Thursday, June 26, 2008
Seeking clues after 82 years
John Long
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From the RoundTable blog
I've recently been pursuing an 82-year-old mystery involving an ugly local episode from the days of segregation. I hope some reader might be able to shake loose some of the missing details.
Garst Mill on Mason's Creek in Salem opened about 1845 and stayed in the same family for years. But in 1906, the Kesler family purchased it and ran the mill until it closed in 1918, a victim of competition. During the 1910s, the Keslers opened their millpond to swimmers in summer and ice skaters in winter.
In the early 1920s, Kesler's Mill was acquired by local businessmen in an unsuccessful attempt to use the mill wheels to grind shale. The machinery was wrecked, and the owners decided to sell. The mill changed hands several times before someone (it's not clear to me who) in 1926 rented the mill for development as a swimming resort for African Americans.
Now, just a few hundred yards downstream stood Lakeside, opened in 1920, where a giant whites-only swimming pool was fed by Mason's Creek. Apparently the idea of swimming in creek water that may have already splashed over black bathers was too much for some folks.
Neighbors in the Mason's Creek area protested, as did the managers of Lakeside, according to the few surviving press accounts. Even the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution "regretting and opposing the use of said property for the purpose named, unless and until proper restrictions and safeguards are thrown around it for the protection of the neighborhood and the public."
But the developers continued undaunted, sprucing up the old mill with electric lights and changing rooms. It was an ambitious endeavor -- not until much later would another African-American swimming pool open in the Roanoke area. I've not been able to identify who was behind the plan, whether white investors or the black community itself, but press accounts do mention a manager by the name of J.L. Ashburne. The grand opening was to be on May 29, 1926.
A few days before, on May 25, neighbors of the mill heard terrific explosions in the night. By morning, a 12-foot gap stood in the milldam, and there was no longer enough water to do more than wade.
Nearby residents were cagey about what happened, but scarcely hid their glee. The Roanoke Times flippantly reported a neighbor's remark that "lightning could have done it, but no lightning has been seen. Heard plenty of thunder, though." The bathhouse and lighting equipment were also vandalized. Needless to say, the swimming resort never opened. The mill was finally razed about 1938.
County authorities promised to investigate, but months later the paper reported that the search for the perpetrators had proven fruitless. In the meantime, another African-American resort near Salem called the Pine Crest Inn was also destroyed by a mysterious explosion. Fortunately, no one was injured in either incident.
The Kesler's Mill explosion was reported in African-American newspapers as far away as Chicago, but locally the incident received little attention. Local histories mention it in passing. Recently, a researcher at Harvard uncovered parts of the story and contacted the Salem Museum to see if we had more info. We had only tidbits, but the more I've investigated the more curious I've become.
Who destroyed the dam at Kesler's Mill? Was it the same one(s) who blew up the Pine Crest? Was the Ku Klux Klan, which in the 1920s experienced a brief revival locally and nationwide, involved?
This was an ugly moment in local history. It was not just that white reluctance to share some creek water denied blacks the chance to swim. Racism, it seems, had turned into domestic terrorism.
Why not, some may wonder, let this story remain forgotten? Too often local history glosses over such unpleasant elements, but they too are part of our past. The truth deserves to come to light, if it can still be recovered from the mists of history.
There are few alive today who would have clear memories of the events, but I'm hoping someone might remember a parent or grandparent speaking of the incident. If you have any relevant information (or corrections), please contact me. I'll let readers know what I find out.
Long, a Roanoke Times columnist, is director of the Salem Museum and teaches history at Roanoke College.
