18 minute read
SAVING THE DERRY DOWN
SAVING SAVING THE DERRY DOWN THE DERRY DOWN
In 1964 Gram Parsons would open a teen club in a little building on Winter Haven’s Fifth Street. By 2012, the defunct Derry Down had become a warehouse lost to time. The relic of Polk County’s musical paramount was in disrepair and being used for storage. Not everyone had forgotten it, though. The convergence of an author, a persistent Gram fan, a nonprofit, a private developer, and the Winter Haven community would save this cultural landmark in the eleventh hour.
Ten years ago, Bob Kealing released his book, Calling Me Home: Gram Parsons and the Roots of Country Rock. The author, an Edward R. Murrow and four-time Emmy award-winning broadcast journalist, is no stranger to writing about Florida figures and history – it’s kind of his thing. “My raison d’être is preDisney history. When I got here 30 years ago, I really started to bristle at this notion that Central Florida has no history or culture that predates Walt Disney,” he said.
In the mid-nineties working as a freelance writer and reporter with the Orlando NBC television affiliate, Kealing began investigating novelist Jack Kerouac. He learned about a thendilapidated Orlando cottage Kerouac shared with his mother in 1957 and 1958. In 1997, Kealing penned a four-thousand-word article about the cottage for The Orlando Sentinel, sparking what would become the Kerouac Project. An all but forgotten abode twenty-something years ago, the Kerouac house is now a fully restored home on the National Register of Historic Places. An ongoing writers-in-residence program is hosted there. In 2004, Kealing published the book Kerouac in Florida: Where the Road Ends.
Throughout the four-and-half-year process of researching and writing Calling Me Home, Kealing traveled from Waycross to Winter Haven, visiting sites relevant to Gram’s story. He interviewed Gram’s best friend, Jim Carlton, for an early background on the country rock pioneer. “I’ll never forget Jim standing in Gram’s old room and just going, ‘Oh my God, the memories are just coming flooding back,’” Kealing said. It was the first time in 40 years Carlton had been back there.
The Derry Down 2022 Photo by Amy Sexson
Kealing had heard about this Derry Down place – Gram’s old teen club. Carlton offered to show him where it was, just a minute or so walk from his family store, now owned by his cousin Glen, Carlton Music Center.
The author looked through a side window of the derelict Derry Down. The building was in shambles and filled with junk. Looking inside “triggered a lot of memories” for Gram’s childhood friend. Carlton still had the reel-to-reel recordings he’d taken when the Derry Down opened in 1964. He shared those with Kealing too.
An entire chapter is dedicated to Gram’s senior year and the opening of the Derry Down in Kealing’s book. Only a few paragraphs into that chapter, he wrote:
It’s surprising there isn’t already a more permanent memorial here. For fans of cultural tourism, the corridor between Winter Haven, Auburndale, and Lakeland would be an ideal place to create some sort of tribute to all the musicians who called this area home in the 1960s.
Kealing included a photo of the former Derry Down. The shabby warehouse was in rough shape and demolition seemed inevitable. The universe must have read that passage loud and clear. Certainly, self-described mega-Gram fan and local music historian Gene Owen did.
“I think Gene Owen was an important catalyst in bringing all of it together,” Kealing said.
In August 1968, Owen bought the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo record. He put it on the turntable at his Lakeland home, and by the end of the fifth song, “You’re Still on My Mind,” Owen was a Parsons devotee. “It was like something from outer space to me,” Owen said – an apt description of Parsons’s Cosmic American Music. “I just got chills even thinking about that day.” He had no idea that Parsons grew up not 15 miles from there.
Owen would also get a chance to look in the Derry Down by way of former Legends drummer, Jon Corneal. The two met in 1977 when Owen and a friend were driving along Highway 92 in Lakeland and spotted a sign promoting a show for Jon Corneal and the Limousine Cowboys. Owen had seen Corneal’s name in the credits for Sweetheart of the Rodeo and The Gilded Palace of Sin and had to stop to see him play. Jon and the band were outside taking a break when they pulled up. The two got to talking and have been friends ever since, sharing an interest in music and cars.
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Bob Kealing and Chris Hillman backstage at The Derry Down Photo courtesy of Bob Kealing Jim Lauderdale at the Country Music Hall of Fame Photo by Amy Sexson
After that celestial experience listening to Gram, Owen consumed as much media and music related to the musician as existed. “I had read all the Gram books probably twice by the time Bob’s book came out,” he said.
One day, after reading Bob Kealing’s book, Owen picked up Jon Corneal to show him a 1970 Mercedes sedan. Corneal got in the car, and Owen told him about the book and the Derry Down. Corneal knew right where it was – he’d already been there fortysomething years earlier.
