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
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
The Creation of a Public School System for the City of Asheville, 1887-1888 Setting Up the System and Hiring the Teachers Asheville Times, July 29, 1887: “Graded School Carried: Asheville Keeps to the Front By a Very Close Squeeze” “We need not multiply words to express pleasure at the result of the election yesterday on
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. This photo,
Unlike most of the communities we’ve covered in this series, the community of Ramoth is in reality, no longer. Once a rather large, and even incorporated suburb of Asheville, most folks living in Buncombe County today have probably never heard of this North Asheville community. Indeed, at one time, Ramoth was so large, they intended
Oakley, like all of the communities we’ve featured this year, has seen significant changes over time with the ebb and flow of Asheville and Buncombe County’s real estate, industrial, and tourism economy. Throughout the years, the section has developed from rolling farmland to middle-upscale planned community, and over time, the apparent planning of the suburb
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 30, 2019 FROM 6:00 TO 7:00 PM LORD AUDITORIUM PACK MEMORIAL LIBRARY LOWER LEVEL THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. Light Refreshments will be served “Herbert Pelton arrived in Asheville in 1905. When he left Asheville in 1930, he had become one of the best and most prolific commercial photographers
Presentation This Thursday, October 24 from 6:00-7:00 Pack Memorial Library, Lord Auditorium, lower level. This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Where is the Ravenscroft Reserve? The Ravenscroft Reserve is located at 11 Collier Avenue north of Banks Avenue, at the southern end of Ravenscroft Drive. What
Part One of this series began with a survey of private and religious efforts to educate Asheville’s black children in the decades following the Civil War. Next we saw how the city established a public school system in 1888 after a close vote of public approval in which black voters provided the crucial margin of