#avlhistory

[wnchistory]

This ad on display in our WWI exhibit is feeling very timely. . . . #coronavirus #covid19 #washyourhands #avlhistory #1918flu (at Smith-McDowell House) https://www.instagram.com/p/B9R6BReh2w7/?igshid=10brbh6zy1h7y

[wnclifestyles]

Happy 100th Birthday to downtown #Asheville's own @pack.memorial.library! On this day in 1919 the library opened its doors and has been a free public library for Asheville residents ever since, anchoring the @buncombecounty library system which now includes 11 branches. Today they begin their #centennial celebration that lasts all week with #local events all over #downtownasheville, including live music, local eats and even literary-themed beer releases that will help support the Friends Of The Library nonprofit that sponsors a myriad of local library programs for children and adults. 📷 by @pack.memorial.library and courtesy of @avlhistory of the Pack Memorial Library Bookmobile serving young readers in 1951. #library #reading #locallibrary #packmemoriallibrary #centennialcelebration #100years #avl #ashevillehistory #historicasheville #localhistory #buncombecounty #buncombecountync #828isgreat via Instagram https://ift.tt/2Yb35nZ

[southboundstranger]

10 years ago I was running around with my hoodlum friends with my new nikon camera, trying to figure out ways to get inside one of my favorite buildings in Asheville, the Jackson Building, to see if I could snap some photos from the top with the gargoyles and its amazing views. I was never successful. Last week, we signed a lease on what will be my first "office with a view" in that same building that holds so much Asheville history. So proud to see how far we've come with Dig Local and cannot wait to be in the middle of everything downtown, and I y'all come visit me. #asheville #diglocal #jacksonbuilding #avlhistory (at Jackson Building)

[carolinamornings]

Haywood Road, West Asheville in the 1920s

[wnchistory]

"It's five past five and time to jive with Nat the Cat, your host who loves you the most. We're going to be around for the next fifty-five minutes with some of the best rhythm and blues." Nathaniel Lowery, aka "Nat the Cat" hosted a popular radio program on WWIT out of Canton, NC from 1953-1963. He had a large following through WNC and into parts of Georgia and eastern Tennessee. Lowery worked as a mail clerk at Champion Paper in Canton until shortly before 5pm when he would head to "Radio Hill" for his show, which would become a link between the area's African-American and white communities. Learn more about Lowery and other African American residents from far Western North Carolina in Ann Woodford's exhibit "When All God's Children Get Together" on display now at the Smith-McDowell House Museum. Join us on February 23 for a presentation and Q&A with Woodford live via Zoom. wnchistory.org/events Image: Haywood County Public Library #natthecat #canton #ashevillehistory #avlhistory #gospel #rhythmandblues #wwit #wnchistory #exploreasheville (at Canton, North Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/CK-TRU0hng-/?igshid=lgole4bs1rsc

[wnchistory]

A project recognizing the laborers who completed one of the greatest feats of construction in their time received an endorsement from the Town of Black Mountain. The Railroad and Incarcerated Laborer (RAIL) Memorial Project, headed by UNC Asheville Professor of History Dr. Dan Pierce and Steve Little, the mayor of Marion, will honor the men who worked, and died, to bring the first trains across the Swannanoa Gap. https://www.thevalleyecho.com/all-news/town-of-black-mountain-supports-memorial-for-railroad-laborers. #blackmountain #blackmountainnc #wnchistory #avlhistory #railroad #railroadtracks #memorial #asheville (at Black Mountain, North Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/CKFivfCBAGq/?igshid=g4eq7izv7jw1

[wnchistory]

It began, the stories say, with a search party of sorts: a caravan of emancipated African Americans traveling up from the Deep South, looking for a place where they could embrace freedom, safety, and self-sufficiency—a haven for putting down roots and building a new life. They found it in the southern reaches of Henderson County, where they established the Happy Land, or perhaps the Kingdom of the Happy Land—accounts differ on the precise name. For decades following the Civil War, a singular communal experiment existed, and it became the stuff of legend. Chronicles of the Happy Land have proved as divergent as the paths that brought those freed slaves to their destination. Little of their venture was written down at the time, but stories added to the record decades later have helped paint a picture of how the kingdom’s residents came to their unique way of living, how they prospered, and how their saga was ultimately cast to the winds of history. Image: Serepta Davis (above left) welcomed the group of freed slaves and sold them 180 acres. (Right) Ezel Couch, shown here in a photograph from Sadie Smathers Patton’s study of the Happy Land, was brought to the kingdom in 1873 at age one. He died at his home in Hendersonville in 1961. #happyland #americanroyals #americanroyalty #avlhistory #wnchistory #hendersonvillenc (at Hendersonville, North Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/CI_T3b-hYbO/?igshid=ketmrk3d6xps

