Tag: Woodruff-Fontaine House

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“Notable Black Memphians” Exhibit at Woodruff-Fontaine House

In 2008, after 10 years of research, Dr. Miriam DeCosta-Willis published her book Notable Black Memphians, a biographical and historical study that documents the accomplishments of more than 200 African Americans born between 1795 and 1972 who were instrumental in paving the way for society and strengthening the Memphis community.

Now, 12 years later, her hard work is being displayed at Woodruff-Fontaine House Museum starting Friday, February 7, until March 15th.

DeCosta-Willis herself has made strides in the civil rights movements, having been the first African-American professor at Memphis State University, participating in the Montgomery Bus Boycotts with her mother, and more.

Miriam DeCosta-Willis

“I have been an activist all my life,” she says. “And I think [my ex-husband Russell Sugarmon and] I have passed the political bug down to two of my children.”

DeCosta-Willis is the mother of four children, two of whom are active in the local political scene: Erika Sugarmon (a candidate in last year’s City Council elections) and Tarik Sugarmon (a judge for Division 2 of the Memphis Municipal Court). One of her other daughters, Elena Williams, is helping her put this exhibit together.

“I raised them to be independent primarily and to seek their own area of community activism,” she says.

DeCosta-Willis credits her lineage for influencing her family’s involvement in the community. Her great-grandfather was born into slavery and was freed in 1865, after which, he was able to turn around and acquire property, put all 12 children through college, and give back to the community.

“I’m proud of my enslaved ancestors,” she says. “And I always talk about my descendents because I’m very proud of them, too.”

Notable Black Memphians, Woodruff-Fontaine House Museum, Friday, February 7th, 5-8 p.m., $20.

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Do You Believe in Magic? See Magician Jeffrey Day at Woodruff-Fontaine Saturday

CREDIT: Kathy Kalagias

Just in time for the holidays, local magician Jeffrey Day presents his take on Christmas magic with his one-man-show magic routine, based on magicians and mesmerists of the 19th century, at Woodruff-Fontaine House Museum this Saturday.

Day knew that the Victorian-era house, which was built in 1871, would be the perfect setting to present the routine he’s been honing for years.

“Magic is older than dance or music,” he says. “It goes back much before then. And in the 19th century, it became very elegant. That’s when magic really, really changed. And I wanted to perform my show in a place that would be suitable for it. The Fontaine House is like no other stage I’ve ever been on, and it’s a beautiful place to perform this kind of magic.”

Kathy Kalagias

Oh, oh, oh, it’s magic!

Day will perform mesmerist and mentalist tricks developed around hidden magic found in books and manuscripts of the 19th century and the works of magicians like Ehrich Weiss (otherwise known as Harry Houdini), Harry Kellar, and Howard Thurston.

During one trick, Day will show his mind-reading talents using the 19th century book A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens as a medium to determine what word a volunteer from the audience is thinking. Between this and other illusions involving more mind-reading tricks and Chinese linking rings, Day says the audience may be able to step back in time, not only to the Golden Age of Magic, but perhaps to their days of innocence, as well.

“I think the audience wants that sense of wonder,” he says. “And magic takes them back to their childhoods.”

The Mesmerist by Jeffrey Day, Woodruff-Fontaine House Museum, Saturday, December 14th, 7-8:30 p.m., $50.

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Haunted Pub Crawl Combines Spirits with Spirits

CREDIT: Toby Sells

Memphis may be one of the most haunted cities in America, according to local paranormal investigator Stephen Guenther.

That fact is hard to quantify. Savannah, Georgia, St. Augustine, Florida, and New Orleans also make that claim.

But Guenther makes a pretty good case for Memphis, home to a string of deadly events including the Battle of Memphis and countless Civil War deaths, the Sultana disaster (still the biggest maritime disaster in American history), the yellow fever epidemic, and “a number of grisly, historical murders.”

“I think it’s one of the most haunted cities just because of how much different activity we’ve had here, from disasters to epidemics to just your usual human drama,” Guenther said.

