Richmond Pearson’s Little-Known Part in the Creation of Montford [Click here to read Rediscovering Montford’s Early History Part 1 post revealing the first newspaper article announcing the creation of Montford Park and the naming of Montford Park Station.] Richmond Pearson was given the honor in the summer of 1890 of naming the new passenger depot on the Asheville Loan, Construction
Sometimes, everyone while driving down a street–like Haywood, Charlotte, Merrimon or Patton Avenue, names so common–stops and wonders about the name. “I wonder who Charlotte Street was named for? And sometimes, there are streets that wondering where the name came from is the last thing in the world anyone would think about. Like Page Avenue.
I was looking through a stack of photographs in the collection we received from the Patton/Parker family after the death of Mary Parker. This photograph intrigued me. The writing on the back of the photo upped my intrigue. I wasn’t familiar with any of the names. The Ravenel family lived at 2 Short Street in Biltmore. Short Street became Kitchen Place
Early one Monday morning in September, 1910, news reached Asheville that Mr. Herbert B. Race and his “mechanician” J. E. McCants had arrived safely in Greenville, South Carolina, and were expected to reach downtown Asheville by noon that day. The two had departed from Jacksonville, Florida, at the crack of dawn on Saturday, attempting a
The photographer only had about 30 days to get the above interesting picture. This is what’s missing. The building above as it appeared in 1909 as the Asheville Library building at 4 Pack Square South. It was for many years before that known of as the First National Bank Building. In 1889 the bank purchased two small brick buildings that predated
Throughout this past summer, the North Carolina Room at Pack Memorial Public Library presented a six-month series exploring “Asheville in the 1980s.” The series delved into the impetus for, and lasting results of, the City’s transformation during that critical decade. The programs attracted large and sometimes overflow crowds to Lord Auditorium. Now the entire six-program
What do these have in common: The Asheville City Parks & Recreation Department, Quality Forward, Community Arts Council and the Asheville Chamber of Commerce, along with thousands and thousands of volunteers? FESTIVALS! They all worked together in the 1970s and 1980s to create a broad range of festivals that were created in part to bring people
But first some history. E. W. Grove built the new Bon Marche department store for Solomon Lipinsky; architect/designer was W. L. Stoddart, an architect from New York City. Lipinsky had founded the store in Asheville in 1889. The Bon Marche later moved into a new building across the street at 33 Haywood in 1936 (now the
The North Carolina Room has always had a visibility problem, even when it was on the main floor across from what used to be the Reference Desk. Staff and Board members of the Friends of the North Carolina Room decided to put a window wrap on the front corner of Pack Memorial Library at street level on