Architectural Tidbits

Ronald Greene and the Carolina Wood Products Company

By Dale Wayne Slusser- January 9, 2024 The first two decades of the twentieth century have long been known as Asheville’s architectural heyday, when many of its most famous historic houses and buildings were designed and built.  One of Asheville’s most famous...

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A Community of Neighborhoods: The Development of Oakley

By Dale Wayne Slusser 10/05/23 Southeast of downtown Asheville lies the community of Oakley, historically, a working-class neighborhood.  Often thought of as a planned community built in 1926 to accommodate the workers needed for the new Sayles Bleachery, in fact,...

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Ben Ragsdale’s Brick House on Brackettown Road

By Dale Wayne Slusser Many Asheville residents, like me, have passed this street sign at the intersection of White Pine and Brackettown Roads at the north entrance to Asheville Mall, and asked the question- “Where is Brackettown”?  This is especially perplexing...

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Raoulwood and the Origins of Biltmore Forest

by Dale Wayne Slusser George Washington Vanderbilt began building his 250-room French Renaissance château in the mountains of Western North Carolina, just south of Asheville in 1889.  Designed by the renowned architect, Richard Morris Hunt, construction of “Biltmore”...

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Felstone: A Local 1920’s Architectural Phenomenon

by Dale Wayne Slusser Often when researching the architectural history of a house or building, one tends to “go down rabbit trails”, seemingly off track from the object of the research.  But sometimes those rabbit trails lead to a related and often more interesting...

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