WOMANSDAYMAGAZINE MAY 2019 61
The first time Dustie Gregson dragged her
husband, Andy, inside the 85-year-old red brick
off ice building on Church Street, part of a shuttered
hosiery mill complex, he had three words for her:
“Are you kidding?” Then three more: “This is awful.”
In theory, Dustie agreed w ith him. Like the other
abandoned manufacturing buildings downtown,
this one, with its wood-paneled walls and circa-1960
green carpeting, reminded everyone why Asheboro
had been named one of the fastest-dying towns in
America. “But all I could see were the beautiful old
windows,” she says.
Dustie, 52, had
fantasized for years
about buying one of
these forgotten old
buildings and giving
it new life, so when
the 2,000-square-foot
office building went
into foreclosure,
Dustie snapped
it up for $35,000,
borrowed more money
from relatives and
community members,
and started renovating.
Slowly the building
transformed, and when The Table, a bakery-coffee
shop-café, finally opened its doors in May 2013, a line
stretched down the sidewalk—a harbinger of what
was to come. On a busy Saturday, as many as 1,000
guests clamber in and out of the eatery’s 60 seats.
Dustie can often be found ferry ing orders of collard
greens and grits (her favorite) to happy customers.
A couple years ago, an old mill behind The Table
was slated to be torn down and replaced by a parking
lot. Dustie begged the city council to let her save it.
Now plans for the building include a boutique hotel,
retail shops, and a home for the local theater troupe.
Dustie is also planning to open a second restaurant.
As Asheboro mayor David Smith says of the
downtown renaissance she helped kick-start, “It’s a
mayor’s dream. I’d like to have 10 more just like her.”
IN 2007, A SUNNY
spring day in Ithaca
lured Lesley Greene
and her husband,
Robbert, to strum
their ukuleles on their
front porch. When
neighbor Gretchen
Hildreth stopped to chat
about the abundance
of musicians in the
neighborhood—enough
to supply a festival, they
joked—they ended up
naming the imaginary
festival then and there:
Porchfest. “Our eyes
kind of lit up,” Lesley
says. “And then every
time I’d see Gretchen
after that, we would
say, ‘We really should
do this.’”
That September,
Porchfest made its
debut. Lesley and
Gretchen convinced a
few musically inclined
friends and neighbors
to play and sing among
the painted porches
and hydrangea-lined
driveways of Ithaca’s
Fall Creek neighborhood.
Attendees toted their
own chairs from act to
act. Admission was free.
“It’s by the community,
for the community,”
Lesley says.
That was 12 years
ago. Now Ithaca’s
annual Porchfest has
grown into a six-hour
extravaganza featuring
180 acts as varied as
string bands, opera
singers, hip-hop
groups, and Indonesian
gamelan ensembles.
They still perform in
front of neighborhood
homes, and Lesley, 49,
still volunteers to run
the event on top of her
day job as a theater
producer. Why? “It
makes people glad they
live here,” she says.
Locals call it the best
day of the year. In fact,
it’s so beloved that
it’s spawned remixes:
Nationwide, 127 other
communities now host
Porchfests of their own.
FESTIVAL OF NEIGHBORS
Locals fill a community’s streets
with the sound of music.
Lesley Greene
ITHACA, NY
POPULATION: 31,006 MUSICAL ACTS IN 201 8: 180
People crave
community, and
I realized I
could provide
a space for that.”
THE UPSIDE OF DOWNTOWN
A new bakery brings a tired town back to life.
Dustie Gregson
ASHEBORO, NC
POPULATION: 25,863 PEOPLE EMPLOYED: 40
BUILDINGS SAVED: 3
Lesley
Greene at
a recent
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