by Dale Wayne Slusser
It all started with a cottage by the river. One day in 2013, I was driving on the road that runs along the north side of the Swannanoa River, near the historic Biltmore Village, when I noticed an abandoned shingle-styled cottage, sitting at the base of the hill just above the road. I had noticed the cottage many times before, as it was the only house remaining along that stretch of the river, surrounded now by retail and commercial properties. But this time I REALLY noticed it! The windows had been recently boarded up and the vegetation surrounding the house was now so overgrown as to almost obscure the house from the road. I felt compelled to find out more about this neglected property. Thus began my decade long search for the “Forgotten Homes Along the Swannanoa”.
As preservationists, our first goal is to save, restore, and reuse historic structures. But when that is not achievable, our second goal is to preserve the memory of historic structures through documentation measured drawings, photos, histories, and stories. This was the motivation behind my search for these “forgotten” homes of yesteryear. Many of these houses were built by the original pioneers of Asheville and Buncombe
County, and many were built by wealthy outsiders who came to Asheville in the nineteenth century for its healthful climate.
The catastrophic destruction along the Swannanoa River, which occurred from the devastating Hurricane Helene last September, has prompted me to begin sharing my seventeen notebooks of information on
these forgotten houses. Most of these houses are no longer standing-in fact I know of two which have only recently been destroyed in last year’s hurricane. So, for the ensuing months, the Architectural Tidbits column will feature these forgotten homes along the Swannanoa River.
Read the first installment of this series, BEFORE BILTMORE VILLAGE: Thomas Foster’s Farm and The Reed Houses here.