When they rolled up to the Fifth Street warehouse, the Cosmic American Music gods smiled down on them. A Six/Ten employee happened to be at the building. He shuffled through his ring of keys and let Owen and Corneal have a look inside. “I had out-ofbody travel, I swear,” Owen said.
Around the same time, Six/Ten President and Secretary Kerry Wilson was on a bus, reading the book. Wilson later relayed to Kealing that he saw the warehouse and thought, ‘Wait a minute, we own that building!’
When Main Street Winter Haven Director, now President and CEO, Anita Strang caught wind of the Derry Down site, she rushed to The Shop to get a copy of the book. Motivated by the historical significance and potential of the Derry Down, Gene Owen reached out to Kealing. He asked the author to do a book signing in Winter Haven. Owen told Kealing, “Listen, there’s some pent-up demand for Gram in Winter Haven. You’ve got to know this.” The Calling Me Home author agreed, and Owen coordinated a book signing to be held on February 16, 2013, at the Winter Haven Public Library.
Owen was right about the ‘pent-up demand for Gram’ as some 200 people packed into the library to hear Kealing, Jon Corneal, and Jim Carlton speak. A community that knew Gram, or grew up on his music and mythos, hung on every word. Main Street Winter Haven Director Anita Strang was there too.
“The fact that there were so many people at that book signing was an indication that everybody thought, ‘Hey, we’ve got something here,’” Kealing said.
After the signing, about half the crowd walked from the library to the Derry Down. “I was a little taken by how many people had come to this,” Strang said. A man walked up and asked if the building had a plug because he had something to play – it was Gram’s friend, Jim Carlton. In the dilapidated Fifth Street warehouse – attendees listened to a reel-to-reel recording of the Shilos performing during the 1964 opening day of the Derry Down. “You could hear this super sweet southern voice talking and playing,” Strang remembered.
Standing by the door as people made their way through the building two at a time, she heard folks sharing their memories – a first kiss here or a dance over there. “It was really apparent that whatever this was, meant so much to people here,” she said. “Time goes by, maybe about a month, and then the visits start from Gene Owen.”
“I’m a relentless kind of a character,” Owen said. He’d stuck his neck out already by inviting Kealing to speak. Members of the Chamber of Commerce, commissioners, and city officials had attended the book signing. He remembered thinking, “If this doesn’t happen, I’m going to have to move.”
Owen wanted Strang to do something to preserve the Derry Down within her capacity as Main Street Winter Haven director, but her hands were tied. The building was privately owned. She encouraged Bob Kealing, who was also advocating to save the Derry Down, to set up a meeting with Six/Ten. Over lunch, he laid out a case for the building’s historical value and convinced them not to demolish it.
Inspired by the idea of the Derry Down as an avenue for cultural tourism, Strang began digging further into Gram Parsons’s life and his ties to Winter Haven. She sought the guidance of state and national coordinators for Main Street to determine if this project was even within her organization’s scope. “I wanted to make sure, from the Main Street perspective, that this could benefit downtown in multiple ways, more than just saving this building and having a place for [Gram’s] legacy,” Strang said. “Could this become something good for our downtown?”
Emphatically, yes was the answer from Main Street. It was worth the time and energy to save, but the building had to be donated. After negotiations between Main Street Winter Haven and Six/Ten, the acquisition proceeded. The building would be donated but deed-restricted for the use of music and music education, along with the ability to rent it out to offset costs.
“We knew the current board understood all of this,” Strang said. “We were looking to protect the building long-term, to make sure that 10 or 15 years from now, that board of directors knew they had to use this building for the right reasons.”
Around the time of the building’s donation, Strang remembers meeting with Kealing, who accompanied her to his first project, the Jack Kerouac House. The trip was motivating for Strang. The revived cottage was emblematic of the transformation that was about to take place on Fifth Street – what a vision of that magnitude realized could look like.
The Derry Down Project commenced on June 20, 2014. It would take two-and-a-half years to restore Gram Parsons’s teen club to its 1964 glory.
With the building donated and everyone united for the cause, it was time to start fundraising. It needed a lot of work. “Three of the trusses had fallen, and it was taking on water – the building was coming apart,” Strang said.
The first dollars raised for the restoration weren’t even within the city. A Parsons fan from Atlanta caught wind of the project online and set up a fundraising show with multiple concerts to save the Derry Down. Strang attended the event.
People from around the world would send amounts large and small. Strang remembered receiving a $10 donation from Thailand – a testament to Gram’s cosmic reach and impact.
