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,...
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...
by Dale Wayne Slusser The river-rock building tradition in Buncombe County was spawned in the early 1920’s at Montreat, NC with the building of the Anderson Auditorium in 1921-22. This river-rock/cobblestone building tradition not only continued in Montreat after the...
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”...
By Dale Wayne Slusser We often find that in telling the story of a single building we are also telling the broader story of time, people, places, and events. This phenomenon can be summed up in one word: “microcosm”, which is defined as, “a community, place, or...
Before Biltmore Village: Thomas Foster’s Farm and the Reed HousesJanuary 14, 2025
The Forgotten Homes and Estates Along the Swannanoa River: A SeriesJanuary 14, 2025
“What’s in a Name?”: To Be a Grove or Not to Be!December 10, 2024