I had the opportunity to visit the local music venue 123 Pleasant Street for the first time when I attended a fundraiser for the Monongalia County Warming Shelter in February. For a donation of $10, I enjoyed local music, time with friends and exploring a historic building that’s inextricably intertwined with Morgantown, music and inclusivity.
The “Brick Row Building” on Pleasant Street was built as housing in the 1890s. The apartments were converted to storefronts some decades later.
Over the years it has hosted a variety of businesses that skewed towards watering holes, but it became associated with the Morgantown music scene in the 1980s. It was then that Marsha Ferber founded a bar called The Underground Railroad. Her business reflected her ideals. The Underground Railroad brought people from all walks of life together to appreciate music. It was a place where all could feel welcomed and safe. While the stage featured many nationally popular bands, local bands found a steadfast supporter in Ferber’s bar. By all reports, the Morgantown art scene thrived under Ferber’s cultivation.
The venue changed hands, and in the 1990s it was known as Nyabinghi Dance Hall. In 1998, the whole block faced an uncertain future when the City of Morgantown condemned the 100-year-old rowhouses.
Luckily, it was purchased by L.J. Guiliani, a former patron who undertook extensive rehabilitation of the venue. Layers of flooring and drop ceilings were peeled back to reveal details from the space’s past lives.
The original signs from The Underground Railroad and Nyabinghi Dance Hall were given a place of prominence in the stage room. Guiliani reopened the bar under the name 123 Pleasant Street later that year.
After almost 25 years in business, 123 Pleasant Street has adhered to its principles. Music from local and regional bands of diverse genres, stand-up comedy and dance parties fill the event calendar. Cover charges go to support the band or artist. It has hosted numerous other events to support the community from the local to the global levels, including the warming shelter fundraiser I attended last month.
Like its previous iterations, 123 Pleasant Street’s foundation is an interesting and indelible matrix of art, politics and activism.
EVA MURPHY is a freelance business writer for The Dominion Post. She writes a column on businesses, churches and other entities in the city. To suggestion a topic, email her at Newsroom@DominionPost.com.
