“Breaking” News

On Thursday, September 8, 2005 the growl of a bulldozer was heard in Cliffside as it broke ground for a new structure. It may have been a defining moment in the restoration of Cliffside. Janice and Marc Swing have taken the first step in repopulating the old town. On the site that used to be designated as #30 North Main Street (on the east side of the street) the Swings will construct a new home, to be completed in about three months.

Janice and Marc Swing standing on the cleared lot where their new home will be built. — Looking east from Main Street. Janice and Marc Swing at the site of their future new home. *Photo by Reno Bailey*

If all goes according to plan, this home will be the first in an initial phase of five homes to be built in the near future, all along the east side of Main Street. Four of them, including the Swing home, will be between the old 4th Avenue West and 5th Avenue West (Mud Cut) locations. The fifth home will be built on the site of the old Presbyterian church, north of Mud Cut.

The view that will eventually be from the Swing's front porch. — The home site viewed from the southeast corner. The R. R. Haynes Memorial Clock Tower can be seen in the background. *Photo by Reno Bailey*

The Swings intend for every house on the land they develop to be of a variety of styles found in Cliffside in years gone by. By a coincidence, the Swings chose for their own home the design of a house that was lived in by Janice’s great grandfather, D. D. Fortune, around 1912 (see photo below). It stood almost directly across the street from the lot on which the Swings will build.