonville became well-known for folk dancing and square dancing. And the Flack Hotel in Edneyville was well-known for its country dances, with country music performers staying at the hotel. There were three dance pavilions, according to “Miller’s Directory.”
Featured performers at the first N.C. Apple Festivals included Henderson County’s famous Echo Inn Cloggers. The team began as the Laurel Park Cloggers, and then changed the name about 1950. They were named National Champion Square Dancers in 1952. The team was managed by Mary Jo Brown Houston. During the Korean War, the team performed with the USO. To view them on the “Jimmy Dean Show,” visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASV601P_hXc
One of the cloggers in this group was the manager’s son, Alex Houston. He was a ventriloquist in addition to being a clogger. The clogging team, and Alex Houston with his side-kick Elmer, also performed on the “Jimmy Dean Show” and became regulars. He was the opening act for several county music stars and performed numerous times at the Grand Ol’ Opry.
For more information on ventriloquist Alex Houston, visit http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20030526/NEWS/305260347
Also in the 1950s the Blue Ridge Mountain Dancers with James Kesterson at the helm became national clogging champions. James Kesterson continued the tradition of the folk dance jamboree and the N.C. Apple Festival at least until 1987.
Kesterson introduced precision clogging with this team of dancers. Precision clogging is a complex choreographed exhibition dancing. This clogging team from Henderson County performed with Johnny Cash, Joan Baez, the Kingston Trio, Doc Watson, Pete Seeger and many more. The team participated at the Newport Folk Festival, the 1964 World’s Fair in New York, the 1968 Olympics in Mexico, the Montreal Expo in 1970, and the 1980 Knoxville World’s Fair. The team performed at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., numerous times and won several state and regional championships.
Videos of performances with Pete Seeger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmJj6LZogms and http://www.philjamison.com/dance-videos-1/ and http://gomighty.com/harmony/to-arrive-where-we-started-and-know-the-place-for-the-first-time/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54HDs-PqgJU
Photo in home of Bascom Lunsford: https://packlibraryncroom.wordpress.com/2014/08/09/plantation-dance-team-the-plantation-band-perform-at-the-mountain-dance-and-folk-festival-1942/
Other information at: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1665&dat=19711215&id=RVRPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=RSQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5667,4298516&hl=en
Beale and Peggy Fletcher had also opened the Fletcher School of Dance.
Young people in the 1950s enjoyed the new rock ‘n’ roll music at the Teen Canteen on Main Street in the basement of the bank that was entered by going down a flight of stairs in the middle of the sidewalk. For more information on what is mistakenly called “Underground Hendersonville,” click on the link at the bottom of this page.
There were still four parks in Hendersonville (Lenox Park, Toms Park, Boyd Park and Edwards Park) and the town started the Hendersonville Recreation Commission prior to the end of the decade. The parks “provide rides for the kiddies, tennis, shuffleboard, fishing, picnic facilities, checkers, bridge, and other games. “
At the end of the decade there was still Turner Park at 900 Ashe Street for black residents, and Laurel Park had the Jump-Off Mountain Recreation Center on the Laurel Park Highway.
The swimming pool on Washington Street had closed. The beach at the Laurel Park Lake was the favorite swimming spot for residents and it was where the Red Cross gave swimming lessons for many local residents.
By the end of the decade there was only one billiard hall left in town, Brunswick Billiards at 130 N. Main St. But, the South Main Recreation Center at 117 S. Main St. offered billiards. The bowling alley was now Hendersonville Lanes and located on the Spartanburg Highway (U.S. 176).
There was now an auto track for racing at the site of the WNC Fairgrounds, where East Henderson High School is located today. The Southeastern Championship Horse Show was also held annually at the site.
By the end of the decade there was only one indoor movie theater listed in the directory, the Carolina Theater at 533 N. Main St. But the county had two drive-in theaters, the Hendersonville Drive-In on the Asheville Highway and the Joy Drive-In on Spartanburg Road.
It was in 1952 that the summer theater started by Robroy Farquhar became known as the Vagabond School of Drama and moved to Flat Rock.
Camp Glen Arden opened in 1951 by the Bell family of Tuxedo. The camp was first located near Christ School in Arden, and in the 1970s moved to Tuxedo to the same location as Camp Arrowhead.
Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute opened a Baptist camp at the school, with a swimming pool, and a Baptist camp was opened between East Flat Rock and Saluda. This camp was later operated as a Presbyterian camp.
A camp also opened on Osceola Lake, known as Camp Mountain Lake.
In 1957, Camp Wendy Wood opened by Bill Waggoner on Lake Summit in Tuxedo.
By 1960, the county had nine summer camps and three church assembly grounds that had summer camps. Two of the assemblies were Kanuga Conferences (Episcopal) and Bonclarken (Associate Reformed Presbyterian). The third was Our Lady of the Hills operated by the Charlotte diocese of the Roman Catholic Church. The site that is today’s Highland Lake Inn was purchased by Bishop Vincent Waters in 1955 and the camp opened in 1956. Highland Lake was known as Madonna Lake and the camp also featured an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The camp closed in 1985 and the property sold.
The entertainment and recreation category in the 1960 census states that 62 people in Henderson County were employed in these areas that included radio, theater and other businesses. Those persons working in hotels and tourist courts were not listed in a separate category and it is impossible to separate them from other categories in the census.

Teen Canteen Underground