by Dale Wayne Slusser – February 2026
Marigold Cottage, one of an assemblage of cottages built in Albemarle Park, is unique among its neighbors (and almost every other house in Asheville) in that it has no street frontage or access, being accessible only from an adjacent footpath.
In 1886, Thomas Wadley Raoul was a young twenty-year old, working in the offices of S. M. Inman Cotton merchants in Macon, GA, when he was suddenly “mowed down” with tuberculosis. As he later recounted, “At this point Father took over”.1 Thomas was first sent off to the West, “to breathe it’s health-giving air”, but to no avail. He soon found himself shipped off to Asheville to regain his health, where his Father, as part of Thomas’s cure, put him to work cutting out and clearing the Asheville Place “with a view to the possibility of cutting it into building lots and selling it”.2 But following a suggestion by hotelier Col. Frank Coxe of the Battery Park Hotel, that they should build a boarding house, the Raouls decided to keep the property intact, build a boarding house/hotel and accompanying cottages to cater to the “summer people” who flocked to Asheville during the summer season.
The Raouls chartered the Albemarle Park Company in March of 1898. To assist them in their new plans, William Raoul hired architect Bradford L. Gilbert of New York, who according to Thomas Raoul was his father’s “old friend”.3 William Raoul, as a railroad executive, had become acquainted with Gilbert who had designed several railroad stations for the Georgia Central Railroad. Gilbert had also had recently (1892) designed the Raoul family’s new home on Peachtree Street in Atlanta.
Gilbert quickly enlisted the assistance of noted landscape architect Samuel B. Parsons to layout the grounds in their new “residence park” (nineteenth-century term for “subdivision” or “residential development”). Parsons first apprenticed with, and then became a partner with, famed New York landscapist Calvert Vaux. After Vaux’s death in 1895, Parsons was appointed head landscape architect for New York City. As an interesting side-note, Parsons later became infamous for his accidental introduction of the fungus that led to the near extinction of the formerly widespread American chestnut tree. Ironically, the American Chestnut Foundation, whose “mission is to return the iconic American Chestnut to its native range” now has it national headquarters in Asheville!
Parsons plan started with a stone entrance Lodge/Gatehouse at Charlotte Street (lowest part of the site) from which a main thoroughfare, later named Cherokee Road, rose first to a three-acre leveled plateau which was used as the site of the proposed Boarding house. Parsons described this area as a “little open meadow…where only is to be noticed any considerable stretch of turf for greensward”.4 It was on the northwest section, closest to the Lodge/Gatehouse that the Boarding house, named “The Manor” (as suggested by architect Gilbert Bradford) was sited. The first two cottages, Columbus and Clover were built flanking the drive into The Manor. Later an additional half-dozen cottages were built on the plateau.
Parson designed the main thoroughfare (Cherokee Road) to continue to rise up the hillside and connect to a network of circuitous roads, lined by divided lots, which followed the contours of the site. The whole resulted in a series of terraced (though cleverly disguised as such) homesites. Comparing Parsons’ plan with the modern-day site plan, shows that his plan was closely followed, even though the site’s development took almost two decades, and was even subjected to a re-platting in 1913.
By 1905, William and Thomas Raoul had built many of the planned cottages laid out by Parsons, including Rosebank Cottage which they were then completing on a lot facing Charlotte Street, being the southeast corner lot in Albemarle Park. Apparently, while constructing Rosebank, the Raouls had noticed a charming cottage next door to Rosebank on a large lot adjacent to the Albemarle Park property. Well, in October of 1905, the Raoul’s, under the name “Albemarle Park Co.”, decided to buy the large lot with the charming cottage.5 Two months later, in January of 1906, Thomas Raoul writes to his sister Mary of their recent purchase: “Do you remember the little 2 x 4 house right next to Rosebank which we did not own? Well we bought it and quite a large lot before I left and we expect to roll it to the back line next summer and build two houses of the same class (if I can hold Father down).”6 The cottage that they bought, was on an acre lot, just outside the Chunn Street (now Albemarle Road) gate.7 The cottage had been built in 1897 by builders Chunn & Cowan for George J. Shepard in 1897.8 Shepard had just sold the property (which incidentally never had a Chunn Street house number, only ever being listed as “N. Chunn Street”) in the month before to George F. Weston, the agricultural manager at the Biltmore Estate.9
As Thomas Raoul had revealed to his sister Mary, the Shepard/Weston cottage, which they named Larkspar Cottage, was moved to the back property line on the west side of the lot at the lowest point of the sloped lot, and two look-a-like cottages were built adjacent to it, each stepping up the hill from the other. Construction on the two new cottages was delayed until the summer of 1907. On July 13, 1907, it was reported that the Albemarle Park Company had been granted a permit to build “two cottages, Albemarle Park, $11,000”.10
The two cottages built were named Hollyhock and Marigold, with Marigold being built in the middle between Larkspar and Hollyhock. Built along the side property line the cottages were built to be accessed via a brick footpath from Orchard Road/Chunn Street. These three cottages, which became known as “The Border Row” cottages, were not on Parson’s original masterplan and so were fully planned, sited, and designed by the Raouls.