Guenther is a founder of the MidSouth Paranormal Society (MPS), which investigates hauntings all over the Mid-South in homes, businesses, cemeteries, schools, and more. Guenther and MPS cofounder Tanya Vandesteeg also founded the tour company Historical Haunts.

Toby Sells

Karen Brownlee and Stephen Guenther

This year the company started a new tour, a haunted pub crawl in the South Main Arts District. I tagged along with Guenther last Friday afternoon, but before we got to the pubs, we began at the Woodruff-Fontaine House, a sort of home base for the MPS.

A.J. Northrop, a Woodruff-Fontaine House board member and member of the Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities, said he has a long relationship with Elliott Fontaine, who died at age 34 of Spanish flu but whose spirit allegedly lives on inside the house.

“He electrocutes me, shoves me, pinches me, breathes heavily at me,” Northtrop said. “It’s not always one specific thing, but it’s just that there’s always someone here.”

Later, Guenther and I hit South Main. As I stand near the register of IONS Geek Gallery, Guenther tells of the grisly 1918 murder of Memphis police officer Edward Broadfoot inside the building.

“Do you know on what spot he was killed?” I ask.

“Well, you’re standing on it,” Guenther said.

In the basement, folding chairs circle a table that holds a number of ghost-hunting devices and a photo of officer Broadfoot. Guenther’s pub crawl groups fill the chairs as he tries to make contact with the murdered officer. “We did get the little bell to ring once,” Guenther said.

Down the street, Harry Zepatos told Guenther and me that he’d never seen any ghosts inside his Arcade Restaurant, but others have.

“My wife, Karen, has seen my grandfather in here before,” Zepatos said. “Also, this head of security guy — nice people, good wife, normal people — he saw him, too, during [River Arts Festival] four or five years ago. We were closed, and he saw him through the window.”

No ghost tour of Memphis is complete without a visit to Earnestine & Hazel’s, so we stop in there. Bartender and manager Karen Brownlee said she’s seen a woman (who she thought might have been Earnestine) at the end of the downstairs hallway. The bar lights have flickered when patrons made fun of ghosts. The locked-up piano has played by itself upstairs. Though she was alone, someone nudged her shoulder as she stood at the jukebox one night.

“I used to be [afraid], but now I feel like whatever’s in here will take care of me,” Brownlee said.

The haunted pub crawls begin on South Main on most Wednesdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m. However, this Friday, Guenther and his team will lead ghost tours at the Woodruff-Fontaine House during its annual fund-raiser called Haunted Happenings.

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Project: Motion’s “House Happening 2: All Through the House”

Are you looking for a Christmas diversion that’s a little bit modern and a little bit traditional? Project: Motion directors Rebecca Cochran and Louisa Koeppel have curated “House Happening 2: All Through the House,” which sounds a little like a holiday-themed scary movie, but is, in fact, an evening of site-specific dance works including a twist on The Nutcracker and additional performances inspired by various rooms in the sprawling Woodruff-Fontaine House.

“It’s really more like an art installation than a concert,” Koeppel explains. “It’s choose your own adventure.” Following a brief orientation, audiences are set free to tour the beautifully preserved Victorian home at their own pace, as if they were walking around a gallery. Along the way, they will discover various dance pieces that are being performed simultaneously. Halfway through the evening, all but two of the performances will reset and begin again, allowing everybody an opportunity to have a completely different experience.

“Mollie Woodruff had a Christmas wedding in the 1800s,” Koeppel says, describing one way the modern troupe has used the house and its history as a creative touchstone. “She wrestles with the veil, and the veil takes control. So you get to see this dancer struggling and being controlled by this wedding veil against the backdrop of this beautiful bedroom.”

Other performances will reflect Victorian holiday traditions and solstice themes. “We’re hoping to bring the house to life and just make this gem really sparkle,” Koeppel says.

The event benefits both Project: Motion and the Woodruff-Fontaine House. Choreographers include Wayne M. Smith, Erin Walter, Louisa Koeppel, and Bethany Wells.