Two years ago, Barry Herring stood before a crowd at the Brown County Playhouse to announce a plan to build a music center.
“I closed the presentation by saying, ‘Look what we can do,’” he said.
About a year later, he stood before another crowd at the groundbreaking. “At that point in time … I said, ‘Look what we are doing.’
“Now tonight, standing before you, look what we did,” he said to a round of applause.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Kevin Ault and Herring cut a long, gold ribbon on the Brown County Music Center Aug. 15.
After soft openings on Aug. 17 and 21, Vince Gill will take the stage as the first national act in front of a sold-out crowd on Aug. 24.
“It boggles the mind that we’re a community and county of 15,000 residents. Can you believe that a county of 15,000 residents pulled off a project like this? It just boggles my mind,” Herring said.
“It’s something that everyone in the community should be proud of and something that I think case studies will be written about for years to come.”
Many thanks
Guests dressed in their best cocktail attire received a drink ticket as they entered the venue.
Brown County High School choir teacher Kristi Billings played a baby grand piano donated by the late Mike Patrick’s family as visitors chatted with drinks and snacks in hand while checking out the completed, 2,000-seat venue.
Patrick served on the Brown County Convention and Visitors Commission at the time of his passing. The CVC pledged the county’s innkeepers tax to cover the venue’s mortgage payments if not enough revenue is brought in from ticket sales and other fees.
The Brown County Music Center is government-owned. The State Bank of Lizton loaned the county $12.5 million to build it and buy the land it sits on from Snyder Farm.
At the ribbon cutting, Herring announced that construction came in $32 under budget.
“Being a commercial developer, that never happens. If you put a roof on your house, you’ve got change orders, unbelievable accomplishment. I can’t thank you enough,” Herring said to construction chair Jim Schultz during his recognition of volunteers. He said without Schultz’s 40 years of construction experience, the building could not have happened. Schultz was on site nearly every day, working alongside general contractor Brandt Construction.
Schultz, Herring, Ault and others were on the committee that investigated how this project could happen. That group created a plan to finance and build the venue before making the summer 2017 announcement to the public. Other committee members were Bruce Gould, Diana Biddle, Doug Harden, and Wayne O’Hara, who was the agent for the Snyder Farm land where the venue was built.
Herring also thanked all members of the management group and building corporation for their countless hours of volunteering, and putting their reputations on the line to make the venue a reality. Herring and Ault serve as co-presidents.
Herring also recognized Harden, who had been trying to bring another music venue back to Brown County after the Little Nashville Opry was destroyed by fire 10 years ago this September.
To pay homage to the Opry, the Brown County Music Center will have all guest musicians sign plaques that will be auctioned off, just like the Little Nashville Opry used to do.
At the ribbon-cutting, guests were encouraged to sign a commemorative photo of the venue taken by staff photographer Michele Wedel.
The venue also has its own art gallery: Gallery 200, which currently contains the work of 30 artists. It is open to all artists in Brown County and accepts all mediums, including 3D art. All pieces in the gallery are for sale.
A notable piece of artwork hangs above the entrance to the auditorium — a mural that was donated by the Andy Rogers estate.
Georges LaChance was an impressionist painter of rural Indiana landscapes who passed away in 1964. Jack Rogers, Andy’s father, had commissioned LaChance to do murals in the Pioneer Room, the back dining room of the original Nashville House, after LaChance had commented that the walls were bare, said Andrea Swift-Hanlon, the audience services manager for the BCMC.
The Nashville House burned in 1943. In the early 1960s, LaChance recreated these murals for Andy for the Pioneer Room that was in the lower level of the current Nashville House building. The murals later moved to The Seasons Lodge and Conference Center.
Two of Andy’s daughters, Jane Herr and Anne Rogers, attended the ribbon-cutting. Herr remembered watching LaChance paint the murals. She and Anne were inspirations for two little girls that are playing “Ring Around the Rosie” in the painting.
“These pieces are priceless to the art community and Brown County. This is our history as a community, and we’re honored to be the new home for these murals,” Swift-Hanlon said.
‘The story continues’
Harden’s band, the Not Too Bad Bluegrass Band, was the first act to take the stage.
“It’s surreal to think that we’re here. It’s been such a push to get it done. It didn’t sneak up on me,” Harden said. He said he’ll be able to take a “deep breath” when Gill strums his guitar.
Spring rains worried Harden and others involved with the project, but ultimately, Mother Nature cooperated to allow the venue to be completed on time.
“It’s kind of like back when I ordered my mandolin from Bruce Taggart, back in 1981, I said, ‘Well, I’m going to get it. I just hope it sounds good.’ It’s kind of the same thing with the building,” Harden said.
He started his musical career in Bean Blossom when he was 13, playing in the old white barn at Bill Monroe’s Memorial Music Park. “To actually have a place I was involved with, and it’s something I can leave as a legacy for our hometown, it’s what I dreamed,” he said.
Harden’s hope is that the venue keeps the young people of the county, including his nine grandchildren, here in the county.
Evans floated around the lobby talking with guests. “You’re terrified that no one is going to come to your party, and a lot of people came to my party, so I’m happy,” she said.
She moved to Indiana to take this job last November. “From where I started to now has been absolutely the most incredible, crazy, mixed up, scary, fun thing I’ve ever done in my life,” she said.
