Milton Social Event (1923)

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The Bee (Danville, Virginia) 13 December 1923 (Page 4)

BIG SOCIAL EVENT AT MILTON ON DECEMBER 21

On Friday night, December 21st, at the Caswell Hotel in Milton, N. C. the ladies of the Baptist church will give one of the largest social events of the season. Featuring the occasion will be a big oyster supper and a "candy pulling." The proceeds of the event will go to the church to be used in making needed repairs and additions.

The scene is being decorated elaborately with cedar, holy, mistletoe and candle lanterns swinging from the ceiling. In front of the church will be planted a row of cedar trees to give the scene a holiday aspect. A large banner across the street heralds the event.

The sumptuous supper will be served by young ladies of the church, after which an old-fashion candy pulling will be held. Music will also be a feature. Altogether a joyful time is anticipated. It is expected to be one of Milton's largest social events for many a day.

The following is from An Inventory of Historic Architecture: Caswell County, North Carolina, Ruth Little-Stokes (1979) at 212:

The variety of items advertised by local merchants in the Milton newspaper during the antebellum heyday indicates that the buying power of the citizens was substantial, but the Milton Hotel, the other taverns, the grocery and dry goods stores, drug stores, tin shop, millinery, tailor shops, shoe store, cabinet shops, dance studio, candy store, banks, "doctors and lawyers" offices and the savings and loan institution which formed Milton's business district by 1850 are gone. The Milton Hotel, also known as the Gordon Hotel, located on the southwest corner of Main Street and Lea's Alley, undoubtedly suffered the most spectacular end. The hotel burned on May 5, 1951, during a dispute between Dan River mill strikers and non-strikers who were living in the building. Built about 1825, the twenty-room hotel was a two-story rectangular building with a two-story porch engaged beneath the steeply gabled roof. The structure was of wood, although the west side and a portion of the rear elevation were constructed of brick -- a combination of materials often found in cities in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to lessen the danger of fire spreading from building to building.

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