Celebrating Greenwood's History
Cyndi Long has discovered that the fastest way to move from outsider to insider when relocating is to plunge headfirst into what’s happening in her new community.
That’s what she did when she moved to Greenwood 10 years ago, and the longer she’s been here, the more active she has become, especially in causes that matter to her.
Blessed with a natural friendliness and an outgoing personality, Cyndi, 57, gravitates to projects and organizations where her talents and interests match needs to help make changes for the better.
“I really love Greenwood,” she said. “People here are so welcoming and appreciative.” That makes it easy for Cyndi to give time and attention to her adopted hometown.
Cyndi’s purchase three years ago of the Old City Hall on East Market Street in Greenwood provides a perfect example of her approach to living and giving in her city.
Cyndi grew up in Tennessee; she was born in Knoxville, and her family later moved to Germantown. Three years after graduating from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville with degrees in psychology and sociology, she moved to Collierville, where the father of a high school friend had an aviation company, and started a new career there.
For the next 20 years, Cyndi traveled the world for the business, eventually visiting 41 countries. She married; she and her husband had a son, Bryce; and the couple later divorced. When Bryce left the nest, Cyndi recalculated her options.
Time for a change, she thought.
Through her industry contacts, she found an opening at General Electric Capital Aviation Services, a global commercial aviation leasing and financing company, at the Greenwood-Leflore Airport.
“Greenwood had always interested me,” Cyndi said. “I kept hearing such good things about it.” She got the job 10 years ago in November as the site operations manager for GECAS, the position she still holds and enjoys.
Once settled, Cyndi pursued volunteer work with local agencies that could use her help. She found plenty of need. She is the chairperson for Admissions and Allocations for United Way of Leflore County Inc., which has 13 agencies in need; she is the president of the Greenwood Garden Club; she serves on the boards of the Greenwood Convention and Visitors Bureau and Greenwood Little Theatre; and just recently, she rotated off the board of the Greenwood-Leflore County Chamber of Commerce.
Cyndi arrived in Greenwood with a desire to live downtown, but she couldn’t find anything right away that checked off all the boxes, particularly price. The prospect of renovation never intimidated; her family owned a construction company, and she had learned her way around tile, flooring and drywall when she was a young girl. She bought a house on Bell Avenue in North Greenwood and kept looking for something downtown.
She knew that Kimmel Aviation owned a building on East Market Street that she liked, but she and Frank Kimmel, owner of the firm, couldn’t reach an agreement on price. Cyndi was patient, though, and three years ago, they met somewhere in the middle.
Cyndi became the owner of the building that had originally housed Green-wood’s first City Hall, including city government offices, a courtroom and a few jail cells. She now lives there with her partner, Eddie Kanan, 45, who owns and co-owns several convenience stores in the Delta.
Constructed in 1904 at a cost of $5,000, the building served as the City Hall until 1930, when Greenwood’s current City Hall was built on Church Street. The Old City Hall, as the original is now known, has experienced several incarnations, mostly as office space for various businesses since 1930. Cyndi decided her best option was to gut the interior and start fresh. She knew the place had tremendous potential and wanted to make the right decisions.
Most basic was what to do with the ground floor. The building has two stories. Cyndi explained that a city ordinance prohibits private residences on the ground floors of buildings in the downtown area. She didn’t have to have a business on the ground floor, but she could live only on the second floor.
So her plan for downstairs? An event space — an elegant venue she could rent to local people and organizations for parties and meetings, a venue that would celebrate local history and that Cyndi would allow charities to use at no charge.
Perfect.
Cyndi said it took a little over a year of renovation to reach a point where she could move in and live there while work continued.
“But I know this will never be finished,” Cyndi said. “It’ll always be a work in progress. I have projects lined up forever.”
Access to both floors is through the original wood front door with stained glass panels facing East Market Street. One of Cyndi’s favorite features is the graceful chandelier in the foyer, which she bought at an estate sale. It’s from the Antoon family home that stood on West Washington Street.
To the right is the staircase up to the residence. To the left is a conference room that doubles as a dining area, with seating at the long table for up to 14. There’s also a smart TV for video presentations, as well as Wi-Fi access. The walls are exposed original brick with a soft patina of natural age. Floors and the generous windows (which actually function) are original.
