Helen's Barn
Helen's barn through the years:
“Now, circle up four and on you go,
Let’s put the birdie in the cage
Redbird out, and the old crows in,
Now swing your own
And on you go.”
The caller bellows above the buck dancing heels, stomping the dust up from the Helen’s Barn floor while hollering and counting the crowd into a whirl. The horsehair strikes and squeals along with the taught strings of the fiddle and feet begin to stomp the floor in rhythmic movement. The plucking commences and everyone finds a partner to swing and dance around. The banjo, guitar, and mandolin all synchronize their strumming to generate a dynamic wall of string sound. A familiar call announces the next count and step, and suddenly many become one on the dance floor.
This describes a typical Saturday night during the glory days of Helen’s Barn. Born of love and loss, Helen Wright opened Helen’s Barn on May 14, 1932, following the untimely death of her husband, Charlie Wright. Determined to provide for her family and her community, Helen invested Charlie’s last gift to her, $2000.00 earned through the Carnegie Foundation for his heroic rescue of Gus Baty from Fool’s Rock at Whiteside Mountain in 1917, to build the first structure. Though the Barn was destroyed by fire in 1934, Helen stood firm and reinvested her insurance money into rebuilding Helen’s Barn, a cultural center of Highlands that spanned over a half century.
Helen and the start of her Barn:
Music, the soul of Helen's Barn:
Helen’s Barn was a place for fellowship and folk dancing, traditional music, and the best cloggers in all of Appalachia. The venue was pivotal in Highlands' social circles. The barn showcased dancing on the weekends and mini-golf for everyone, especially for younger children while their parents danced the evening away. Called “the Great Equalizer,” for its ability to bring all social classes together, Helen’s Barn was the social center of Highlands for several generations until it closed in 1984.
Dancing at Helen's Barn, a family affair and training ground for the next generation of mountain dancers:
The story of Charlie Wright's daring rescue of friend Gus Baty that earned him the Carnegie Medal and the financial assistance for Helen Wright to start Helen's Barn after her husband's untimely death: