Mountain City Playhouse – Dance Hall Hill Sparked Many a Romance!

By Tracy McCoy and others…

First opening on the shores of Cox’s Lake, The Mountain City Playhouse was more of a hotel that hosted square dances. This beloved location caught fire. This was thought to be in the 1920s. The American Legion owned a building on the other side of the lake that they turned into the Mountain City Playhouse and in the 1950s it was the place for socializing in those days. Dancers came from far and wide including locals and visitors to Rabun, with Rabun’s numerous summer camps and the summer residents on the lakes joining in.

In early 1963, another fire destroyed the building but the American Legion Post 220 took the insurance monies collected, and with donations and loans were able to raise the rest to rebuild. The new Mountain City Playhouse opened in May of the same year. The dance floor was ample to accommodate the crowd the dance hall was attracting and there was estimated to be seating for 800+ spectators. A large stage was added for the musicians. Weekends saw the place full to the brim, with many nights hosting 1500+ in attendance! On nights when there wasn’t dancing, there were wrestling competitions, roller skating, and other fun events.

In 2021 local Suzie Nixon Flaherty, along with her husband, Steve, her aunt, Dorothy Welch, a former Mountain City Clogger, and cousin, Rob Hamrick, reopened the Mountain City Playhouse They host dance classes and square dance weekend/clogging events much like what was enjoyed so many years ago. You do not want to miss their 2nd Saturday on Dance Hall Hill event each month.

Suzie moved her gym, Blue Ridge Activity and Tumbling Center, or the BRAT Center, to the front part of the Mountain City Playhouse building where it has found its permanent home. Suzie, a former gymnast, opened the BRAT Center to provide a place in Rabun County where kids of all ages could attend classes in gymnastics, tumbling, ninja, competitive cheer, cirque, and other family-centered activities. She also bought a 40-foot bus, the BRAT TumbleBus, equipped with a small gym inside, for mobile tumbling opportunities.

“I always knew I wanted to move home after traveling the country for over 20 years as a military family. I wanted to come home to Rabun County and I wanted to do something for the community, particularly for the children in the county. I participated in many sports growing up, but I really loved gymnastics. I remember all of the programs and activities the county had when I was growing up and I wanted to help bring beneficial activities to the children and adults of Rabun County.

My two sons became competitive gymnasts and it benefited them greatly in any sport they chose to do. Buying and reopening the Mountain City Playhouse was a great way to make that happen.”

The BRAT Center also provides an Open Gym every Saturday evening and is open to the public. This is extremely helpful for those who want a “date night”, a little free time for shopping, or who want to attend one of the Mountain City Playhouse events on the other side of the building. I highly encourage you to visit the Mountain City Playhouse website, www.mountaincityplayhouse. com or the BRAT Center at www.blueridgeatc.com, or follow both on social media.

Square Dancing & Love Stories

Peggy Pleasants meets Albert Thrasher

It was the summer of 1958. I was working at the Nicholson House with the understanding that I would be able to get off work early enough on Saturday night to go to the Mountain City Playhouse Square Dance. Albert was in summer school at Georgia Tech. I had danced and buck danced several sets and decided to sit one out. After all, I had been working since 6:00am! In walks Albert and heads straight to me asking me to dance. Even then, he was very persuasive! We danced the rest of the evening and for the next 60+ years!

Albert’s version was that he walked in and saw this “curly haired blue-eyed beauty with legs so long they reached her armpits”--I never did quite figure that one out! We had a wonderful marriage and life with Albert was always an adventure. Albert passed away in 2020 and it’s been difficult being without him, but when you’ve had a love that grand you hold on to those special moments forever. We had a son Al, Jr. and a daughter Julie and we have six incredible grandchildren. We were truly blessed and it all started on Dance Hall Hill!

Robin Whitney meets Steve Williams

My family has had a cabin on Lake Burton since 1957. In my early teen years a lot of the lake kids would bum rides to Mountain City. After a night of intense clogging and burned calories, Cyndae Arrendale’s mom would have LaPrades fry up a bunch of (Fieldale) chicken and we would gather at their house to replenish.

Originally we shared our cabin with three other families. At our annual Christmas gathering a women in attendance, who owned an Astrology Shop in Underground, Atlanta, boldly stated that she had “charted” me, and in front of God and everybody, announced that I was going to meet the man I was going to marry in JULY.

The summer between my sophomore and junior years I spent as much time as possible at the lake, never missing a Saturday night in Mountain City. One fateful night in JULY at MCP, this guy walked up and started a conversation, mistaking me for a girl that I had attended school with, I told him I was not. Turns out that he had roomed with some guys in college that I had graduated with, one of whom I had dated. The roommates had gone through our high school yearbooks and pointed out who all had cabins on Lake Burton.

That night my dearest friend, Cyndae, invited Steve and his buddies over to her house for the post-dance fried chicken. While Steve and I did not hit it off, someone took a picture of him and gave it to me. First impression was not good at all but I showed the picture to my roommate from Auburn and said to her, “I don’t like him much but I know I’m going to marry him”.

The following week Steve’s roommate from UGA came over to our home in Atlanta and said he heard that Steve and I had met. He asked if Steve’s girlfriend was with him? I was shocked, I had no idea. The UGA roommate came back over to my house a couple nights later and told me Steve and his girlfriend had broken up that summer. I didn’t believe it for a minute and I was right…for a while. Our senior year in college we started dating exclusively and I made many a weekend trip to Athens!

The rest is history. Steve and I are still in the same location on the lake but had to tear down the original cabin and rebuild. Upon retirement we decided to live there full time. We’ve been married for 46 years, four children (one deceased), four grandchildren and blessings in abundance!!

Terry Crane meets Danny Mize

Iwas in school with two of Danny’s sisters. His younger sister and I went to the Mountain City Playhouse to dance one Saturday night and she introduced me and Danny. He was playing in the band on stage which he started doing there in summer of 1969. He played bass for 17 years up there in what was the house band. We met in June of 1976, got engaged in September of 1976 and got married October 9th of 1976. It was definitely meant to be and a whirlwind romance.

He proposed when we left the playhouse one Saturday night. We got married in Walhalla, South Carolina at the courthouse, like so many others did. I think the Playhouse closed down in the early 80’s. We were at the Playhouse every Saturday night because of him playing there. I sure do miss those Saturday nights. We will have been married 47 years this year! We have one son and two grandsons and two granddaughters. It’s been a good life.