Little Bits (Bytes?) of Barksdale History

Posted by Bruce Miller
Our two nonprofit theatres are currently engaged in a branding study that will help us determine the future paths of Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV. Two MAJOR thank yous go out to Kelly O'Keefe, Managing Director of the VCU Brandcenter, who is donating his leadership of the study pro bono, and The Community Foundation Serving Richmond and Central Virginia, providers of the grant that funds the research component of the study.

As a part of this strategic exercise, we've been engaging randomly selected audience members in focus groups to learn their opinions about our two stage companies. It's been fascinating to learn what John and Jane Q Theatre-Lover do and don't know about Central Virginia's oldest (Barksdale) and largest (Theatre IV) professional theatres.

It is becoming clear that our illustrious histories are fading, for many if not most, into virtual obscurity, so I've begun to recount the legacies that serve as our foundation by posting a brief new snippet from our theatrical scrapbooks as my "status" on Facebook each Monday morning. I don't know who or how many people actually see these tidbits, so, from time to time, I'll post them here as well.

Here's the story thus far, including the date that each item was posted:

Aug 12, 2010
B'dale / TIV History (Part 1) - Barksdale Theatre was founded in Virginia's historic Hanover Tavern by six NYC actors in August 1953. We're 57 years old! And I think (hope) the founders would be proud. Maybe even a little amazed. I feel the presence of Pete, Muriel and Nancy (pictured below) every day. A blessing.
Aug 13, 2010
B'dale / TIV History (Part 2) - Barksdale Theatre was Central VA's first professional performing arts organization of the modern era. Founded in Aug 1953, Barksdale came 2 years before the Virginia Museum Theatre (TheatreVirginia), 4 years before the Richmond Symphony and the Richmond Ballet, 12 years before Swift Creek Mill Theatre, 21 years before the Virginia Opera, and 22 years before Theatre IV.

Aug 16, 2010
B'dale / TIV History (Part 3) - Before they'd heard of Hanover Tavern, the founders of Barksdale brought their dream from NYC to Richmond VA on Feb 4, '53. Tom Carlin and his partner Stewart Falconer, Pete Kilgore and his wife Perky, their 2 children Kate and Beau, Muriel McAuley, Pat Sharp, and a dog named Rags moved into the home of Aline Miles (Falconer's mom). They lived there rent-free for 6 months as they searched for a home for their new theatre.

Aug 23, 2010
B'dale / TIV History (Part 4) - During a 4-month search, the Barksdale founders found Hanover Tavern. On May 26, '53, they signed a contract to purchase the Tavern and its 4+ acres for $25,000 (that's $202,199 in today's dollars), with $5,000 down. $2,500 was paid on signing. Pete Kilgore cashed in his veteran's life insurance to close the gap on that first $2,500.

Aug 30, 2010
B'dale / TIV History (Part 5) - After paying down the first $2,500, the Barksdale founders had 2 months to come up with the second required down-payment of $2,500 (that's $20,220 in today's dollars). Co-founder Muriel McAuley wrote: "In July we saved over $1,000 by not eating, not smoking and not drinking two fifths of Italian Swiss Colony on Sat nights."

Sept 6, 2010
B'dale / TIV History (Part 6) - Borrowing from each of their families, and pawning everything they had, the Barksdale founders finally came up with the final $2,500 down-payment by the deadline date of Aug 1, '53. The last $10 was in change. Penniless, they moved into their new home. Monthly mortgage = $250 (that's $2,022 in today's dollars), plus interest at 5%.

--Bruce Miller

Happy Birthday Barksdale! - Part IV

History is a funny thing. Often recorded history turns out to have been recorded wrong. Such was the case with Hanover Tavern. Here are three more accounts of Tavern “history” as it was recorded in 1953. The first account is from the Richmond News Leader; the second account is from the A. P. Wire Service, and the third account is from the plaque that was hanging on the side of the Tavern when Pete, Muriel and the others purchased it. To the best of my knowledge, this is the history that Muriel and Nancy believed until their deaths. In Part V, I’ll go over what parts of the history are true and what parts are false, based on scholarly research conducted in recent years by the Hanover Tavern Foundation, current owners of the Tavern (and our landlords).