Main Street hosted a series of open houses, promotional events, fundraisers, and workdays to restore the historic site. The first big event was held on December 20, 2014, exactly 50 years from when a young Gram Parsons took the stage with the Shilos and sang “Big Country” and “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” on the Derry Down’s opening day.
A stage was erected in the middle of Fifth Street where former Legends members Jon Corneal, Jim Carlton, and Jim Stafford performed as a group at the Derry Down for the first time ever. “King of Broken Hearts” singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale headlined the event.
In 1985, Lauderdale moved to Los Angeles on a sort of Parsons pilgrimage. “I wanted to play at some of the same places, be in the atmosphere that he had been in, walk the streets he had walked, drive the roads he’d driven, and try to soak up more about him,” he said.
Already aware of the Derry Down through reading various Gram biographies, when Lauderdale learned it was being restored, he jumped at the chance to be involved – another stop on that pilgrimage. The building wasn’t ready for show occupancy on that day in 2014, but Lauderdale got to peek inside. “For me, who’s such a huge fan of Gram’s, that just was so important to me to get to be in that space where he had performed,” he said. While Parsons’s contributions to music with the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and as a solo artist are important, Lauderdale said, “It’s equally important to go back to the very early roots.”
Winter Haven guitar genius Les Dudek also pitched in his musical talent, playing the Derry Down to raise money at various events. “When they got all excited about it, so did we. We were all, ‘Let’s save the Derry Down!’” he said.
At the open houses and fundraisers, Strang dedicated a place for guests to write down their memories from the teen club. It was essential to the Main Street Winter Haven director to preserve the Derry Down – bones and soul – to collect these stories for posterity along with the building’s physical restoration. Strang has held onto these handwritten echoes from the sixties in a box for safe-keeping.
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Winter Haven photographer Mike Potthast produced a video featuring Bob Kealing, a musician who grew up with Gram, Jerry Mincey, and Anita Strang, summarizing the project for a Kickstarter campaign. The campaign, unfortunately, did not meet its goal, which meant the Derry Down Project received zero of the funds pledged. But, Main Street Winter Haven, Bob Kealing, Gene Owen, Six/Ten, and the community of Winter Haven pressed on.
“When I say that building belongs to the community – it belongs to the community,” Strang said. She was stunned by the local business and individuals who offered up money, time, and resources.
Gene Owen, a founding father of the Derry Down Project, said, “I’m heart warmed by the whole thing.” He couldn’t have predicted the community commitment to seeing the project come to fruition. While donations came in from around the world, the brunt of the time, love, and labor came from Gram’s hometown. Companies and organizations like New Electric, Whitehead Construction, Burns Flooring and Kitchen Design, SJMS Plumbing, Six/Ten, and the City of Winter Haven were wholly involved “head and heart” in the Derry Down Project.
During the restoration, Strang pushed to preserve aspects of the original structure. Exterior lights were specially made to replicate the originals. The red interior paint color hadn’t been touched since the Derry Down opened. They were able to take a chip off the wall and color-match it. And Strang has that color on good authority – she talked to the man who painted it over a few beers, some weed, and gospel music with Parsons himself in 1964.
The Derry Down was located next to the Gilmore Pontiac dealership in 1964. It had a life as a car shop after it was Gram’s teen club. According to the Main Street director, the central beam was used to hoist motors from cars, adding weight to the roof, which would need to be repaired, or, as was argued to Strang, replaced. “The wood roof – that is the character,” she said in opposition to replacing the original roof. The community stepped in yet again when Winter Haven company Mechanical Dynamics found a solution to save it.
When all was said and done, over $160,000 was raised by the Main Street Winter Haven Board of Directors and the Derry Down Committee. In-kind labor and materials were estimated at $185,000.
The Derry Down received a historical marker from the Florida Department of Historic Resources on November 5, 2015. Gram Parsons Derry Down opened with an official ribbon cutting on September 2, 2016.
In 2017, Main Street Winter Haven was awarded the Outstanding Florida Main Street Rehabilitation Project from the Secretary of State for the Derry Down Project.
Cherished Polk County musicians like Jim Stafford, Jim Carlton, Jon Corneal, Gerald “Jesse” Chambers, and Les Dudek have played at the Derry Down since its 2016 reopening, some multiple times. Other figures from Gram’s career have also made it a point to perform at the venue, like International Submarine Band bass player Ian Dunlop and Parsons’s songwriting partner in the Flying Burrito Brothers and Byrds bassist, Chris Hillman. Gene Owen described Hillman’s April 30, 2017, Derry Down appearance as a “tremendous, redemptive, rejoiceful day.”
Multi-Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell has even taken the Derry Down stage. He worked closely with Emmylou Harris after Gram died. “Rodney being in the building was just ethereal,” Owen said.
