Hiram Lindsey’s General Store was on the east side of South Main Street, (#450 then, later #458), now Biltmore Avenue, near Victoria Road. Mr. Lindsey standing in front. Note advertising placards for Ivory Soap and Toasted Corn Flakes. Hiram, born in 1876, moved to Asheville with his mother, Sarah and at least two of his younger siblings
* Some eye-catching advertisements from a stack of old Asheville newspapers I happened across. * * * We’ve always been foodies. * * * Oh how we love our spirits…even if we don’t have a “stomachic.” * * * Water seems to always be an issue. And look…”wind-mills!” Sustainable energy source pre-solar panels. * * *
Jon Elliston opened his “Asheville in 1915” talk by appearing in period costume dressed as a “newsie” with a newspaper delivery bag slung over his shoulder, and walked up the aisle hollering out the news headlines of the day while passing out copies of a 1915 Asheville Citizen front page. All one hundred and fifty enthralled attendees were suddenly transported to
The Friends of the North Carolina Room at Pack Memorial Library will present a brown bag lunch series on local history, Hungry For History. Bring your own brown bag lunch and enjoy some local history. All events are free and open to the public. Jon Elliston will kick-off the series with his presentation “Asheville 100
After last week’s post about Douglas Ellington’s drawing for a city auditorium, Asheville architect Jim Samsel, with an interest in buildings that didn’t get built, brought our attention to this 16-story building also designed by Douglas Ellington, and also never built. The site location is at Pack Square next to the Langren Hotel, the current location of the Akzona-Biltmore
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
Most people are familiar with, and bemoan, the decision our county forefathers made to not go with Douglas Ellington’s proposed twin designs for the Asheville City Hall and the Buncombe County Courthouse. But did you know about Ellington’s plan for a civic auditorium? Douglas Ellington introduced Art Deco architecture to Asheville in the 1920s, starting with
Last week’s post on Asheville photographer James M. McCanless made mention of James’s brother, Samuel Alonzo McCanless, winning a marble angel from William O. Wolfe in a poker game. That’s a story unto itself. Samuel, also a photographer, was born in 1859 in McDowell County and died March 6, 1923. The two brothers are listed together
The story goes like this: The North Carolina Room’s very own Friends of the North Carolina Room board member, Jon Elliston, published an article Thursday January 15th on Carolina Public Press about a 1904 photograph album that was sent to the NC Room by a woman in Albany, New York. She had found the album in a box of Albany