This is the story of a street railway operator and his family moving from a small rented house (their home for 16 years) on an in-town estate in downtown Asheville…
Read moreFamily Challenges in the ‘Teens: A Strike, a Flood, and an Epidemic
This post focuses on the Asheville Street Railway Strike of 1913; the great Asheville flood of 1916; and the influenza pandemic of 1918-1920, in which my father nearly died.
Read moreGlimpses into the Daily Lives of the Whisnants
My previous post conveyed as much as I have been able to discover about the “little house behind the big house” setting of the Whisnant family’s life on Asheville’s South…
Read moreHow’s That Again?: Some New Angles on Asheville and Western North Carolina History
Perennial Problems with “Land of the Sky” History Since it first appeared in 1875, the “Land of the Sky” descriptor for Asheville has been perennially present, enticing and marketable.…
Read moreAsbury’s Asheville: 1900-1907
For Starters: Some Guesses as to Why Asbury Chose Asheville Although the romantic designation as the Land of the Sky was bestowed upon Asheville in Christian Reid’s 1875 novel, this…
Read moreMud on the Rafters
More than thirty years ago, just short of my father’s seventieth birthday, I taped a long interview with him to explore his memories of his early life in Asheville. Toward…
Read more