By Dale Wayne Slusser
If there be one who’s sick and weak,
With hectic rose upon her cheek,
And wishes health, then let her go,
And taste thy waters, Swannanoa*.
Thy beauteous waters as they roll
Bring health to body, strength to soul;
No lovelier sight this world can show,
Than thy bright waters, Swannanoa*.
– “Swannanoa”- Dedicated to J. F. E. Hardy-1859
*pronounced “Swan-a-no”
For the past half-century or more, a well-known local bed & breakfast inn named Cedar Crest Inn, had (until now) been under a misnomer, thinking that they were first named “Swannanoa Hill”. The misnomer was derived by an understandable, but inaccurate reading of its history. Although it was never named Swannanoa Hill, the Inn was built ON Swannanoa Hill, which already had a house on the property that WAS named Swannanoa Hill. In fact, both houses shared the same property for many years. To add to the confusion, a late-nineteenth-century plat of the property was mis-labeled with the wrong owner’s name and thus seemingly disassociated with the property. But the stories of both houses are intertwined in a long-forgotten saga of Asheville’s nineteenth-century rise in prominence as a destination “health resort” for those seeking to be restored by its “healthy climate”.
In 1834, Dr. J. F. E. Hardy purchased the 320-acre William Forster, Jr. farm from Forster’s heirs. This was the northern half of the original 640-acre farm of William Forster, Sr. (purchased in 1790), which had straddled the Swannanoa River at what is now considered Biltmore Village. The lower half of the William Forster, Sr. farm, south of the Swannanoa River had been sold earlier to William Forster, Jr.’s brother Thomas Foster (Thomas as an adult, dropped the ‘r’ in his last name).
The “old Drover’s Road”, from Augusta, Georgia to Knoxville, Tennessee was opened shortly after William Forster, Sr. established his original farm, and in 1821 the Drover’s Road became the Buncombe Turnpike. The Buncombe Turnpike generally followed what is now US 25 (Biltmore Avenue/Hendersonville Road), however, although Biltmore Avenue now goes right through the middle of the Forster properties, when Hardy purchased the William Forster, Jr. farm, that was not the case. The original Buncombe Turnpike, turned to the southwest when it got to the end of S. Main Street (Biltmore Avenue) at about the current intersection of Biltmore Avenue and Forest Hill Road (leading to Kenilworth). The turnpike then turned southwest and followed the current St. Dunstan’s Road, before turning south to cross the Swannanoa River at a ford at “Gum Spring” (which was near the current ticket office of the Biltmore Estate). According to the early twentieth-century historian, Foster A. Sondley (a direct descendent of Thomas Foster), William Forster, Sr.’s residence was on the north side of the river along the turnpike (which crossed his property), “standing where is now the northern end of the Swannanoa Viaduct at the foot of the hill.”[1] I would interpret Sondley’s description of the location of William’s residence, for modern-day readers, as approximately near the intersection of Short McDowell Street and Meadow Road, under the Viaduct. Most likely William’s residence was a log house. Later on, after Thomas Foster purchased the southern portion of the Forster farm, Thomas built a bypass road which at the turn of the turnpike at the end of S. Main Street turned southeast following the current Bryson Street to a bridge (which he built) crossing the Swannanoa River at the mouth of Sweeten Creek onto his property where he had a grist mill and a “stand” where he provided food and lodging for both the drovers and their livestock. An 1835 map of North Carolina shows the location of the Buncombe Turnpike and Foster’s bypass road, as well as the location of Foster’s Mill and Stand.
James Freeman Epps Hardy
James Freeman Epps Hardy was born in Newberry, SC in 1802 to John Wesley Hardy and his wife Nancy Epps Hardy. In 1806, when James was four years old, his father died. Although his mother remarried in 1809 to Lemmon Shell, a “well-to-do widower”[2], James and his two brothers (William & Hamlin) were put under the guardianship of their uncles, Samuel Hardy and Daniel Epps (their mother’s brother).[3] At the age of nineteen, James F. E. Hardy moved to Asheville from South Carolina. Suffering from a respiratory illness which had caused one of his lungs to fail and weaken the other, Hardy sought the restorative climate of Asheville for healing. Hardy would later in life remark: “I came to Buncombe more than forty years ago with less than one lung!”.[4]
The Asheville climate was so beneficial to Hardy that he was not only restored to health, but he decided to become a doctor, as well as a lifelong promoter of Asheville and its importance as a place of rest and restoration. By 1822, Hardy had enrolled in the Asheville Academy for more education. In January of 1825, he married Jane Shaw Patton, daughter of James Patton, one of Asheville’s esteemed businessmen.[5] Hardy soon took up the study and practice of medicine, graduating with a medical degree from the Medical College of the State of South Carolina (Charleston, SC) in 1831. However, Hardy had begun practicing medicine before receiving his degree, as evidenced by a circulating (syndicated) news report from 1829, which reported his successful surgery on a Haywood County toddler to remove a melon seed which had lodged in the toddler’s windpipe.[6] Hardy returned to Asheville after receiving his degree, and resumed his medical practice. It was three years after returning to Asheville that Hardy bought the former William Forster. Jr. farm, along the Swannanoa River.
Dr. Samuel Henry Dickson, MD
One of Dr. Hardy’s professors at the Medical College of South Carolina was Dr. Samuel Henry Dickson, who was one of the original seven physicians that founded the college in 1824. In 1836, Dr. S. H. Dickson decided to build a summer home in Asheville, and consequently in March of 1836 he came to Asheville and purchased two adjoining tracts of land (30 acres & 150 acres)[7] near the Swannanoa River, about one-half mile south of Center Square. Dickson’s land was also part of the William Forster, Jr. farm, specifically the northern half, above Dr. Hardy’s land which bordered the north side of the Swannanoa River.
It appears that Dr. J. F. E. Hardy was instrumental as both the impetus for Dickson to build here, as well as in the actual building of the house. In a letter dated March of 1836, from Dr. Hardy, written to his brother William Eppes Hardy (who had inherited and was living on the Hardy Plantation in Newberry, SC), Dr. Hardy writes: “having a house built for Professor Dickson to spend the summer in.”[8] Of course, the house was just in the planning stages as that was the same month that Dickson purchased the land. The construction of the house did not begin until the beginning of 1837. In a later memoir, Dr. Samuel H. Dickson recalls the sequence of events:
In 1836, I took my family to the North and while at New Haven learned that cholera had broken out in Chstn. and was spreading. I returned immediately and took a large share of the oppressive and growing business of the Fall. Next winter, I bought land in N. Ca. and built a house near Asheville, having in 1834, married my sister-in-law, Irene Robertson.[9]
The house was completed by the summer of 1847 for use by the Dickson family. It appears that Dr. Dickson chose to build his house on the hill on part of Dr. Hardy’s land, as a few months after the house was completed, in October of 1847, Dr. Hardy deeded a forty-acre parcel to Dr. Dickson, on which the house was built.[10] Dr. Hardy had to reserve, in the deed, a right of way through the parcel to access his remaining property and fields to the east of Dickson’s new house.
The earliest description of the house that we have is from 1837, just after the house was completed. A visitor/correspondent from Charleston, SC, who had visited Asheville in August of 1837, published the following vivid and romantic description of Swannanoa Hill in the Charleston Courier:
At the distance of a mile and a half from Asheville, our eminent physician and esteemed fellow townsman, Dr. Samuel H. Dickson, has an excellent farm or country seat, called Swannanoa Hill, which he occupies with his family as summer residence. The dwelling house is neatly constructed of wood, and stands on a considerable elevation, affording a prospect rich in picturesque beauty. It is approached on the right and left by a circular and ascending carriage-way, enclosing a handsome area of green sward, over which an ornamental growth of trees is beginning to spread a shay canopy. The vista, stretching out nearly in front of the edifice, in a South Westerly direction, presents one of the loveliest meadows, at the bottom of which is caught a glimpse of the Swannanoa, meandering in quiet and romantic beauty, on its way to join the French Broad, and beyond in the distance, rises a grand panorama of mountains, among them, Coal [sic: Cold] Mountain at the interval of 30 miles, and Mount Pisgah, at the interval of 16 miles, looking down, if not upon a land flowing with milk and honey, –when viewed by moonlight, a soft and silver lustre is shed over the scene. In the valley, on the right of the house, and within the curtilage, rushed forth a captious spring of the coolest, sweetest and purest water, the stream from which passes through and cools a dairy, and preparations are nearly complete to conduct water from a neighboring mountain for culinary and common purposes.[11]
For the modern-day reader, the “loveliest meadows” that the correspondent describes as southwest of the house are still recognizable as the land through which the current-day “Meadow Road” winds through along the Swannanoa River west from Biltmore Avenue. In 1837, the meadows were owned by Dr. Hardy whose property surrounded Swannanoa Hill. Just a further note: this meadow later became the site of the Biltmore Nursery, until the nursery was destroyed during the 1916 Flood.
One would be amiss not to mention Rev. Dr. John Dickson (and his house), the brother of Dr. Samuel H. Dickson, and fellow classmate of Dr. Hardy. Rev. Dr. John Dickson, graduated from Yale in 1814, and studied at Andover College in 1820 and 1821, and in 1825 he was ordained as a minister in the Presbytery of Charleston.[12] From 1823 to 1828, Dickson was a professor of Moral Philosophy at Charleston College. In 1828, due to ill health, Rev. Dr. Dickson resigned his position at the college and embarked on a “northern tour”.[13] When he returned from his tour, his failing health inspired him to pursue a degree in medicine. In 1828, Rev. Dickson enrolled as a student at the Medical College of South Carolina, studying under the tutelage of his brother, Professor Samuel H. Dickson. In 1830, upon graduation from the Medical College of South Carolina, [14] Rev. Dr. John Dickson opened up his medical practice at his residence at 31 Coming Street in Charleston, SC.[15] By 1834, Dr. Dickson had switched back to teaching, opening an academy in his residence on Coming Street.[16] In 1836, Dickson’s wife, Mary Augusta Dickson, whom he had married in 1821, died leaving him with four surviving children to care for.
In the Autumn of 1838, due to his increased ailing health, and no doubt upon the recommendation of his brother Dr. S. H. Dickson, Dr. John Dickson decided to move his widowed family up to Asheville. A newspaper correspondent from the Charleston Daily Courier, who was visiting Asheville in September 1838, broke the news of Dr. Dickson’s relocation:
Dr. John Dickson, so well-known in Charleston, and elsewhere in our State, as an able and successful teacher of the classics and other branches of education, has located himself permanently near the village, and opened a school, which promises to be well patronized, by persons both here and elsewhere. He is living temporarily at the residence of his brother, Dr. S. H. Dickson, of our city, but is building a suitable residence and schoolhouse of his own on a neighboring eminence. Several boarders and pupils, from Charleston and other parts of the State, are already with him, and living as he does in one of the healthiest regions in the world, his school offers physical and intellectual advantages, which cannot fail to win him numerous accessions of a like kind.[17]
Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell
Rev. Dr. John Dickson built his brick residence on the hill (now St. Dunstan’s neighborhood) opposite (to the west) his brother’s house. Dickson had purchased his twenty-acre site from Dr. Hardy and the Hardy farm.[18] In 1839, Dr. John Dickson married Lousie O’Hear (O’Hair) of Charleston, SC, who bore him two additional children, a son James who died at birth in 1840, and a daughter Sara O’Hair in 1841. The good Rev. Dr. John Dickson and his growing family lived and taught in the brick mansion in Asheville until his death in 1847. His most famous student was Elizabeth Blackwell, who was a young teacher (23 years old) of French and Music at the Asheville Female College in 1845, where Dr. Dickson had taken a position as principal (no doubt for additional income). Elizabeth Blackwell, deciding to become a physician, began “reading medicine” with Dr. John Dickson at Dickson’s house.[19] Blackwell then went on to the Medical College of South Carolina to study under Dr. Dickson’s brother, Dr. Samuel H. Dickson. By 1849, she had become the first female doctor to practice medicine in the United States, and she was then only 28 years old.[20]
Rev. Dr. John Dickson’s residence was retained by his heirs, following his 1847 death, until being sold to Andrew Wallace in 1854. In 1866, Wallace sold the property to Major Henry Middleton of Charleston, SC, hence thereafter it was widely known as the “Middleton Place”. Eventually the brick house was demolished in 1901 by John Roebling, a famed bridge engineer, who purchased the property in 1901 and created the St. Dunstan’s subdivision.[21]
In the summer of 1842, Dr. S. H. Dickson took his pregnant wife, to again summer in Asheville, while he went on north to give an oration at Yale College. [22] At the end of the summer, his wife became ill, and in October, in her weakened condition, Dr. Dickson took her back to Charleston “with great difficulty”, where she died (November 16, 1842) after giving birth to a daughter, who only survived for a few hours. Later in life, Dr. Dickson recollected that following the death of his wife and daughter that: “I could not bear to go back and sold my house near Asheville”. [23] Thus, in January of 1843, Dr. Samuel H. Dickson sold Swannanoa Hill, along with some additional accumulated acreage, to his friend and neighbor, Dr. J. F. E. Hardy.
Dr. James F. E. Hardy’s avocation was landscape architecture and landscaping. Historian John Preston Arthur, has called him, “Our First Landscape Architect”.[24] Not surprisingly, Hardy, soon after he purchased the property, began to enhance the natural beauty of Swannanoa Hill with elaborate landscaping. Four years after Hardy purchased the property, another Charleston, SC newspaper correspondent who visited Asheville, reported that:
SWANNANOA HILL, is a beautiful country seat, formerly the summer retreat of Dr. S. H. Dickson, so lately and so reluctantly surrendered by our City to New York, but now the residence of Dr. J. F. E. Hardy of Asheville. It forms a beautiful picture as you approach the bridge over the Swannanoa, on the stage road to Asheville. The mansion occupies a considerable elevation on the brow of the hill, a site rich in natural beauty and highly improved in walk and flower, by the taste of the present proprietor. Below are a rich farm and romantic valley, watered by the murmuring Swannanoa, a panorama of Mountain sweeping Westward, in the form of a crescent and bounding up the view in the distance, while higher up the hill, the Eastern view opens in like beauty ad magnificence.[25]
According to author James Everett Kibler, a chronicler of the Hardy family and a twentieth-century owner of the Hardy Plantation in Newberry, SC, many of Dr. Hardy’s plants at Swannanoa Hill mostly likely came from “Pomaria Nurseries’”, which was run by Adam and William Summer of “Pomaria Plantation”, neighbors of the Hardy Plantation in Newberry (then owned by Dr. Hardy’s brother, William).[26] In their 1861 sales catalog, Pomeria Nurseries noted that they carried a variety of “Catawba” grapes, “the best of which is the Hardy, a seedling of Ashville [sp], N. C”.[27] It also appears that Dr. Hardy served as the Asheville agent for the nursery.[28]
Dr. J. F. E. Hardy lived and entertained at Swannanoa Hill for many years, until selling the property in 1860, William McKesson of Morganton, NC.[29] Dr. Hardy subsequently moved further south on the Buncombe Turnpike (Hendersonville Road) where he built a new brick house and gardens. This property, on the east side of Hendersonville Road, across from the intersection of West Chapel Road in Biltmore Forest, is now the site of a 1920’s brick house, built as a replica of Gunston Hall, an eighteenth-century Virginia house.
William McKesson only owned the property for three years (1860-1863), and it appears that he only used it as a second home, as he remained a resident of Morganton, NC. In 1863, McKesson sold Swannanoa Hill to Rufus M. Johnston of Columbia, SC. It’s most likely that Johnston, who was the President of the Exchange Bank in Columbia, SC and was then serving as a Representative in the South Carolina Legislature,[30] has purchased Swannanoa Hill as a safe haven for his family to escape Columbia, SC during the heat of the Civil War.
Rufus M. Johnston died at Charlotte, NC in April of 1869, where the family had relocated to in 1868. In his Will, Johnston devised his various real estate properties (he had several in North and South Carolina) to his wife Cecelia, and his son Latta Johnston.[31] Cecelia Johnston sold the Swannanoa Hill property to Major. W. H. Rossell in 1871.[32]
Major W. H. Rossell (left) and his wife, Margaret D. Rossell (right)
Major William Henry Rossell, was a retired soldier, army surgeon, from Trenton, NJ. He had married (second wife) Margaret D. Martin of Elizabeth City, NC in 1852. In 1860, while her husband was in New Mexico serving as a Union soldier, Margaret had gone south to visit her parents in Elizabeth City, and while there she was “interned” by the Confederate government. Shortly thereafter, her husband was captured by the Confederate army in New Mexico. But in 1862, they were both released and reunited in Trenton, NJ again. Although Major Rossell was put on the Retired List in 1863, he remained in active service until the end of the War and had been sent West to be an army recruiter. His family joined him out West where they lived until moving to Elizabeth City, NC after the war, in 1866. The family lived in Elizabeth City for two years before moving to Richmond, VA. Two years later they moved to Asheville and bought Swannanoa Hill. One of the draws to Asheville was that Magaret Rossell’s brother, Brigadier General James G. Martin had relocated to Asheville shortly after the war.[33]
Major Rossell moved into Swannanoa Hill in 1871 with his wife, Margaret and their teenage daughter Sophie (Sophronia), and their three-year-old son Hugh. The 1880 US Census shows that the household also included a housekeeper, Laura B. Chambers (14 years old). Although Rossell appears to have mostly been a gentleman farmer at Swannanoa Hill, he also had a few business interests. Rossell was one of the incorporators of the Asheville Street Railway Company in 1881.[34] Although the first streetcar (trolley) did not operate in Asheville until 1889, the Asheville Street Railway Company was the first in North Carolina and only the second in the Southern United States to operate an electric streetcar. Rossell also was a charter member and incorporator of the Asheville Wood, Pulp, and Paper Company chartered in 1882, to manufacture wood pulp and paper.[35]
Major William Henry Rossell died at Swannanoa Hill on July 20, 1885, at the age of 65.[36] In his written will, Rossell left the property to his wife Margaret and his two youngest children, Hugh and Sophia. However, Margaret Rossell died just little over a year later, in October of 1886.[37] Upon Margaret’s death, her brother, Gen. J. G. Martin, acting as executor petitioned the Court to take Margaret’s interest in the property and have it re-divided between her children Sophia and Hugh (considered an “infant” as he was under 21 years of age). In January of 1887, the court commissioners divided the Swannanoa Hill property into two tracts. Tract No. 1 (on the west, which included the house) of 97-1/4 acres was allotted to Sophia, ad Tract No. 2 (on the east) of 76-1/4 acres was allotted to Hugh.[38] The court proceedings and resultant division was recorded in the Deeds Register accompanied by a hand drawn sketch plat of the property and its division. Later the plat was re-drawn in pen and recorded separately. However, the draftsman drawing this plat mistook an adjacent property owner’s name on the original sketch plan for the owner of the property, and so titled the Plat, “McDowell’s Lands”[39], which has disconnected it from the chain of title of the Swannanoa Hill Property.
Ironically, when they first moved to Asheville, in December of 1885, the Breese family leased the “Middleton House”,[40] which was the brick house originally built by Dr. John Dickson. Perhaps they admired Swannanoa Hill, on the hill across the road from their rental house, which is possibly why when it was put on the market in 1887, they immediately purchased it.
Shortly after the court ordered partition, in February of 1887, Sophia M. Rossell sold a 20-acre parcel form her apportioned lot No. 1, to William E. Breese for $7,000.[41] This parcel was on the southwest corner of Sophia’s lot, and it included the Swannanoa Hill mansion. The remaining Rossell property (remainder of Sophia’s Lot. 1 and all of Hugh’s Lot. 2) was sold two years later, in 1889, to Joseph Gazzam of Philadelphia, PA, the representative for the Kenilworth Land Company.[42] Gazzam and his associates of the Kenilworth Land Company[43] then built Kenilworth Inn on Lot. 2 in 1890, and would later go on to develop Kenilworth Park, surrounding the Inn.
William Edmond Breese was born to William C. and Cordelia Edmond Breese in Charleston in 1848. In 1885, Breese and his second wife, Mary Motte Hume Breese moved to Asheville, with their four children. Breese had been the cashier at the Bank of Charleston, but desiring to move to Asheville for the health of one of his sons, Breese partnered with Mayor W. A. Courtney of Charleston, SC and a group of Asheville investors to establish the First National Bank of Asheville. The bank opened its door on Tuesday, December 15, 1885,[44] in the “old bank building” on Courthouse (Pack) Square, which it was reported was already equipped with an “old vault[45]”. Breese and his colleagues renovated the building, adding a new façade and giving the building the look of a castle with castellated turrets on its corners. The Bank, in a show of its success, in 1891, added a third story as well as a three-story addition to infill the gap on its southern façade.[46] The added space provided additional rental income, as the new offices were leased to businessmen and professionals.Looking at some later photos that we have of the interior of Swannanoa Hill, it appears that W. E. Breese remodeled the home shortly after purchasing it. The high-Victorian style woodwork on the entry hall and grand stair seems to date to the 1880’s, rather than the 1830’s (when the house was first built). Another evidence is that Breese himself would later report that he had spent $16,000 on Swannanoa Hill and its “improvements”,[47] while the deed indicates the purchase price was only $7,000.[48]
The First National Bank of Asheville, sat on southside of Pack Square.
In 1886, a year after founding the First National Bank of Asheville, Breese and other investors used $10,000 of the bank’s stock to charter the French Broad Bank of Asheville, where Breese was elected Treasurer.[49] The French Broad Bank was formed as a “State Bank” for the purpose of giving loans on real estate, as such loans were not permissible in a “National bank”.[50]
Kenilworth Lodge sits on the hill just above Biltmore Avenue in this vintage photograph.
For some reason, only known to William Breese, in 1891, he decided to build a new house for his family. He carved out a two-acre site on the northern end of his Swannanoa Hill property for the new house, which he would name Kenilworth Lodge. He hired carpenter/contractor, C. B. Leonard to build what was reported to be “a magnificent 20-room residence”.[51] There is no record of who may have designed the house, however I suspect that the design was a result of the collaboration of Breese and a designer named F. A. Grace, as they both were reported to be the designers of the 1891 third-story addition to First National Bank. Incidentally, Leonard was also the contractor for the bank job.
F. A. Grace, of Detroit, Michigan was an enigmatic artist, interior decorator, architect that arrived in Asheville in the late 1890 from Hickory, NC. Grace came to Asheville with a glowing endorsement from his adopted home of Hickory, NC. Upon winning the contract for the interior decoration of Asheville’s new Opera House, which is what brought him to Asheville, the Hickory Press and Carolinian published the following to the “citizens of Asheville”:
Two years ago, Mr. Grace came upon us a stranger, and in ill health. He associated himself with every enterprise and public industry. He immolated himself to each demand on his abilities and allied himself with the progressive spirit of our people. His suggestions and assertions have worked out many a grand surprise to the citizens of our city. The walls without and the walls within many of our best structures tell of the touch of the artist’s hand. Many are the monuments of his skill and love of art, to which every citizen of Hickory points with pride. It is with no small degree of pride that we are able to introduce our friend to the citizens of Asheville, NC. It is a pleasure mingled with regret, but “our loss will be another’s gain.’
We are pleased to know that health and strength should warrant an acceptance of a contract of such magnitude the result of which we are sure will be the pride of Asheville and a standard of future art in that place.[52]
In addition to Grace’s architectural decoration achievements in Hickory (The Hickory Inn, The Opera House, a bank, a cemetery, the D. W. Shuler residence), he also started an “Industrial Art School” for “Mechanics and businessmen”, where he taught sketching, drawing, and ornamental art, Grace also started a local band of which he directed as its drum major.[53] Also while in Hickory, F. A. Grace patented a design for a “Devise for sharpening drills”.[54]
Grace’s first job in Asheville, as he was starting the Opera House project, was to artistically decorate the banking room of Breese’s First National Bank of Asheville. Two months later, Grace began advertising himself in the local newspapers as a “Fresco Decorator and Designer.” Interestingly in addition to a post office box in Asheville, he gave his contact address as: “26 Woodward Ave, Detroit, Mich.”[55]
Breese’s Kenilworth Lodge was described as “magnificent”, not because of its exterior design, but no doubt for its elaborate interior designs. Ornate and lavish woodwork adorns the first floor living and dining rooms and library. Urban legend says that the ornate woodwork at Kenilworth Lodge was done by skilled craftsmen who George Vanderbilt had hired to build his nearby grand estate. However, by 1891, only site and foundation works had been completed at Biltmore, so it would have been too early for them to hire interior woodworkers. My theory is that the woodwork and trim were all manufactured by and installed locally by contractor Charles B. Leonard and his crew. In 1890, just a few months before construction began on Kenilworth Lodge, C. B. Leonard was one of the incorporators and first directors of the Carolina Woodworking Company.[56]
This cloesup of the Asheville Bird’s Eye View of 1891 shows the Carolina Woodworking Company plant (at arrow) that was built on Southside Avenue, near the current-day intersection of Southside and Asheland Avenues.
The Carolina Woodworking Company, was established as a millwork, blind and sash manufacturer and building materials supplier, and opened in a new factory that they built on Southside Avenue. The new company was also connected with the First National Bank of Asheville, in the person of J. E. Dickerson, who was not only elected as the Secretary/Treasurer of the new company, but was also then one of the directors of the First National Bank, and the owner of J. E. Dickerson’s hardware store, which was next door to the First National Bank!
Another connection between F. A. Grace and the elaborate woodwork of Kenilworth Lodge, albeit circumstantial, is that Grace had experience in designing and carving wood. In March and April of 1891, just before construction of Kenilworth Lodge had begun, F. A. Grace returned temporarily to Hickory to do “a lot of carving” for the Hickory Manufacturing Company[57], a company affiliated with his former client D. W. Shuler.
The Breese family had not been in the new grand house for but two years, when a troubling storm began to brew, that would change the course of the Breese’s life and his two houses. In May of 1893, a drop in the Federal gold reserves and caused crisis that would shortly become known as the “Panic of 1893”. “At the time, the United States was on the gold standard, which meant that notes issued by the Treasury could be redeemed for a fixed amount of gold. The falling gold reserves raised concerns at home and abroad that the United States might be forced to suspend the convertibility of notes, which may have prompted depositors to withdraw bank notes and convert their wealth into gold. The second source of this instability was that economic activity slowed prior to the panic. The recession raised rates of defaults on loans, which weakened banks’ balance sheets. Fearing for the safety of their deposits, men and women began to withdraw funds from banks. Fear spread and withdrawals accelerated, leading to widespread runs on banks.”[58]
Breese’s First National Bank of Asheville appeared to have survived the Panic of 1893, however behind the scenes Breese and the bank’s directors were scrambling to avoid closure. Breese had grossly overspent on improving Swannanoa Hill and building Kenilworth Lodge, all done with the bank’s money. But he was not the only one who contributed to the bank’s instability—other of the bank’s directors had heavily borrowed from the bank to invest in real estate and business ventures. It would later be revealed that Director J. E. Dickerson had been loaned $60,000 (part of which was to establish the Carolina Woodworking Company), and cashier W. H. Penland had been loaned a total of $86,000, all on top Breese’s own personal loans totaling $110,000.[59] But in 1893, and for the ensuing four years, the First National Bank of Asheville remained in operation, appearing to be solvent and doing business as usual.
This vintage photo from the late 1890s shows, above the Biltmore Brickworks in the foreground, the three structures that were on Swannanoa Hill when WIlliam E. Breese owned his two houses next to the 1890 Kenilworth Inn.
In March of 1896, perhaps to help his personal financial situation, Breese sold a four-acre parcel, between Kenilworth Lodge (on the north) and his Swannanoa Hill house (to the south-which he still owned), to his son’s mother-in-law, Mrs. Martha A. E. Woodbridge.[60] Martha was a wealthy widow from Richmond, whose daughter, Rebekah Woodbridge had married William E. Breese, Jr. just the month before.[61] Later, in 1900, Woodbridge sold her house to Morris & Belle Fortune Meyers, who named it “Morrisania”, and lived in it for almost 60 years. It is now the site of Lantern Lodge (aka: Residences of Biltmore at 700 Biltmore Avenue).
The Day of Reckoning came on August 5, 1897 when Deputy Comptroller George M Coffin came to examine the Bank’s books. After two days of discussion with President Breese, Coffin suggested, supposedly as a precautionary measure, that Breese and the other directors, Penland and Dickerson be put under bond of $5,000 each, to appear at the next term of the “U. S. Court”.[62]
Two days after the bank comptroller’s visit, on August 7th, Breese sold his Kenilworth Lodge to Henry Mittag for $22,000 and moved his family to Brevard. Subsequently, Breese’s Swannanoa Hill property was seized and in 1898, at a court-ordered public sale, it was purchased by the Carolina Savings Bank for $11,800.[63] The Carolina Savings Bank immediately leased the house to Mrs. Talbot Penniman who used it as a family home and boarding house.[64]
Although Kenilworth Lodge would change hands many times over the years, it would never be drastically altered and survives today almost as it was originally built. However, Swannanoa Hill’s fate was dramatically different. In June of 1901, Carolina Savings sold Swannanoa Hill and its ten acres to Mrs. Sarah E. Duffield for $8,800.[65] Mrs. Duffield was the mother of Mary D. Hilliard, the wife of Asheville’s doctor, W. D. Hilliard. She and her husband, Major Charles B. Duffield had moved to Asheville from Virginia a few years earlier.
Richard Sharp Smith drawings of the “In and Out Sleeper”
Upon the death of Sarah E. Duffield in 1904, her daughter Mary D. Hilliard inherited Swannanoa Hill. But then in January 1907, Mary Hilliard sold the property to an undisclosed syndicate.[66] The syndicate consisted of Dr. Paul Paquin, F. Rogers Grant, and J. W. Brunson, Jr., all of Asheville. In March of 1907, the syndicate chartered as the Asheville-Biltmore Sanitarium, with Dr. Paquin holding 100 shares, and Grant and Brunson holding 25 shares each.[67] Dr. Paquin opened the sanitarium to treat patients who had contracted tuberculosis. According to the latest scientific findings, Paquin designed his sanitarium to take advantage of and utilize Asheville’s “fresh air” and healthy climate to treat his patients. To that end, in conjunction with local architect Richard Sharp Smith, Paquin designed a two-story wing with patient rooms that each featured Paquin’s pioneer “In and Out Sleeper” rooms which he described as:
The living and sleeping rooms of guests are erected on the pavilion plan, in a single row, all facing south and southwest, which is the ideal exposure for the longest daily period of sunshine, and for the benefit of the south and southwest breezes. In front of each room is a porch, and at the back of them (on the north) is a corridor running the whole length of the building, landing guests at the dining room, the offices, parlors, bathrooms etc., at one end, and the grounds at the other.
Each room is so constructed that the occupant may sleep in or out of doors at will, by merely pushing up or pulling down a sash which is so well balanced that it can be readily moved by the occupant.[68]
It is from the period when Swannanoa Hill was functioning as the Asheville-Biltmore Sanitarium that we have the best photographs of the house, especially of the interior. That is good and bad. Bad because it does not give us a look at its original interiors, as I suspect that the interior had been greatly remodeled from its original 1837 look. The photo of the interior front stair and hall shows a high Victorian style, which I suspect was a result of Breese’s remodeling (conjecture) of the 1880’s. The carved newel posts, paneled wainscoting, beaded board walls, and elaborate fireplace surround, are similar to the detailing in Zebulon Vance’s mountain home, “Gombroon”, built in the 1880s in nearby Black Mountain. Although Gombroon burned down in the 1930s, published photographs from the 1920s show the similarities. Also, written accounts of Gombroon often mention the elaborate use of various wood species on its interior. Similar detailing was also used on Vance’s son’s house (Charles Vance House) in Black Mountain.
On the other hand, it is good that we have photos of Swannanoa Hill from that period as we can clearly see and imagine Paquin and Smith’s innovative “In and Out Sleeper”, as we have photos of the interior and exterior of a typical patient room. Essentially, the “In and Out Sleeper” was an alcove bed that large sash windows on each side of the bed that could be lowered or raised according to your preference to sleep inside or outside!
In 1908, Dr. Charles L. Scott of Greensboro, NC joined the staff of Asheville-Biltmore Sanitarium, by buying out the shares of Rogers Grant and J. W. Brunson.[69] Also in 1908, the city opened a road from Biltmore Avenue, through the Swannanoa Hill property to Kenilworth.[70] This “new” road was probably what is now Finalee Avenue. But despite all the improvements and the promising success, the Asheville-Biltmore Sanitarium, as an organization, only lasted for 3 years before going bankrupt in 1910. However, the Paquins were able to purchase the property out of foreclosure, under Hannah Belle Paquin’s name. The sanitarium’s name was changed back to “Swannanoa Hill”, but instead of being operated as a hospital, it was operated as a tourist home/boarding house for “resorters who appreciate the merits of hygienic surroundings and comfort”.[71] Although Mrs. Paquin owned the property she did not operate it—instead she would lease out the property to others (almost always women) to run and manage it like a boarding house.
This 1909 Plat of Swannanoa Hill was made during its ownership by the Asheville-Biltmore Sanitarium and shows the locaiton of the sanitarium as well as the “new road,” labeled as Kenilworth Street, which was put on the property to make a route from Biltmore Avenue to the Kenilworth Inn.
In 1920, Hannah Paquin sold the property to a group of investors[72], who immediately sold the property to Amelia Hamner.[73] Hamner, changed the name of “Swannanoa Hill Sanitarium” to Clifton Manor, but operated it in the same way as Hannah Paquin, by sometimes leasing out the management to others. I noticed in the Asheville City Directories, that Hamner always employed a nurse or two to be part of the staff. In 1923, in an effort to make the property more financially profitable, Hamner had the property surrounding the house subdivided into “25 Attractive Building lots” and held an auction to sell the lots on June 14, 1923 through Horney Brothers Auctioneers.[74] The sale was highly unsuccessful, and in November of 1924, the entire property went into foreclosure and was sold to Powers Engineering & Construction Company.[75]
Powers Engineering & Construction Company was established in 1924 by W. H., Lee L., and Hayward W. Powers. The first thing that Powers did was to subdivide the property into lots as a new subdivision to be called “Kenilwood Heights”.[76] “Swannanoa Hill” itself was sold separately (along with lots 4, 5, 6, & 7 on which it now sat) in January 1925 to L. F. Leeper.[77] Leeper only owned the house for six months before selling it in July of 1925, to E. E. Reed.[78] E. E. Reed purchased the house to turn it into apartments. As part of his plan, Reed began to build a large 12-room addition to the building. Tragically, just three weeks after purchasing the house, as the framing for the new addition was being completed, on July 19, 1925, fire erupted in the main house, destroying the house in just hours.[79] “Swannanoa Hill” was gone forever! Fortunately, Kenilworth Lodge has survived over the years and is still one of Asheville’s historic showplaces.
Image Credits:
Photo of Cedar Crest Inn–
Close-up of Brazier Map–
Portrait of James F. E. Hardy– Image #G005-4, Buncombe County Special Collections, Pack Memorial Library, Asheville, NC.
Portrait of Dr. Samuel Henry Dickson– By U.S. National Library of Medicine – http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101413666, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19458631
Notes:
[1] Foster A. Sondley, Asheville & Buncombe County- Vol. 2, (Asheville, NC: The Advocate Printing Company, 1930), p. 758.
[2] Our Fathers’ Fields: A Southern Story, by James Everett Kibler. (Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing Company, 2003), p. 30.
[3] Info. From: Our Fathers’ Fields: A Southern Story, p. 32. (Note: Kibler says that Samuel Hardy was “their father’ brother-in-law” and that Daniel was “their mother’s brother and Samuel Hardy’s son-in-law”. However, I believe that Samuel Hardy was their father’s brother, whose daughter Mary Hardy was married to Daniel Epps.)
[4] Recollected by Lewis Hatch of Asheville, NC- The Asheville Citizen, May 2, 1886, p: 2.
[5] Weekly Raleigh Register, Raleigh, NC, January 28, 1825, p. 3
[6] “Important Medical Operation”, Raleigh Register, Raleigh, NC, October 29, 1829, p. 3.
[7] 03/01/1836 James W. Patton to S. Henry Dickson (30 & 150 acres) –Db. 20, p. 298. “except eight acres conveyed by William Forster, Junior to the Trustess of the Newton Academy…”.
[8] Our Fathers’ Fields: A Southern Story, p. 39.
[9] “Samuel Henry Dickson: Pioneer Southern Medical Educator”, by Samuel X. Radbill, M.D. -Published in Annals of Medical History, September 1, 1942, Philadelphia, PA., page 383. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f834/e74db97bff12315c79be46ab6010629d7313.pdf
[10] 10/24/1837 JFE Hardy to Samuel H. Dickson (40 acres- $300)- Db 21, p. 89. Rec’d-11/06/1837 –“on the North bank of Swannanoa about five poles above Forster’s Bridge”. … “Provided that the said JFE Hardy shall always have a road through the said land either where the present road is or on the bank of the River and also up by Dr. Dickson’s spring to the field of the said Hardy’s at the top of the hill above Dr. Dickson’s house.”
[11] “Editorial Correspondence, SULPHUR SPRINGS, (N. C. )AUGUST 19TH”, The Charleston Daily Courier, Charleston, SC August 29, 1837, p. 2.
[12] The First Presbyterian Church: Asheville, N. C., 1951, p. 25. -Divinityarchive.com
–link: https://divinityarchive.com/bitstream/handle/11258/8102/firstpresbyteria00mcco.pdf?sequence=1
[13] The Charleston Daily Courier, Charleston, SC, July 7, 1828, p. 2.
[14] “MEDICAL COLLEGE OF SOUTH CAROLINA”, The Charleston Daily Courier, Charleston, SC March 20, 1830, p. 2.
[15] The Charleston Daily Courier, Charleston, SC, September 7, 1830, p. 3.
[16] The Charleston Daily Courier, Charleston, SC, November 15, 1834, p. 3.
[17] The Charleston Daily Courier, Charleston, SC, September 27, 1838, p. 2.
[18] 10/25/1838 -JFE Hardy to Dr. John Dickson (20 acres)- Db. 21, p. 340. – this property was all on the west-side of the “State Road” (S. Main-Biltmore Avenue). -Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
[19] “Elizabeth Blackwell, M. D.”, Cleveland Herald, Cleveland, OH, Maay 2, 1849, p. 1.
[20] Ibid.
[21] “DIVIDED INTO LOTS- MR. ROEBLING’S LATEST PURCHASE IN VICTORIA”, Asheville Citizen-Times, Janaury 29, 1901, p. 4.
[22] “Samuel Henry Dickson: Pioneer Southern Medical Educator”, by Samuel X. Radbill, M.D., p. 384.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Western North Carolina: A History From 1730-1913. (Reprint), by John Preston Arthur. (Johnson City, TN: Overmountain Press, 1996.) p. 504.
[25] “Correspondence to the Charleston Courier”, Raleigh Register, Raleigh, NC, October 23, 1847, p. 2.
[26] Our Fathers’ Fields: A Southern Story, p. 40; more specifically see endnotes on p. 406.
[27] 1861 descriptive catalogue of Southern and acclimated fruit trees, evergreens, roses, grape vines, rare trees, shrubs, &c., cultivated and for sale at Pomaria Nurseries. Pomaria Nurseries., Summer, William, & Henry G. Gilbert Nursery and Seed Trade Catalog Collection. (1860)., p. 54. Steam Press of Robert M. Stokes. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.102312
[28] “On Reclaiming A Southern Antebellum Garden Heritage: An Introduction to Pomaria Nurseries, 1840-1879, by James Everett Kibler. Magnolia: The Bulletin of the Southern Garden History Society, Volume X, No. 1, Fall 2003., p. 2.
[29] 08/13/1860- JFE Hardy to Wm McKesson (384 acres- $13,000)-Db 27, p. 385- Rec’d. 08/20/1863- “…with the house and improvements wherewith said James F. E. Hardy lived on the 16th day of September 1857…”. -Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
[30] Johnston was elected form the Columbia District in 1862- Charlotte Democrat, Charlotte, SC, October 12, 1862, p. 3.
[31] Wills; Author: North Carolina. Superior Court (Mecklenburg County) ancestry.com
[32] 03/11/1871 Rufus M. & Celia Johnston to W H Rossell (250 acres)-Db.34 / 126. – Rec’d. 07/30/1877 “east side of Buncombe Turnpike-sw of William Patton’s”. -Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
[33] Information from: Stemmata Rossellana; history, traditions, biography, genealogy and heraldry of the Rossell family. by
Sims, Clifford Stanley. Second Editon edited by Hugh B. Rossell (Washington, DC, 1939), pp. 76-81.
[34] “A GREAT ENTERPRISE”, Asheville Citizen-Times, January 23, 1889, p. 1.
[35] The Charlotte Democrat, Charlotte, NC, June 30, 1882, p. 3.
[36] “SUDDEN DEATH OF MAJ. ROSSELLE [sp]”, Asheville Citizen, July 21, 1885, p. 1.
[37] Asheville Citizen-Times, October 19, 1886, p. 1.
[38] 01/11/1887 R. B. Justice, T. W. Patton, & A. T, Summey, Comm’s.. to Sophia M. Rossell & Hugh B. Rossell BUNCOMBE TURNPIKE ROAD & PLAT Db. 57/348. -Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
[39] 01/01/1887 MCDOWELL PROPERTY- PLAT ON SWANNANOA RIVER Db. 8/67. – Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
[40] Asheville Citizen-Times, December 13, 1885, p. 1.
[41] 02/04/1887- Sophia Rossell to William E. Breese-20 ACRES SWANNANOA RIVER Db. 57/483. – Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
[42] 1889- HB & Sophia Rossell to Joseph Gazzam (Kenilworth Land Co.)- 1889-151 acres land for the Inn (Db. 64,p. 507) “Beginning on the corner of the south bank of the Swannanoa River, William E. Breese’s southeast corner, thence running up said river with its Southern bank to the Southwest corner of the Trescott tract, now owned by Cheesborough’s…” – Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
[43] 08/19/1890 Kenilworth Land Company [INC ] Db. C001/141. – Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
[44] Asheville Citizen-Times, December 13, 1885, p. 1.
[45] Asheville Citizen-Times, November 3, 1885, p. 1.
[46] Asheville Citizen-Times, September 14, 1891, p. 4.
[47] Asheville Citizen-Times, March 11, 1902, p. 4.
[48] 02/04/1887- Sophia Rossell to William E. Breese-20 ACRES SWANNANOA RIVER Db. 57/483. – Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
[49] “The French Broad Bank”, Asheville Citizen-Times, May 8, 1886, p. 1.
[50] The Asheville Weekly Citizen, August 20, 1909, p. 5.
[51] Asheville Citizen-Times, May 21, 1891, p. 1.
[52] “A PRETTY COMPLIMENT. Tribute of the Press and Carolinian to Asheville”, The Semi-Weekly Citizen, Asheville, NC, April 24, 1890, p. 3.
[53] “Information—Industrial Art Course”, The Hickory Press, Hickory, NC, January 17, 1889, p. 1.
[54] The Hickory Press, Hickory, NC, February 21, 1889, p. 1.
[55] Asheville Citizen-Times, May 21, 1890, p. 1.
[56] “A New Enterprise”, Asheville Citizen-Times, August 30, 1890, p. 4.
[57] The Press and Carolinian, Hickory, NC, March 26, 1891, p. 3.; and The Press and Carolinian, Hickory, NC, April 2, 1891, p. 5.
[58] “Banking Panics of the Gilded Age-1863-1913”, from the Federal Reserve History website: https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/banking-panics-of-the-gilded-age
[59] “FIRST NATIONAL BANK- MORE LIGHT ON MATTERS REGARDING IT”, Asheville Citizen-Times, September 16, 1897, page 1.
[60] 3/31/1896 William E. Breese to Martha A. E. Woodbridge 4 ACRES CALIDONIA AVENUE Db. 98/138. -Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
[61] “Breese-Woodbridge”, Asheville Citizen-Times, February 3, 1896, page 4.
[62] “THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK- A MEETING OF CREDITORS HELD THIS AFTERNOON”, Asheville Citizen-Times, September 14, 1897, p. 1.
[63] 03/12/1898- Manley Clement, Master in Chancery to Carolina Savings Bank (16 acres Asheville-Biltmore road)- Db. 104/464. -Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
[64] Asheville Citizen-Times, June 11, 1898, p. 4.
[65] 06/25/1901 Carolina Savings Bank to Sarah E. Duffield (10 acres Kenilworth)- Db 120/256. -Buncombe County Register of Deeds.; See also: Asheville Citizen-Times, July 6, 1901, p. 1.
[66] “SWANNANOA HILL SOLD YESTERDAY”, Asheville Citizen-Times, January 27, 1907, p. 5.
[67] Asheville-Biltmore Sanitarium [INC ] Incorporation Agreement Db. C002/462. -Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
[68] “Outdoor Life for the Prevention and Cure of Disease”, by Dr. Paul Paquin, Atlanta Journal- Record of Medicine. July 10, 1908, page 220
[69] “BUYS INTERESTS IN SANITARIUM”, Asheville Citizen-Times, January 30, 19.08, p. 8
[70] ‘KENILWORTH ROAD WILL BE RUSHED”, