The North Asheville History Project (NAHP) The NAHP is being conducted by the North Carolina Room, Pack Memorial Library through the North Asheville Library branch. 1030 Merrimon Avenue, Asheville, NC 28804 TEL: 828-250-4752 The purpose of this project is to preserve the unique characteristics of living in North Asheville. This is a pilot program which
It is common for local historians to say of the Asheville, Loan, Construction & Improvement Company, that the “enterprise languished until it was taken over by George Willis Pack.” (Quote from Asheville’s Historic Montford District, edited by Michael T. Southern, 1985.) What the Asheville, Loan, Construction & Improvement Company did do needs to be on record. After the company
We now know that Richmond Pearson named the new station Montford Park Station. Why the Name Montford? An article in the Daily Citizen of March 31, 1891, titled “Montford Park Station: Asheville’s New Suburb on the French Broad” reveals that “for the privilege of naming the station, Mr. Richmond Pearson, last summer, agreed to erect
At first glance, the photograph (Image 1) gave few clues as to precisely where or what this was, other than it appeared to be a massive construction site in Asheville. The automobiles and old construction equipment hinted at the 1920s, but where and when was this photograph taken? We searched the Asheville City Directories. There,
A Social for the Friends of the North Carolina Room was held Wednesday, June 24th, 2015 at the Rankin House Inn. The oldest frame house in Asheville, it was built in 1848 by William Dinwiddle (1804-1879) and Elizabeth Lightfoot Roadman (1804-1908) Rankin. It was the perfect place for a gathering of people who love local history. The
The North Carolina Room and the Preservation Society of Asheville & Buncombe County are partnering together to offer the “Scan the Plan” project. Anyone with eligible architectural drawings can come to the North Carolina Room at Pack Memorial library and get your plans digitized. The service only takes a few minutes, and participants will be able to
We have been posting on this blog about Tourists’ Camps and Tourists’ Courts. In case I dismissed Tourist Homes too quickly, I decided to make amends. They existed longer than I first thought, and probably did a lot to help with boarding for tourists. And besides that, they most likely provided a very good income for
Can you identify the locations of these architectural details? They can be found adorning some of Asheville’s best loved historic buildings. The buildings will be identified at the bottom of this post. We’ll begin with some that should be easy to identify. All of these photos, plus THOUSANDS! and THOUSANDS! more were donated to the NC Collection by our
The Friends of the North Carolina Room sponsored a presentation, “Let’s Talk About Anthony Lord” on Thursday, August 28, 2014. Seventy-five people attended the event and got to know more about Lord’s life, profession, his many avocations and the effect his life had on Asheville. It is a hard task to recount what five close