[wnchistory]

Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, it was not implemented in places still under Confederate control. In Buncombe County, people lined up along Main Street (now Biltmore Ave.) to watch Stoneman's Army march through on April 23, 1865; this proved to be the single most liberating event of the Civil War for people enslaved in the mountains. #juneteeth #blackhistory #asheville #emancipation #avlhistory (at Asheville, North Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBnZVfeB8fX/?igshid=1naqhy5u3phxn

[wnchistory]

One of my favorite parts of the Smith-McDowell House is the solarium. Though not original to the house, this little glass room was added on than a century ago! . . . #solarium #earthday #socialdistancing #avlhistory #exploreasheville (at Asheville, North Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_TGNqnBfMO/?igshid=8pswmusmq0ge

[wnchistory]

We are so, so close to getting a $1,000 matching donation! Just need $60 more. Every little bit helps! . . #everylittlebithelps #avlhistory #wnchistory #exploreasheville #supportlocal (at Asheville, North Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_IaN_FBrUc/?igshid=9265sc9tjdh2

[wnchistory]

Fun piece of trivia (or at least a rumor we’ve heard) about our first Thomas Wolfe Memorial Award Winner - when “The French Broad” was published in 1955 many people thought it was a romance novel about a French woman... ;) . In reality, this wonderful book is about our river: “In 1955, seven years before the publication of Rachel Carson’s famed Silent Spring, another woman fought to issue her own groundbreaking analysis of environmental concerns. Wilma Dykeman spent years studying the rivers of western North Carolina, but after she wrote her book The French Broad, her publishers tried to remove the chapters on pollution. However, Dykeman prevailed, and in addition to bringing river contamination to the nation’s attention, won the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Trophy, and inclusion in the Rivers of America series. The river itself became an important aspect of Dykeman’s work, as she focused much of her life and writing in the mountains of western North Carolina and east Tennessee.” . . . #frenchbroadriver #wilmadykeman #frenchbroad #wnchistory #exploreasheville #readlocal #avlhistory #museumfromhome #read #bookstagram (at French Broad River) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_EEUzKBp9G/?igshid=1ouwzl6udcwj3

[wnchistory]

Need a good read while staying home? Our 2019 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award winner - which clocks in at 460 pages will keep you busy! Get your copy direct from the publisher @gsmassoc or your local bookseller @malapropsbookstore and you’ll be in good shape when we launch our “Award Winner Book Club” this fall! . From the publisher: “An icon of the Southern Appalachian region known for the seminal books Camping and Woodcraft (1906) and Our Southern Highlanders (1913), Horace Kephart was instrumental in efforts to establish the Appalachian Trail along the Tennessee-North Carolina border. But Kephart is perhaps best known for his decade-long crusade to help protect the Smokies as a national park. The culmination of decades of tireless research and devoted scholarship, Back of Beyond: A Horace Kephart Biography is the compelling story of this librarian-turned-woodsman who had a far-reaching effect on wilderness literature and outdoor pursuits throughout North America.” . #bookclub #kephart #greatsmokymountains #museumfromhome #avlhistory #exploreasheville #findyourpark (at Great Smoky Mountains National Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_BX7IuBWCe/?igshid=ycgu89n7nvwb

[wnchistory]

2020 vs 1918 . . . #museumfromhome #museummomentofzen #covid #flu #stayhome #dontspit #exploreasheville #avlhistory #wnchistory (at Asheville, North Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-yEaFghnCW/?igshid=1lax1td8gn05i

[wnchistory]

FREE Typewriter Loans! - In 1918, Asheville delayed the start of the school, closed theaters, bars, and churches, and the newspaper published guidelines for staying healthy – among them: stay home, wash your hands, and cover your cough. . . . #socialdistancing #1918 #exploreasheville #freetypewriter #typewriter #avlhistory #asheville #1918vs2020 (at Asheville, North Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-ZosA8BayH/?igshid=604dcbwplf7e

[wnchistory]

1918 vs 2020 . . . #corona #covid_19 #1918 #dontdrinkbleach #justsayno #stayhome #museumfromhome #museummomentofzen #exploreasheville #avlhistory (at Asheville, North Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-YTba1hE5z/?igshid=mpe8oln8r1oj

[wnchistory]

Not currently on our public tours (okay, fair enough - nothing is on our public tours currently) the side of the winter kitchen’s brick chimney in the basement on the Smith-McDowell House features some graffiti. While preservation and graffiti don’t usually mix, in this case this historic graffiti gives us a little insight into who may have been here more than a century ago. . . . #historicgraffiti #avlhistory #exploreasheville #museumfromhome #museummomentofzen (at Smith-McDowell House) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-QKF7uBQS0/?igshid=1bjixm4yw4apy