State

June 23, 1934 THE STATE Роде Eleven AN OPEN-AIR WESTMINISTER ABBEY By MAJEL IVEY SEAY It is said that on «lark October nights at the Hallowe’en season, a headless horseman prowls around in the wooded graveyard; that ghosts of troops on horseback gather about the horse shed and that a young girl meets her Con¬ federate lover at the old well near the church. Dr. Clarence Stuart McClellan, dr., pastor of the church from 1921 to 1930, is originator of the “Abbey” idea, the purpose of which is to memoralize the tine and noble things in the Old South and pass these on through bronze and granite to future generations. Each monument is a large granite mountain boulder. On each boulder is a bronze marker engraved with tin1 name, «late of birth and a significant statement. All of these stones are of about the same height hut of different shapes. It is this that gives the Abbey A T Calvary Episcopal /V Church in the lit- M Ж tie mountain vil¬ lage of Fletcher, located on the highway between Asheville and Henderson¬ ville, has originated one of the greatest moves yet made to perpetuate the memories of noted artists, writers, musicians and benefactors of the South¬ land. Here, in the “Open Air Westminster Abbey of the South." are twenty- five bronze marker s mounted on native moun¬ tain boulders memorial tablets to Dixie’s immor¬ tal dead. Every year thou¬ sands of tourists from the United States and abroad visit the shrine. Calvary Episcopal Church is one of the most beautiful of historic spots, not only in North Caro¬ lina, but in the United States. The quaint little church with its stately, weathered spire, its stained glass windows and its trailing ivy, is sur¬ rounded by grassy sweeps of lawn dotted with an¬ cient pines, stately oaks, fragrant boxwoods and sturdy rhododendrons. "Old Calvary” is no less historic than it is beautiful. It is doubtful whether uny country church in America is more interesting or more historic than this one, in whose grave¬ yard rests the body of “Bill" Xye, one of the nation’s foremost humorists. A few devout Episcopalians effect»*! the organization of the church in 1857 and the building was erected two years later. Sacrifice and the work of <le- voted hands went into its building. Even the brieks that fashioned the structure were made by hand in Fletcher. Many illustrious rectors and international notables have «lelivered elo«iuent messages from the pulpit. Old Calvary ubounds not only in his¬ toric memories but in legends as well. The minds of the mountain m-groes ar«- Ш1«ч| with stories which have been handed down through the years, from generation to generation. its unique appeurance. The boulders are ereot- ed in rows —a “Poets’ Corner," a “Musicians' Corner,” a “Statesmen’s Corner," an “Artists’ Corner," a “Benefactors’ Corner,” and a “Short- Story Writers' ‘Para¬ graph’.” Memorials erected so far include “Bill” Xye, Robert E. Lee, George West fold t, “Dan” Em¬ mett, .lames Whitcomb Riley, Stephen Collins Foster, Sidney Lanier, William Sidney Porter. Frances Fisher Tiernnn. Albert 1'ike. Zcbulon Baird Vance. Francis Scott Key, Joel Chandler Harris, Herman Frank Arnold, Jefferson Davis, ami others. Scores of others are planned for the future. “The nucleus of my idea,” according to Dr. McClellan, “is the Robert E. Lee marker which in 1926 was placed at Cal¬ vary Church alongside of the ‘Dixie’ highway, near the entrance to the church grounds. ‘He cometh to his own,’ says tin* tablet. That is true and we want all the noble men and women in the South to come into their own. My idea calls for a bronze, life- size*! statue of a Southern mammy. Then about this statue 1 want to see all of the old-fashioned flowers grow¬ ing — the flowers the old mammy used to love.” In the plan is a typical log cabin, to 1ю placed near the Lee statue and fitted up with pictures of the Southern poets, writers, statesmen and musicians com¬ memorated in the Out-of- Doors- Abbey, with their books, old chairs, tables, rugs, clocks, cradles and old beds — to give the atmosphere of the Old South. During the War Between the Stat«is. Calvary Church was used as a barracks bv the Confederate soldiers, and the bodies of many of them were interred in the graveyard on the grassy slopes beside the church. (('on limn’d on page hvenlt/-luro) CALVARY Episcopal church, at Fletcher, N. C, where the lives of great men of the South ore being commemorated. The "abbey" idea was originated by Dr. Clarence Stuart McClellan, Jr., pastor of the church from 1924 to 1930. It is visited by thousands of tourists every year. - ★ -