Fearing that tourist courts were fast disappearing, Library Director Ed Sheary and North Carolina Room staff Ann Wright, Zoe Rhine, and Peggy Gardner made a Tourist Court Expedition in August 2000. Our aim was to document as many tourist courts and their signage as we could in the day. Major roads coming into Asheville were surveyed for remaining motor or
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the Swannanoa native Wade Martin, who was known nationally for his woodcarving abilities. Click here if you haven’t read it. While I was writing about Wade Martin, I was surprised to read that he was also known of as a great baseball player. Because I was staying focused on Wade’s
Wade “Gob” Hampton Martin was born in 1920, the son of Marcus Lafayette and Callie Holloway Martin. He had four brothers, Edsel, Wayne, Fred and Quintin and one sister, Zenobia. All of them carved. In the early 1930s the family moved from Andrews, N.C. to Swannanoa, N.C. Wade was nine at the time and grew
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
“Skyline Dairy was clean, modern, and cool. We would have cones of lemon sherbet after a Sunday afternoon drive. Most often we ate in the car, probably because it kept my brother and I quiet and contained for a few minutes. Always loved that facade — another example of short-lived good modern architecture, now
The Mountain Dance and Folk Festival: “Since 1928, mountain fiddlers, banjo pickers, dulcimer sweepers, dancers, balladeers and others have come to enjoy themselves “along about sundown” the first weekend in August at the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival. This year marked the 87th festival. 1928: Asheville, North Carolina. Well-known musician and folk historian Bascom Lamar
We recently returned from St. Petersburg, FL to Asheville on Allegiant Airways. One hour and twenty minutes. No stops. Lovely. We had a clear day and were able to identify a number of landmarks as we came in for our (on-time) landing. It made me wonder about the earlier days of flying in this mountain
What a pool it was, too. An acre in size, the pool opened July 17, 1924. At the time it was said that the pool “is clearly among the largest, and costliest in America.” Masonry walls of massive granite enclosed the pool. “The water was continuously filtered, chlorinated, aerated and introduced to the pool through an attractive grotto