| Center for the Arts sets new event, Backstage Bash |
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Posted: Sunday, December 27, 2009 7:50 am
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Center for the Arts, 110 W. College Street was once a post office and Murfreesboro's main library.
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Backstage Bash” will be a new signature event in 2010, benefiting the Center for the Arts where the outdoor event will be held.
Set for March 20, event co-chairs will be Brook and David LaRoche and Lee and Rebecca Upton.
“This is a unique fun event benefiting the Center for the Arts. With ambience, drama and décor of a back stage pass, this event is definitely going to be the place to be,” Rebecca Upton said.
Patrons can dress in their favorite jeans or in sequins with a dinner to preceed entertainment by the popular Tyron Smith Review.
Ticket prices for a table of 10 will be $1,000 for dinner and event with backstage passes for the entertainment only also available.
Sponsorships are still available.
“We’re working hard to ensure that this party is one that will not be forgotten soon and will be enjoyed by all who attend,” Upton said. “We have a wealth of talent at the Center for the Arts and we will be pulling on all that creativity and enthusiasm to pull off a major block party.”
“Our hope is to raise much needed money for the Center that can be used to continue bringing visual and performing arts to Murfreesboro for both children and adults,” she added.
The Italianate building that sits at 110 W. College St. has a rich history as it has housed a U.S. Post Office, the Linebaugh Public Library and now the Center for the Arts.
Built in 1909 on the site of old livery stables, the building served as a U.S. Post Office for 50 years before the post office moved its operations to West Main Street, according to the book “Murfreesboro” by Bill Jakes.
John Knox Taylor of the U.S. Treasury Department designed the iconic building that sits near the intersection with North Church Street.
The building was contracted Jan. 25, 1909 to W.F. Henry & Co. Contractors and Builders
and was completed Feb. 1, 1910. It was constructed for roughly $41,058.
The U.S. Post Office moved in May 1961 and was transferred to the city of Murfreesboro’s Linebaugh Library in September 1961, according to a letter written by then Postmaster C.R. Bryn.
The Linebaugh Public Library leased the building for one dollar a year in 1962 and stayed in that location until 1992 when the current library was constructed, said Rita Shacklett, director of the Linebaugh Public Library System.
Shacklett called the building “fascinating” as she recalled working in the structure. She began working for the library in 1975.
She remembers in the basement of the building marble slab walls and showers and restrooms that were used for postal workers. The showers and restrooms are no longer there.
Near where the art gallery currently is located in the Center for the Arts, there is a door hiding a spiral staircase that runs from the basement to the ceiling, Shacklett said.
Postal inspectors would use the staircase to access a catwalk where they could watch postal employees work through a one-way mirror in the ceiling, she said.
In 1971, an addition was constructed onto the building. That addition is now the Center’s art gallery, public restrooms and dressing rooms.
Linebaugh moved out of the building due to lack of space.
In 1993, the Murfreesboro/ Rutherford County Cultural Arts Commission requested a $500,000 grant from the Christy-Houston Foundation to renovate the building into a theater.
The renovation of the building was awarded the Governor’s Award for Economic and Community Development.
The Center for the Arts opened to the public Dec. 1, 1995 and was originally funded by the city of Murfreesboro and Rutherford County.
For more information, visit the web at www.boroarts.org or call 615-904-2787. |
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