In this room, a wood-framed upholstered settee for additional attendees is placed against a wall. That piece appears in the six-part limited TV series filmed recently in and around Greenwood titled Women of the Movement. It tells the true story of Emmett Till, whose brutal murder in 1955 in Money ignited the civil rights movement, and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, who never stopped seeking justice for her son.
In the next room is a real cigarette machine, a gift from a friend of Cyndi’s who was doing some house cleaning.
And straight ahead is the centerpiece of the interior rental space — the bar. Cyndi found the bar, with its ornately framed mirror, at an estate sale. She wanted it for this space, but the asking price was too high. It had come from the Greenwood home of oncologist Dr. Arnold Smith, who was indicted with others in a conspiracy to murder his ex-wife’s attorney in 2012. By the end of the estate sale, the bar had not sold. Cyndi’s patience was again rewarded; the price was reduced, and she bought another small piece of local history.
The countertop of the bar where guests can sit on stools also has a story. In her 20 years of world travels, Cyndi collected wine corks, always planning to make a countertop. It’s a painstaking process of cutting each cork in half, positioning each half-cork on a flat surface and applying thin layer upon layer of clear bar epoxy, waiting 24 hours between applications, until the shiny surface is mirror-smooth. The result is stunning — another testament to Cyndi’s patience.
The bar area is open to the kitchen, where Cyndi’s guests or their caterers can prepare and serve the food and beverages for their events. Through a door near the bar is a spacious living room that can be configured any number of ways with tables or chairs or both, depending on the nature of the event and the size of the guest list.
Cyndi pointed to the ceiling, which is original to the building. Each section is ribbed metal in the shape of a half-barrel, producing a scalloped effect. The intent was to provide a bit of extra security to discourage prisoners, housed upstairs, from trying to escape through the floor, just in case the solid concrete slab between their cell floor and the ribbed metal was not a sufficient deterrent.
Two restrooms round out the ground floor interior.
A door at the back of the large room opens to an enclosed patio. Cyndi explained the area was part of the property, but the roof had collapsed. Rather than replace it, she had it removed, and the space is now another versatile area that surprises and delights. Café lights glow, strung overhead; container pots hold a number of hearty plants; and tables and chairs can be arranged to suit the event.
Back inside, the staircase connects to Cyndi and Eddie’s residence. Its balusters, notably, are lengths of rebar, another of Cyndi’s design decisions that bring smiles and admiration from guests. The climb up is steep because the ceilings are 14 feet high.
“I need to install an elevator,” Cyndi said; it was already on her list.
The top of the staircase opens to a vast expanse of light and air that should feel too big for comfort, but Cyndi and Eddie have arranged it in nooks and zones according to purpose that instead feel like cozy, intimate rooms. In one corner is a “room” with a large flat-screen TV facing a sectional sofa so soft and cushiony that relaxation on it is inevitable.
In the opposite corner is the dining “room” with a long table where friends and family gather for catching up and feasting on the Mediterranean and Italian dishes that are Eddie’s specialty.
And just on the other side of the space is the private quarters — a quiet bedroom and a large bath with a reconditioned antique claw-footed tub and an enclosed shower, as well as a huge closet that conveniently contains the laundry space.
Back in the open space, it’s clear that the large Pullman-style kitchen is the focal point, with its gleaming stainless steel appliances and cool marble-like slabs of granite countertops. As Eddie works his culinary magic, Cyndi enjoys sitting at the bar so they can decompress after a long day at work. It’s extra nice, she said, when they can open the many windows for cross breezes.
“We like home to be easy,” Cyndi said. “We don’t have time for hard here. Home should be peaceful, an escape from stress and a place to rejuvenate. That’s what we have up here.”
One more touch of lagniappe is the balcony that overlooks the patio, running the full length of the back of the building. Comfortable furniture — even a bed (with mosquito netting) for sleeping outside on cool nights — and an often spectacular sunset are big draws to this space, as are the aromas of rosemary, basil, mint, and oregano that Eddie grows in containers and cooks with.
“And I think we have one of the best spots in the city to watch the chamber’s fireworks for the Fourth of July and after the Christmas parade,” Cyndi said.
Welcome home to Greenwood, Cyndi.