WLOS anchor Frank Fraboni was looking for answers to an ASK 13 question about what ever happened to the oversize coffee pots that used to be at the entrance to the Homeland Park Tourist cabins in East Asheville just past the WNC Nature Center. He landed on our HeardTell blog post we had written last November about tourists courts, so came to talk to North
The 1915 Asheville Board of Trade’s yearly booklet titled, Asheville North Carolina, America’s Beauty Spot, “Land of the Sky” boasts that “Asheville was the first city in the country–June, 1898–to pass an ordinance prohibiting expectoration on the streets, in street cars and public buildings. This ordinance has been copied by cities throughout the world.”
Long, long ago (in the 1960’s) Western North Carolina was not known for its culinary landscape. The Jarrett House in Dillsboro and the The NuWray Inn in Burnsville were about as close as one could find “fancy food”. And truly, their country hams and family style meals were wonderful. Even the big city of Asheville was not
You’ve Got Mail! What do Ochopee, Florida; Muddy, Illinois; Ojo Feliz , New Mexico and two communities in North Carolina have in common? In the early part of the last century, small towns across the nation advertised their diminutive post offices with postcards. It was (and still is) a draw for the tourist traveling in automobiles
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
Would you believe there is a creek named New Years Creek? It rises in Watauga County on the western limits of the town of Blowing Rock and flows into Caldwell County where it enters Thunderhole Creek. Glen Burney Falls (referred to on the post card as Glen Burnia Falls and spelled Glen Burnie in the North Carolina
Currently on view in the entrance case at Pack Memorial Library you will discover a variety of vintage Christmas cards from individuals and businesses in Asheville. On view on the lower level is a recently acquired photo album made by photographer William Barnhill as a Christmas gift to his sister Laura Barnhill who was visiting with him in
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
Who were the early tourist pioneers and where did they stay? Before there were tourists’ courts, there were automobile tourists’ camps. They were most typically, in this area, cabins or shacks. “Tourists’ Camps” found its own subject listing in the business section of the Asheville city directories in 1936, which listed three camps:”Babblin Brook” on the Weaverville