Cliffside Day 2010 – Preview
By Reno Bailey
The Big Weekend
On Friday, October 8, our Gathering kicks off at 5:30 p.m. at the town clock. We’ll have a ceremony to rededicate the R.R. Haynes Memorial Tower with its recently restored clock works. We’ll unveil the recently installed bronze plaque honoring Mr. Haynes and new feature at the clock site, a town map display, described below.
Speakers at the ceremony will include North Carolina’s Lt. Governor Walter Dalton, and Robin S. Lattimore, the official Rutherford County Historian, who is currently serving as the 2009-2010 N.C. Historian of the Year. Both are descendants of R.R. Haynes.
Following the ceremony, all are invited to go to the Baptist Church next door, and enjoy refreshments and conversation with your friends.
At 7:00 p.m. in the church sanctuary we’ll recognize and honor one of Cliffside’s principal “givers,” Mrs. Myrtle Mashburn, who, throughout her long life, has shared her knowledge and love of music to thousands of people in the area.
In case of rain, the entire Gathering will take place in the church sanctuary.
On Saturday
Click images to enlarge
The map display was made possible by a grant from Duke Energy. Bricks from the original Cliffside Mill, donated by Mike Harmon, proprietor of Cliffside Mills, LLC, will be used in the base. A concrete walkway from the tower base to the map display will be added at a later date.
Something else to see, on the face of the tower, is a plaque honoring the memory of Raleigh Rutherford Hayes. It displays his likeness and a view of the home he built on this site in 1902. Eugene Libscomb created the brick framing around the plaque.
On Saturday, members of Society will be set up in the Masonic Lodge, as usual, where we’ll be looking for new members to join, and old members to renew their annual dues. This year we’ll have some souvenirs to sell, such as a quantity of these special mugs. All profit from their sales will go to the Clock Fund, to pay for future maintenance of our venerated antique. The price of each mug is at least $20 (we hope you’ll pay more).
