As a local musician, The Allandale Mansion has been one of my favorite gigs to play over the past twenty some years. From garden parties, receptions, business functions and fundraisers, a lot of memories have accumulated over the years, but none the more interesting than ‘Dinner with The Dead’ this past Friday.
Rod Jemael, Allandale currator called several weeks back and asked if I would play a fundraiser for the Friends of Allandale. This is a group of people that donate their time and efforts to continue this proud part of Kingsport’s heritage. He referred to this event as ‘Dinner with The Dead’ and immediately, I knew it was something to look forward to.
Walking in from the backyard garden, one of the first things in hand was a hearty glass of Merlot and a few moments later, I sat down at the Yamaha grand and started noodling through Mingus – ‘Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.’ It wasn’t long that guests poured in through the doors of this historic mansion and mingled for about an hour before sitting down to a meal catered by the new Virginia Intermont group at Skoby’s. My set of jazz standards seemed to set a good tone for the night and the Yamaha sounds great in the old room with high ceilings. I especially enjoyed working through a few new tunes in my set list including Ruben Gonazalez and something extra special for the night – a new version of Jelly Roll Mortion’s – Dead Man Blues.’
Sometime in the middle of my set, an older gentlemen introduced himself to me as ‘Harvey Brooks.’ He was the original owner of Allandale, built around 1950 and he along with several other members in his troup were disguised as former owners and workers at the mansion (which used to be a Black Angus cattle farm) and were mingling through the crowd of business owners and Kingsport’s social scene telling stories from the past.
My payment for the evening was dinner. A seat had been reserved for me in the main dining room under a marvelous chandelier and a long table reserved for about 14 people. The house was full with over 105 people, but in this room, everyone paired off with a wife, except me and next to me…a widow named Virginia Wooten.
Virginia is well into her sixties and one of the most delightful souls in our community. She’s a widow now and worked in research at Eastman for 45 years, graduating from Radford University’s Women’s College and living the majority of her life in Kingsport. Her stories and sharp wit were fascinating and she was elegant in her voicings of Kingsport’s history including the stories about the Brooks family at Allandale Mansion. She was also helpful at identifying a couple of old restaurant postcards that had popped up on Ebay.
Around the table, Jim Blaylock – a local politician and his wife along with Mr. and Mrs. Mike Harvey who were also a part of the Eastman legacy in this town. We chatted over several glasses of wine and were served ornate and tasty creations from the staff of the ‘new’ Skoby’s.
In between our conversation and our servings, several of the ‘ghosts’ entertained our table with stories of the past. In addition to Mr. Brooks, whom I had met earlier, we heard from his wife Ruth, one of the grounds keepers, George and a lovely young lady who played the disheartened Roweena Ross
Roweena’s character told a tale of despair about her lover who drowned on the Holston. Her family, owners at that time of Rotherwood Mansion eventually committed suicide in her despair over her lover. Wow! Never heard about that and will have to do some more research into this one.
Each character told stories about their place in the history at Allandale, using props (a national Angus livestock trophy) and stories passed down through the years. Allandale was the home of some of the nation’s most prized Angus Bulls and was certainly an impressive home to welcome people from the west side of Kingsport.
Seneator Al Gore, Sr dined in the very room for this evening and negotiated cattle deals along with working with J. Fred Johnson to build Patrick Henry Dam.
In between ghosts, the conversations around me were intriguing and although I was not familiar with anyone in the room, the conversations were both enlightening and perfect for another evening of jazz and good wine.