From the Richmond News Leader, exactly as it appeared on August 14, 1953 …

Group Buys Hanover Tavern for Playhouse

Hanover Tavern, believed to antedate the courthouse built here in 1735, eventually may become a Summer theater.

Six new owners currently restoring the 29-room building for use as a residence have announced plans for converting the large dance floor and dining room into the Barksdale Memorial Theater.

Five of the partners, who recently bought the property from Jourdan Woolfolk, met as speech and drama students at Wayne University in Detroit, Mich. They are Mr. and Mrs. David Kilgore, Tom Carlin, Stewart Falconer and Miss Muriel McAuley. Miss Patricia Sharp, the sixth partner, was graduated from the University of Florida.

Living quarters of the building known locally as Patrick Henry’s Tavern, will be used as separate apartment units.

Under the plan, there would be a central kitchen, a formal sitting room, a dining room and very informal living rooms, the owners said. Work already has started on the kitchen.

Goats are to be used to clear the adjoining land, later to be used as parking space, they said.

Interested in preserving the building’s history, the partners have announced their intentions of collecting pertinent legends and written material. Their renovations are to be made with a view toward restoring the rooms to a semblance of their original design.

Should tentative plans be carried through, the tavern also might be used later as a shrine for historical data. Kilgore soon will hang a South Carolina battle flag believed lost on a Civil War battlefield in the tavern.

Mrs. Kilgore, chief cook for the group, holds a teaching certificate in Virginia. Her husband holds an M. A. from the University of Florida. Both once managed a Summer stock theater in St. Clair, Mich.

Falconer, who worked in New York City for a while as stage manager for the play, “The Circle in the Square,” and Carlin now are employed by a television station.

Miss McAuley modeled for two years before joining the group.

Ultimate plans call for the Barksdale Memorial Theatre to accept young people as apprentice students.

From the A. P. Wire Service, August, 1953 …

Six young summer stock veterans say they are planning to turn the Hanover Tavern, a 230 year-old landmark, into an around the stage theater. The new owners, who bought the Patrick Henry landmark this week, say they also will offer a dramatics school with college credits at their theater.

From the large plaque that was hanging on an exterior wall of the Tavern at the time of purchase …

Old Historic Hanover Tavern
Build About 1723

This stage coach tavern was once the home of Patrick Henry

In an altercation John Chiswell, member of the House of Burgesses, 1745, killed Robt Routledge in the bar-room

In 1781, Lord Cornwallis made it his headquarters

--Bruce Miller

Happy Birthday Barksdale! - Part III

Muriel McAuley is not the only one who compiled a written record of Barksdale’s founding. The recorded deed and early press clippings validate her story. The longest article appeared in the Herald-Progress on Thursday, August 20. It is reprinted here, with spelling, grammar and punctuation exactly as they appeared in 1953. Before anyone gets too enamored of the history outlined in the article, be sure to read the upcoming Part V in this series for a more factual enumeration. With regard to those instances when this article seems to disagree with the facts included in Muriel’s account (published here in Parts I and II), I have every reason to believe that Muriel’s account is the correct one.

Young People Plan Permanent Theatre In Ancient, 33 Room Hanover Tavern
By Evelyn Christian Hughes

“It takes a little time to go into 33 rooms—and after all, we’ve only been here a few days, so it’s no wonder we’ve not explored two of the rooms.”

So speaks one of the group of nine young people, aged 2 to 29, who have just bought the ancient Hanover Tavern, with ideas of using the old building as a residence and theatre.

The ones who intend to do the work, however, are aged 22 to 29. The 2 and 3-year olds, children of the only married couple in the crowd, intend to cause as much work as possible.

The seven “old enough to vote” are combining their incomes, to save toward a year-round, in-the-round theatre, and to work on the tavern’s restoration. Because it takes a little time to get a permanent theatre started, and because they need money for restoration, they are now working at a variety of jobs. Television has lured two. One works for the Automobile Association of America, one is a teacher and two work in television. “We all work at what we can, and we pool our money to work on the Tavern.” They pool their chores, too. Carlin is cook.

Flies are such a problem now (no screens and they haven’t counted the windows!) that they are already looking forward to the winter. They’ve each bought an electric blanket.

Attracted to the Hanover Tavern because it is an ideal place for their presentation of circular theatre, the crowd has been temporarilyly (sic) sidetracked by the tavern’s history, and they hope to restore the building.

