'Carolina Camera' visits Hiddenite Center

Unprecedented events don’t happen too often when you’ve worked at the same place for 30 years. 

But for Allison Houchins, gallery curator at the Hiddenite Center, that’s exactly what transpired Monday when WBTV filmed a portion of its “Carolina Camera” Christmas episode at the James Paul Lucas Mansion in Hiddenite, which houses the center.

Houchins said WBTV choosing the center felt like a pat on the back after many years of hard work. It is the first time in the Hiddenite Center’s history that it will be featured on a television program. 

“The big hook for us is that it’s unique,” WBTV anchor Christine Nelson said, adding that the station could have chosen anywhere in the state to host the program. “It’s a place that people might not know about that’s right in their backyards that they can come visit.”

The hour-long show featuring the Hiddenite Center as its host location airs Dec. 21 at 9 p.m. It will be shown again Christmas Eve at 2 p.m. and Christmas day at noon. 

WBTV chose three different rooms in the mansion to film. Those rooms, Nelson said, provide backdrops that can help tell the history of the house.

The mansion is immaculately decorated for Christmas, part of the draw for the television station to the site. Every year at Christmas, the center dresses the house in a different theme. This year, it’s “A North Carolina Christmas: From the Mountains to the Sea,” and each room embodies one of the state symbols or something unique about the state.

“It’s maddening,” Houchins said about getting the house ready for Christmas. “For our members, this is our big gift of the year.”

The 22-room, three story house, at 316 Hiddenite Church Road, was decorated over the course of about a week and opened its holiday season Dec. 1 with a concert from the Appalachian State University string ensemble.

The rooms appearing in the WBTV program are the Pine Room, a cozy room home to multiple pine trees, Cardinal Room, where the decorations are the same vibrant red color as the state bird, and another that holds six Christmas trees decorated with different style ornaments, including a N.C. State University-themed tree and one covered in ornaments made by third-graders at Third Creek Elementary. 

“I think it’s because it’s a beacon of arts in the area,” Miranda Burgin, publicity coordinator for the center, said about why WBTV chose the house to film. “We have a monthly gallery, live performances and a museum downstairs with a permanent collection.”

The James Paul Lucas Mansion was originally built in 1900. It was bought by diamond importer and exporter Lucas in 1914. Lucas enlarged the house after buying it, cutting the second floor away from the first and raising it up so another story could be built in between. At the time, it was the only three-story structure in Hiddenite.

When Lucas finished his renovations, the house held many innovative features. There was a fire extinguisher system that collected and used rainwater, a bell system enabling communication on all three levels and a fuel-burning generator that allowed Lucas to be the first in the community with electricity. The house is the only building in Alexander County and one of just 20 in N.C. on the National Register of Historic Places.

Funds for the Hiddenite Center come from its membership group, Friends of the Center. Only members receive invitations to special events like the Dec. 1 Christmas-kickoff concert at the center. Membership generally costs $25 for adults and $40 for families for the year.