This installment offers a look at the life and career of the fifth of the five original teachers at Asheville’s first black city school, Beaumont Street. We’ve saved one of the best teachers for last. We’ve also included information on the members of her family because of their prominence in Asheville and their connections to … Continue reading Asheville’s First City Schools for Black Students, Part Four: Builders of Black Schools (concluded)
A painting of the N.W. Woodfin house by John Holland. It is presumed that the figure on the porch is N.W. Woodfin. The home stood at what is now the corner of Broadway and Woodfin St., the approximate location of HomeTrust Bank. His property reached into where the UNC Asheville botanical gardens are today, this … Continue reading Confronting the Legacy of N.W. Woodfin: 52 Weeks, 52 Communities
I remember “worst” Asheville. It’s the neighborhood where my Grandfather was born in a house with dirt floors, where I went to preschool (back when Crossroads Assembly was "West Asheville Assembly" located on Haywood Rd.), attended my first dance lessons (in the building where Asheville Greenworks is today), and went along with my mother to … Continue reading A “Worst” Asheville Album: 52 Weeks, 52 Communities
"Skatemobiles" by Andrea Clark. ACC 57-08 Henry Robinson wrote in 1992 about his childhood community of Southside--a mournful eulogy really, to a place that no longer exists--that the sprawling community "stretched over 400 acres from Biltmore Avenue westward to the French Broad River." Robinson informs us today that it was "the largest residential area for … Continue reading Southside: 52 Weeks, 52 Communities
Who was Walter H. Page? Did you ever wonder who Page Avenue was named for? E.W. Grove named the street in his downtown development for the publisher, writer and ambassador to Great Britain during World War I, Walter Hines Page. Page was born at what is now Cary, NC in 1855. He was one of the … Continue reading Walter H. Page and His Christmas Letter To His Grandson
I volunteered this week to create the post for Swannanoa in part because it has been my home for the majority of my life. I was educated in grades 1-12 in “the Valley” (as you will hear natives often call the community including Black Mountain and Ridgecrest). In the 20th century, Swannanoa was transformed by … Continue reading Swannanoa: 52 Weeks, 52 Communities
Asheville’s real estate boom in the 1920’s fostered the growth of many neighborhoods: Lakeview Park, Malvern Hills, Horney Heights, and Kenilworth, just to name a few. Biltmore Avenue borders Kenilworth on the east and across the avenue, on a knoll overlooking Biltmore Village, is the pocket neighborhood of St. Dunstan’s Circle. A Mr. Roebling first … Continue reading St. Dunstan's Circle: 52 Weeks, 52 Communities
The Creation of a Public School System for the City of Asheville, 1887-1888 Looking down on Asheville with a distant view of the first Battery Park Hotel built in 1886. Eagle Street is in the center of the photo curving around a stand of trees. L473-8 Setting Up the System and Hiring the Teachers Asheville … Continue reading ASHEVILLE’S FIRST CITY SCHOOLS FOR BLACK STUDENTS, Part Three: Builders of Black Schools
When I went searching our database for sources to write this edition of 52 Weeks, 52 Communities I had one thought when the results came back: “This cannot be it.” Alas, this seems to be the only historical image of the Shiloh Community in the North Carolina Collection here at Pack Memorial Library. "Shiloh Baptist … Continue reading The only historical image of Shiloh? 52 Weeks, 52 Communities.