Kealing reflected, “These people – all out of Gram’s life and story – came there to play music. You had this wonderful feeling like a mission accomplished. We don’t get his musical legacy which had sort of been mired out in the desert.”
Even Gram’s family has embraced this preservation of his Winter Haven legacy, including his sister. Daughter Polly Parsons and Gram’s granddaughter Harper “Lee” visited in March of this year. And that won’t be the end of Parsons VIPs who come to the Derry Down, vowed Owen. “Emmylou [Harris] and Keith [Richards] will walk through the door at the Derry Down one day. I’m telling you. We work really hard on things like that. We’ll have Emmylou in the next year for sure.”
The Derry Down has become a regular haunt for Jim Lauderdale too. The “King of Broken Hearts” lyricist and 2014 fundraiser headliner has played Gram’s place quite a few times since it opened, a “highlight of my year and life” for the musician.
“I get very emotional to be in that building, performing,” Lauderdale said. “I think people who are fans of Gram will share that feeling with me.”
He even took the stage at a November 5, 2021, event celebrating Parsons’s 75th birthday, where he performed alongside the legendary Jon Corneal. “That was so touching to me to be on the stage with Jon. He just brought the house down,” Lauderdale said. Corneal was only going to play a song or two, but Lauderdale said, “I kept him up there because the crowd was going nuts. They loved him. For me and the fellas in the band – he’s a legend.”
Lauderdale is thankful for this connection to Gram – a sentiment he said other artists who’ve played the historic venue share. “It sounds so great in there. It’s a very welcoming, warm, comfortable place to play and one of my favorite places to play – a place that I hope to keep going back to for the rest of my life, as long as they’ll have me.”
The Derry Down has become a driver for cultural tourism in Winter Haven. Strang noted that an average of 40 percent of tickets are purchased outside the county. “It is that one thing that is really authentic to our downtown,” said the Main Street Winter Haven CEO, “It feels like a good anchor.” Those out-of-town concert-goers often shop, dine, and lodge in the city while they’re here.
The building is proof that “History is alive, and it can be harnessed,” Kealing said, “and now the Derry Down is this key for economic redevelopment in the urban core of the city.”
“It’s become a real hub. I think it’s been so important for Winter Haven,” Jim Carlton said.
As for Kealing, whose reporting was inexpressibly pivotal in saving the Derry Down, he followed up his book on Parsons with Life of the Party: The Remarkable Story of How Brownie Wise Built, and Lost, a Tupperware Party Empire (2016) and Elvis Ignited: The Rise of an Icon in Florida (2017). His newest project, a book about the Beatles in 1964 Florida, is scheduled to release early next year. In addition to an abundance of transcripts, letters, and primary-source interviews, the book will delve into the band’s residency at the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach, where they performed to a live television audience of 70 million and wrote songs for their A Hard Day’s Night album. “I would argue it’s one of the top two or three Beatles landmarks in the United States,” said the author. The Deauville Hotel is slated for demolition, and in true Kealing fashion, he’s fighting to save it.
Main Street Winter Haven has big plans for the Derry Down, including another Cosmic American Music Festival (or Cypress Exchange if Strang has her way). The latter name is in reference to Winter Haven’s downtown switchboard back in the day. The only hold on those plans is hotel capacity. A six-story, 108-room Staybridge Suites Hotel is currently under construction on Fifth Street and is expected to open in summer 2023.
Around $33K is still owed for the renovation of the Derry Down, and Main Street Winter Haven welcomes donations. Commemorative engraved bricks are available for purchase. They pave the walkway to Gram’s Derry Down, bound in perpetuity to this piece of his legacy.
As she looks toward the future, Strang said, “I want to brand and market [Winter Haven] in the future as a place for music. We’ve got so many stages.” From the Derry Down and Nora Mayo Hall to the Ritz Theatre, Jesse’s, Grove Roots Brewing, and the outdoor stage at Lake Silver, Strang envisions an event where attendees could go from venue to venue to enjoy live music.
Ten years after Bob Kealing published his book, Gene Owen took a car ride with Jon Corneal, Kerry Wilson flipped the page to historic real estate, and Anita Strang overheard stories of dancing and first kisses – the Derry Down is alive again. The heart of this landmark Fifth Street listening room beats to the rhythm of Gram Parsons’s buddies and bandmates, to country stars who were and remain inspired by him, and up-and-coming musicians who just need a place to play, like Gram did.
“Gram, like the greatest artists, writers, singers, put so much feeling into his music,” said Jim Lauderdale. “Consequently, I feel so much being in the Derry Down. […] It opens up my spirit.”