“We think it’s the oldest tavern in Virginia,” says Tom Carlin one of the WTVR employees. But it is a known fact that it was built in the early 1720’s and among other claims to fame, it housed Cornwallis and his staff on their way to Yorktown. It is older than Hanover Courthouse, exactly across the road, which a Virginia circuit court judge, Leo M. Bazile, calls the most historic building on the North American continent. Once owned by Patrick Henry’s father-in-law, the bar was tended by the great patriot himself.”

Washington and Jefferson must have stayed here, as it is on the old stage coach route from Williamsburg to New York. All this, Hanover school children know by heart. It takes a Michigan actor to recall a little-known fact of its history. According to Carlin, P. T. Barnum kept his menagerie here on his grand tour of the last century.

The Barksdale Memorial Theatre had its genesis with Carlin, Stewart Falconer and David Kilgore, who had a summer stock theatre in St. Claire Michigan in ’49 and ’50. They just gathered up the others as they rolled, a little moss from Florida, more from New York, until they came to Virginia.

Falconer gained impetus from being stage manager for Circle in the Square Theatre's production of Summer and Smoke in New York. Muriel McAndy (sic) was doing modeling, television and radio work in New York. One by one they gathered.

Now the tavern has fascinated them, and with the restoration, and jobs (after all they must eat!) they “doubt if we can do anything theare-wise (sic) before spring.”

They named their theatre for their inspiration, the late Barbara Barksdale, whose parents, Mr. and Mrs. Albie Barksdale, live in Charlottesville. A victim of multiple sclerosis, Miss Barksdale helped get the group started in summer theatre in St. Claire, Mich. “She would scrub floors from her wheel chair,” they say about her. She died while attending the University of Tampa.

The group consists of Mr. and Mrs. David Kilgore, their attractive (all are attractive!) blond children 3-year old Kate and 2-year old Peter; Tom Carlin, Stewart Falconer, Bud Colvis, Miss Pat Sharpe and Miss Muriel McAuley. and Miss Muriel McAuley. (sic)

In the midst of their frantic painting, plastering, cleaning, cooking, rewiring, and after only three days in the place, they all got cleaned up and went to the neighborhood church, St. Paul’s Episcopal.

The neighbors say it created a sensation, to see all the theatrical folk, “nice young people, too,” at church. “Nearly filled the church.” And they hope it’s a good omen. They recall how Bob Porterfield tells to this day how his world famous Barter Theatre got a start in Abingdon by the actors and actresses going to church, and “singing like all getout.”

There is one photo that accompanies the article, showing the Tavern photographed from what is today the back yard, but was originally the front yard in the 1700s. The photo caption reads, “Hanover Tavern, built in the early 1720’s, just purchased from Jourdan Woolfolk by a group of young theatrical people.”

My big question, after reading this article is, “Who is Bud Colvis?” He’s like the fifth Beatle. No where else is he mentioned in Muriel’s book. He doesn’t even appear in the index! Nor have I ever heard his name mentioned by one of the Barksdale old-timers. If anyone can identify Mr. Colvis, or has ever even heard of him, please click comment and let me know what you know. Thanks.

--Bruce Miller

Photo captions: This photo of Muriel is cropped from a larger pic of Muriel, Pete and Nancy, taken in the early 80s. The Herald-Progress masthead dates from the present, not the 50s. The WTVR photo is a snapshot of the station identification screen as it appeared in the early 50s, with the settlers trudging in their covered wagon beneath the call letters WTVR. Cornwallis is wearing the large hat; Patrick Henry has the high forehead and collar. Washington and Jefferson are, of course, from Mt. Rushmore. And the Barnum poster specifically mentions his travelling menagerie. Geraldine Page starred in the revival of Summer and Smoke that Stu stage managed at Circle in the Square. I'll write more about that super-historic production in a future blog. The Barter Theatre photo shows how this Abingdon landmark looked both then and now.

