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
One of the most fulfilling kickbacks of being an archivist, for me, is knowing that there is something new to be uncovered as I pick up the next piece of paper, or the next photograph. The Rankin-Bearden Collection is no disappointer. When Asheville resident Walter Diehl found himself the last keeper of the family’s records, he donated them to Pack Memorial Library’s
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
My, how good the Nichols Building looks now that it has a little breathing room! [This is a follow-up to a previous post about the razing of the Blomberg Garage which sat just to the side in this photo.] The Nichols Building was built by Archibald Nichols (1875-1937) former secretary for eight years of the
As I began to create a record for this postcard purchased recently on eBay, I got that funny sensation that comes when one of the photos begins to speak. The Craftsman Style bungalow was built around 1907 and featured the cedar shingle exterior popular until the 1930’s. I know from my own home how hard the big
TODAY: YESTERDAY: FIFTY-EIGHT YEARS AGO: Harry’s Cadillac Pontiac Company, seen here on the right, is first listed at 68 Haywood Street in the 1938 Asheville City Directory. Harry Blomberg had opened Harry’s Motor Inns across the street in 1930, shown in this later view as Worth’s Fashion Mart, the present-day site of Pack Memorial Library. Mr. Blomberg
The photographs of Exum Clement Stafford that we used in our online exhibit (see Last Week’s Post) came from several sources, and in some cases we did not have access to originals. We were scanning copies, and although the reproductions are remarkably good, we did not have access to any information that might have been written
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