The 1920s roar back into Reidsville

By Lisa Snedeker
Correspondent
Published: September 22, 2008

Anna Hamlett and Andrew Wright of Ruffin went all out for Saturday’s second annual Great Gatsby Day Party at Chinqua-Penn Plantation dressing up in Roaring ‘20s-style clothing all the way down to his wing-tip shoes.

“I read the book in high school and enjoyed it,” said Wright, who is 21. “It just sounded like something different to do.”

So they went shopping at the Goodwill in Danville and dressed up for fun, according to Hamlett, who is also 21.

It was Wright’s first visit to the 22-acre estate, which boasts its own award-winning winery, since he was a child and Hamlett’s first ever trip to Chinqua-Penn.

“We wanted to come tour the house and taste some wine and the fact that it was Gatsby Day was just the icing on the cake,” Hamlett said.

The couple was among the more than 40 visitors who danced to live music by the Fairlanes and received dance lessons from members of the Fred Astaire Love to Dance Studio in Greensboro.

In addition to tours of the mansion, which was built in the mid-1920s, there was an antique car display, arts and crafts, food and a period costume contest.

Frances Craddock of Eden has been giving tours of the mansion for about seven years. “I love it,” she said. “I especially love Gatsby Day because it puts a different light on the house.”

Craddock said there’s a more relaxed feeling and a tour guide in every room, which means they can concentrate and provide more details about the home that was built between 1923-26. “It’s a special place,” she said of the home that was originally owned by Jeff and Betsy Penn, who left it in the care of the University of North Carolina system.

As part of the antique car show, Otto and Mary Watson of Burlington drove their 1929 Franklin, which was hand built in Syracuse, N.Y., for people who special ordered them.

Mary Watson said that at the time a Ford sold for $500 or $600 while the Franklins, which featured air-cooled engines instead of water-cooled, sold for around $2,200.

“We collect cars and this one was in sad shape when he got it,” she explained. “It took him five years to restore. He had to rebuild all the wood.”

Chinqua-Penn owners Lisa and Calvin Phelps, the latter, who is the founder of Renegade Tobacco, were touring the grounds with their oldest child, 2 1/2-year-old C.J, in a stroller.

“We like to host Gatsby Day because it harkens back to when the Penns built the home,” she said. “There used to be Gatsby parties when the university had it (Chinqua-Penn) and we just revised it.”

The Phelps said they are considering moving the date of next year’s event because there were so many conflicting festivals and other events on Saturday to compete with. Organizers blamed the low turnout and the cancellation of the evening’s gala on the busy weekend.

Richard Brown thanked the Phelps for buying the plantation and 27-room rustic home near Reidsville. Brown and his wife, Cherri, who are from High Point, were on their first trip to Chinqua-Penn since the Phelps purchased it in 2006 after it had been shuttered.

“It’s a really nice home and they have incorporated their stuff nicely,” he said.

• Lisa Snedeker is a freelance writer who lives in Madison.