Happy Birthday Barksdale! - Part I

Posted by Bruce Miller

Fifty-four years ago today, Barksdale Theatre was born when six wide-eyed actors shelled out five thousand earned and borrowed bucks as down payment on a derelict property known as Hanover Tavern. The total purchase price for the historic building and the land was $25,000, the remainder to be paid off at $250 a month. Nobody tells the story better than co-founder Muriel McAuley. The following is excerpted from her magnificent 1984 book, Going On … Barksdale Theatre – The First 31 Years. In honor of our theatre’s 54th Birthday, please join me in raising a glass.

“There were six of us, plus two children and a dog. In alphabetical but little other order we were Tom Carlin, Steward Falconer, David and Priscilla (“Pete” and “Perky”) Kilgore and their Kate and Beau, aged 3 and 18 months, Muriel McAuley and Pat Sharp. The dog’s name was Rags.

Most of us had been at Wayne University in Detroit, some at University of Florida, then wound our separate and together ways to New York. Tiring of our roles as unemployed artists, we decided to show Broadway a thing or two and start our own theatre. But where?

Stu’s mother, Aline Miles, settled that with an ill-considered offer to let us move in with her if we wanted to try Richmond, Virginia. Never was she to be the same again. On February 4, we piled in on this kind lady and promptly took over her home. We each took whatever job we could find and pooled our paychecks, keeping an allowance of $1.00 a week.

We didn’t have a theatre yet, but we had a name. Some of the group had run a summer theatre in St. Clair, Michigan called Rounders On the River. Barbara Barksdale helped with the box office, publicity and other chores she could handle from a wheelchair, for she had Multiple Sclerosis. She had died in 1950 at the age of twenty. Furthermore, she had been a Virginia girl, from Charlottesville. So we called ourselves Barksdale Memorial Theatre.

By June, we’d saved up a whole $1,300! Surely enough to buy our own place, maybe with a barn we could convert into a theatre like in all those Judy Garland movies! Real estate agents took one look at our bankroll, our idea and six mostly unrelated dreamers and were never seen again. For some reason, G. B. Lorraine stuck with us, and on a dark and stormy Saturday showed us Hanover Tavern.


‘Thirty-three rooms,’ the deed said, one of them in the English basement, about 30 by 40 feet and called The Ballroom. There was our theatre! Its 7-foot, 3-inch ceiling dampened our enthusiasm only briefly, though Pete, our light man, wore a stricken expression for several days. There was no heat. No plumbing. Doors fell off their hinges. Most of the plaster had given up and lay in the middle of floors. The 4.53 acres had obviously been used as the county dump since George Washington had thrown out the first beer can. We loved it!

What’s more, unlike the nasty banks that demanded one third down, collateral and other such nonsense, owner Jourdan Woolfolk was willing to finance with just $5,000 down, which he’d take in two payments. We already had $1,300; $5,000 would be a cinch!

Drawers were rifled for anything pawnable. Pete cashed in his VA (Veteran’s) insurance. We paid the first $2,500. Then we got serious. In July we saved over $1,000 by not eating, not smoking and not drinking two fifths of Italian Swiss Colony wine on Saturday nights. Mrs. Miles borrowed on some bonds and loaned us her loan. We put the touch on the other families. On August 1, we moved in, after paying the last $2,500. Ten dollars of it was in change.

The previous two weeks (ever the optimists) we’d taken turns hauling stuff to the Tavern in the Kilgore’s 1948 wooden-bodied Buick station wagon. While at Mrs. Miles’, we’d had the bright idea of buying two little pigs to take care of the garbage and provide meat. By now, they weighed 70 pounds and we’d turned them into pets. Through truly Machiavellian scheming by Pete and Stu, it fell to Pat and Muriel to transport Sheba and Tallulah, and until you’ve driven 30 miles with two trussed up, screaming, crapping pigs in the back of an over-heated station wagon, you’ve missed one of life’s unique moments.”

… To Be Continued

Photo caption: This photo of the Barksdale founders (Pat Sharp is out of the frame) is from 1957, and shows them sitting happily on the porch of the Tavern. Starting from the left, those in the photo are: Kate Kilgore sitting in Muriel's lap, Pete Kilgore standing behind the two of them, arms folded. Actor Neil Lewis with the stringed instrument, with Perky Kilgore seated to the right of him. Beau Kilgore's head is popping out next to Perky. And then, seated and laughing, left to right, we see Tom Carlin, actor Mary Brinklow, and Stu Falconer.

--Bruce Miller