The Brookdale Lodge on Highway 9 in Brookdale, the original home of the Brookdale Bluegrass Festival, will be recognized as a historic site by the members of the E Clampus Vitus fraternal organization on November 13, 2021 at 1:00pm.
The Lodge was opened in 1890 and much expanded as a lodging, restaurant, and music location (among other legal and illegal enterprises) over the next century.
It hosted the first NCBS/SCBS-welcomed and Eric & Barbara Burman-presented Brookdale festival in 1998 and hosted multiple bluegrass events during the early 2000s, before closing for a painful extended bout with business difficulties and much-needed renovations that lasted over a decade. For many years, it was the every-Tuesday evening location of the late DamDave Gillett-organized “Odd Instrument Bluegrass Jam” with no guitars allowed. A Professional Bluegrass Band Workshop was organized by Barbra Burman and taught by Dr. Banjo Pete Wernick and Nurse Joan Wernick at the lodge.
Saturday’s ceremony will include NCBS Vice-President and ECV officer Mike Russell and GOF Festival Director Bruce Bellochio, a neighbor of the historic Lodge and a key organizer of the Brookdale festival. NCBS President Michael Hall will also attend. The ceremony is free and open to the public. A permanent plaque will be placed on the building.
We hear rumors that the 23-year-old Brookdale Bluegrass Festival may eventually return to the venue, once renovations are finally completed. In the meantime, bluegrass and other bands play regularly outside the Lodge’s bar.
