Architectural Tidbits

“Here lived Miss Agnes and Lucia Campbell, two very sweet and indigent Southern gentlewomen…” By Dale Wayne Slusser In 1889, northern millionaire George Washington Vanderbilt, began construction of his 250-room mansion, “Biltmore” on a hill above the southern bank of...

by Dale Wayne Slusser Once described as a “pretty little religious village”[1], the Town of Montreat, which is nestled in a deep cove near Black Mountain in Western North Carolina, has a rich and prolific assemblage of historic cabins, cottages, and residences.  One...

By Dale Wayne Slusser  On May 24, 1914, the Charlotte Observer reported the following news from Asheville: “Work on the stone castle which Fred L. Seely is building on the brow of Overlook Mountain has been resumed and a force of 30 workmen is now engaged in erecting...

By Dale Wayne Slusser While walking down N. Liberty Street in North Asheville, via google “street view”, recently, I came across the beautiful cottage at the northeast corner of N. Liberty and East Chestnut Streets (138 E. Chestnut Street).  My first thought was that...

By Dale Wayne Slusser When the current owners of 169 Flint Street (in Asheville’s historic Montford district) asked me to research the history of their house, they also asked me to investigate the possibility that their house was designed by Richard Sharp Smith.  “R....

By Dale Wayne Slusser  Most often when I’m asked by a homeowner to trace the history of their “old house”, the owner assumes that their house was originally designed and built for a specific owner. Often, they also assume that the house was designed by a notable...

By Dale Wayne Slusser  Perched high on a steep wooded site on Sunset Mountain, accessed from below, up a series of rustic stone steps and a magical pathway that winds up the hill through the dense ivy ground-cover, is an enchanting Storybook-style cottage,...

By Dale Wayne Slusser As the ravages of the “Great War” began to fade and the post-war prosperity of the early 1920s dawned, those U. S. servicemen and women who had served overseas, began to replace their images of the horrors of war with the more pleasant memories...

By Dale Wayne Slusser How Old is My House?: James M. Blair House- A Case Study “How Old is My House?” is the prominent thing that historic house owners want to know about their house.  Implicit in this question is also the question, “Who Built My House?”, meaning who...

By Dale Wayne Slusser “What are our Real Estate owners thinking of in not building houses?”[3], implored an anonymous subscriber to the Asheville News in November of 1869.  In his (or her?) long appeal, the anonymous subscriber gave a comprehensive state of building,...