The Raoul stable/carriage house at 848 Peachtree Ave, Atlanta, GA. was the model for Marigold and Hollyhock cottages in Albemarle Park, in Asheville, NC.
For the design of Marigold Cottage (and Hollyhock) the Raouls did not have to look far for inspiration. They chose to design the cottages to replicate a Bradford Gilbert-designed carriage house that was in the backyard of their family home in Atlanta, GA. Whether or not they hired Gilbert to adapt the plan to a cottage, or whether they just used Gilbert’s drawings for the carriage house and made the adaptation/changes themselves, either way the cottages appear to be replicas of the carriage house.
Miss Katherine Hanly Wright
The first recorded occupant of Marigold Cottage (that I could find) was from the 1907 Asheville City Directory, which indicates that William and Laura Lott and Laura’s sister, Mrs. Eliza J. Cowart were living in Marigold Cottage that year. My guess is that they were there during the summer season, as on November 2, 1907, it was reported that: “Mrs. Bott and her niece Miss Wright, of New York, have taken “Marigold Cottage” in Albemarle Park for an indefinite period”.11 Annie Hanly Norton Botts and her niece, Katherine (Kate) Hanly Wright, actually both from Kentucky, leased Marigold Cottage from 1907 until Annie Botts’ death at Marigold Cottage in 1912, at 82 years of age.12 Miss Kate Wright continued leasing Marigold Cottage for the next two decades (sometimes year-round and some years seasonally until 1938, at which time the E. W. Grove heirs (Grove had bought the Manor and cottages in 1920) sold Marigold Cottage to Blackburn & Ruth Johnson. Upon leaving Marigold in 1938, Kate Wright bought a permanent home at 5 Lynwood Road in North Asheville, where she lived until her death at age 89 in 1964.13
Blackburn W. Johnson
Blackburn Johnson, who was an editor for the Farmers Federation News of Asheville, although being the first owner/occupier of Marigold Cottage, only owned the cottage for less than two years, selling it in 1940 to Rachel Jefferson Handy. Rachel Handy and her husband, Roland C. Handy, had moved from Maryland to Asheville in 1934. Roland Handy passed away in 1937. Rachel Handy moved into Marigold Cottage in 1940 with her daughter, Jane Jefferson Handy. While living in Marigold Rachel J. Handy, in 1942, took a short but intensive training course in Alexandria, VA in order to take the position of Executive Secretary of the Jr. Red Cross of Asheville and Buncombe County. In her position she organized canteens corps and first aid corps, recruiting students from the local junior and senior high schools.14 When they moved in Marigold Cottage, Rachel’s daughter Jane was then a junior at St. Genevieve’s of Asheville, graduating from there in 1941. Jane went on to the University of Arizona, and then to the University of California, Berkley, from which she graduated in 1945.15 Jane married Ensign John C. Marsh of Long Beach, CA in June of 1947. No doubt this is why Rachel Handy sold Marigold Cottage in February of 1947 and moved to California.16
Rachel Handy had sold the cottage to Clyde Reed, Jr. and his wife Randolph. Clyde, Jr. was the son of Clyde Reed, Sr. of Biltmore, NC (the Clyde Reed, Sr. house stills stands in the middle of the CarePartners complex in Biltmore). Interestingly, the Reeds only owned Marigold Cottage just a few years before selling it and moving to California in 1951.17
The Reeds sold the cottage to a widow, Velma Cline Summrell. Much like Rachel Handy, a prior owner, Velma was a young widow with a teenage daughter. Velma Cline of Asheville, at the age of 30, had married 42-year-old widower Dr. Guy H. Sumrell in Greenville, NC in 1935.18 Sadly, Dr. Sumrell died of a heart attack two years later, in 1937, leaving his new bride with their newborn daughter, Barbara Ann.19 Dr. Sumrell’s estate left Velma with “one Cow, value $40.00; one dog, value $1.00; one lot of Coal, value $1.00, and about $500 cash ($458 for Velma and $150 for minor child-Barbara)”, but apparently with no place to live. Velma and her daughter moved back to Asheville to live with her mother, Ella S. Cline on Edwin Place. Mrs. Cline died in 1950, leaving her house at 131 Edwin to Velma and her sister Golda (actually she had sold it to them in 1945, allowing herself a life estate).20 Velma & Golda sold the house in 1951.21 No doubt Velma used her proceeds from the sale of the house to purchase Marigold Cottage.
Barbara Sumrell- 1951
Barbara Sumrell, who was a junior in high school when she and her mother moved into Marigold Cottage, graduated from Asheville High School in 1952, whereupon she was awarded a $200 scholarship from the Lions Club to attend Asheville-Biltmore College (UNCA).22 Barbara, who made the Dean’s List at Asheville-Biltmore College, was selected by the faculty to deliver an address at her 1954 Commencement “on the role of Education in Democracy”.
23
Velma Sumrell, a concert pianist and music teacher supported herself by giving piano lessons in the front room of Marigold cottage. Barbara returned home after college to live with her mother at Marigold Cottage, until her marriage to Allyn K. Onderdonk in 1971. Barbara Sumrell Onderdonk inherited Marigold following the death of her mother Velma Sumrell in 1990. Then sometime following the death of her husband in 1997, Barbara moved into Marigold until selling the cottage in 2012 (through her son Allyn, Jr. to whom she had previously given Power of Attorney) to Will & Amy Hornaday.
The Hornadays took the kitchen from “dingy” to a bright cottage-style kitchen.
Utilizing historic tax credits to reduce their costs, the Hornadays undertook a major rehabiitation/adapted re-use project to turn the cottage into a rental income property (as it was originally built to be). The project included installing a new roof, new electrical and plumbing stystems, and a new HVAC system, and a new kitchen. The homes original fireplaces were retained and equipped coal-basket gas heaters. The Hornadays operated the property as rental income for five years, before selling it to James Kennedy in 2018. The current owner, John Paul Patterson, purchased the cottage in 2023.
1 Mary Raoul Millis, The Family of Raoul: A Memoir. (Atlanta, GA: Mary Raoul Millis, 1943), p. 170.
2 Ibid
3 Ibid, p.171.
4 Ibid, p. 178.
5 10/30/1905 George F. Weston to Albemarle Park Company CHUNN STREET Db. 141/91.- Buncombe County Register of the Deeds.
6 The Manor And Cottages: Albemarle Park, Asheville, NC, by Jane Gianvito Mathews, AIA and Richard A. Mathews. (Asheville, NC: The Albemarle Park-Manor Grounds Association, Inc., 1991), p. 83.
7 10/27/1905 (rec’d 10/30/1905) George F. Weston to Albemarle Park Company CHUNN STREET Db. 141/91. -Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
8 Asheville Citizen-Times, October 9, 1897, p.4.
9 09/14/1905 (rec’d 10/27/1905) George J. & Mary H. Shepard to Geoge F. Weston CHUNN STREET Db. 139/398. -Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
10 Asheville Citizen-Times, July 13, 1907, p. 4.
11 Asheville Citizen-Times, November 2, 1907, p. 2.
12 Asheville Times, September 12, 1912, p. 5.
13 Asheville Citizen-Times, January 16, 1964, p. 10.
14 “MISS HANDY BACK AFTER STUDY FOR RED CROSS WORK”, Asheville Citizen-Times, September 6, 1942, p. 4.
15 “Former Asheville Resident Married In California”, Asheville Citizen-Times, June 1, 1947, p. 21.
16 02/13/1947 (rec’d 03/08/1947) Rachel J. Handy to Clyde Reed, Jr. & wife, Randolph Ward Reed SECOND WARD Db. 634 / 22, -Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
17 07//14/1951 Clyde, Jr. & Randolph Reed (of Bernicia, CA) to Velma C. Sumrell ALBEMARLE PARK Db. 708 / 189. -Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
18 From ancestry.com: Copy Marriage certificate, dated July 5, 1935, Greenville, NC -Pitt County Register of Deeds.
19 The News and Observer, Raleigh, NC, November 23, 1937.
20 11/23/1945 Ella S. Cline to Velma C. Sumrell and Golda S. McGirt EDWIN PL Db. 597 / 48. -Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
21 06/15/1951 Velma C. Sumrell and Golda S. McGirt to Louise E. Denison EDWIN PL Db. 707 / 163. -Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
22 Asheville Times, August 28, 1952, p. 4.
23 Asheville Citizen-Times, Nay 22, 1954, p. 9.
