Beech is a community in north Buncombe County six miles up Reems Creek Road — 14 miles from Asheville. It is formed by the junction of Maney Branch and Reems Creek and was named after the beautiful grove of Beech trees growing there. A resident back in 1894 wrote to the editor of the Asheville newspaper saying
NC Room staff and the board of the NC Room Friends held a social on Tuesday, June 17th, to celebrate their newly formed Friends of the North Carolina Room. We also celebrated the life of Mary Parker (1914-2012), who would have been 100 years old that day. Mary was a longtime library supporter, and her family,
On October 8, 1907, Thomas Walton Patton wrote in his diary, “Election over—bad conduct on part of prohib [prohibition] ladies—very distressing.” Thomas Walton Patton, the third generation of Asheville’s Patton family, was born in Asheville in 1841 and served in the Confederate Army, 1861-1865. The city elected him mayor in 1893 and 1894. Like his grandfather
Perhaps you read our story a couple of weeks ago about Asheville Mayor Gallatin Roberts, who committed suicide in February 1931 rather than face trial for banking law violations. You may have wondered about the fate of the other defendants in the case. When a Buncombe County grand jury indicted Roberts, along with other public and
With the recent donation of the Gallatin Roberts Collection, we received a magnificent story, as exciting and heart breaking as any Greek tragedy. Roberts was born under the shadow of a missing father and spent his entire life trying to be the trustworthy, upright man that he wished his father had been. At many of
A few weeks ago Dan Hill first made his presence known. His face smiled out of a 1922 photograph from the recently-donated Gallatin Roberts Collection. The men in the photograph were identified by their signatures below their feet. I knew Gallatin Roberts, the sober man second from right. He was Mayor of Asheville in 1922 and again during
Note: Click here for an indepth online photograph exhibit detailing Exum’s life. Then click on the first picture to start the slideshow. Lillian Exum Clement Stafford (1886-1925) is quite worth remembering, especially as we celebrate remarkable women in Buncombe County. “Exum,” as she was known, was the first woman in Buncombe County to receive a license to practice
Wednesday, February 26th, 6:00 until 7:30 PM Pack Library Lord Auditorium Rich Mathews, historian and researcher for Mathews Architecture, will present a slide presentation about the Southside Neighborhood in Asheville Here Rich gives us a preview of his talk. Join us on Wednesday night for MORE! I’m a preservationist. I love old buildings and historic neighborhoods.