Two days before the ribbon-cutting, Evans said people were driving down Maple Leaf Boulevard to check out the new venue and purchase tickets from the box office, which is now officially located at the music center.
“We had several people who were like, ‘We’re here to buy tickets.’ We’re like ‘Great. What tickets do you want to buy?’ (They said) ‘We don’t know. What tickets are on sale?’” she said. “They wanted to come down and see it, be a part of it.”
Herring said the venue has sold $700,000 worth of tickets so far. “We haven’t even had our first show yet,” he said.
As of Aug. 15, a few tickets still remained for the soft opening events on Aug. 17 and 21. Those events are free, but tickets will be required to be reserved from the box office to allow staff to practice scanning tickets for events.
Prior to showing up for the ribbon-cutting, Ault said he spoke with Gill’s production team and they’re “super excited” about coming to Brown County this week.
“I’ve been here lots of times, but I haven’t been here that much this week, so to walk in and see the art walk on the walls, the beautiful LaChance murals from the Rogers family, it’s truly breathtaking,” Ault said. “Then you walk in and see this beautiful auditorium — it’s incredible, it really is.”
Herr and Anne Rogers cried when they walked in to see their family’s mural hanging above the entrance to the auditorium.
“He (Andy) would be so pleased. I think he would. He and his father, all of our family, supported artists in Brown County since like 1920 or something. Here, we’re carrying on the legacy.”
The two said they were amazed at the venue.
“It’s so exciting for Brown County. I think this is a big shot in the arm for Brown County, which I think dad would be pleased about too,” Anne said.
“He built a lot of places here himself. He built the Professional Building and The Seasons, so the story continues.”
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By David David, for The Democrat
Some amount of credit is due to Dan David and Paul Snyder, should the question ever arise on how the Salt Creek Plaza and the Brown County Music Center ever came into being. It is an interesting set of circumstances.
Dan David once owned the land where the Salt Creek Plaza and The Seasons Lodge now stand. Paul Snyder once owned the land where the Brown County Music Center soon will open its inaugural season.
These two gentlemen neighbors were close friends, even though their stations in life differed somewhat. Dan David’s homestead consisted of a mere 57 acres of substandard farmland. Paul Snyder’s farm was more than five times the size of the David farm and was blessed with the rich soil of the Salt Creek bottoms. Their age differences were separated by a span of more than 20 years. Both were farmers. Both were part-time electricians, always working as a team.
Dan and Paul continued working closely together in their farming pursuits. Paul was a modern-day farmer with efficient buildings for cattle and farm equipment of all kinds. It was common practice for Paul to lend equipment to his neighbor, as Dan had fewer and more outdated implements. The trade-off was that both worked on each other’s farm, with Dan bringing his three sons along as a means of equalizing each farmer’s contributions to this cooperative arrangement. Paul, with his advanced knowledge, contributed to the building of the David barn.
Dan and sons helped Paul build the Snyders’ large dairy barn. The David crew helped Paul harvest hay on the site where the Brown County Music Center will soon open. During these early times, a fence needed to be built to contain each farmer’s cattle on their respective properties. Paul and his nephew and Dan and his youngest son built the fence. That fence, once separating the Snyder land from the David land, is the boundary that now divides the property of the Brown County Health and Living Community from the Brown County Music Center.
Dan David made three critical decisions during his residency on the small farm.
First, in the early 1930s, the town of Nashville needed more electrical power than the local power plant could produce. A Columbus power company chose to run a power line from their plant to Nashville. That electrical line was to pass over a small corner of the David property. A right-of-way needed to be purchased. Dan would not agree to the sale. Instead, he bartered with the power company whereby he would grant them the right-of-way if they would install a transformer near his property so that his home and farm could have electricity. Deal done.
Second, the town of Nashville needed water. An agreement was made between the state and the Nashville Town Council that water would be purchased from the state with a line running from Ogle Lake to the town. That line needed to cross the northern edge of the David property. Again, Dan bartered with the two governments that he would grant them right-of-way if they would install a meter so that he could have access to water should the need arise. Deal done. That deal led to the building of the Ramada Inn, which later became The Seasons Lodge.
Third, Dan David looked forward to the fruition of a long-standing rumor that State Road 46 was to be relocated from its original route to a new road that would pass through the small farm. This would mean a significant increase in the financial value of his land. The road was finally to be built. However, there was one clink in the state’s agreement to buy the right-of-way. The state insisted that the Davids would be allowed only an 8-feet-wide access through a fence barrier separating the highway from the owner’s property. This narrow opening would not allow for any commercial use of the land. Dreams nearly banished, Dan hired legal advice in taking the frequently used argument to the Statehouse in Indianapolis. Dan was willing to give the state the right-of-way without cost if they would allow commercial entrances to his property. Deal done.
The land was then opened to commercial use, leading to the beginning of the Salt Creek Plaza. Access to the Brown County Music Center runs through the Salt Creek Plaza.
It can be debated whether The Seasons Lodge, the Salt Creek Plaza and the Brown County Music Center would have ever come into being if Dan David had not dealt with these three critical issues in the manner he did.
Paul Snyder and Dan David are both deceased. Paul has two children living in the local area. Two of Dan’s three sons are deceased, with the other living out of state. He does have three of his eight grandchildren living near the old homestead. Cindy David and Dennis David both have Nashville addresses, while Dr. Debra Winikates lives in Columbus.
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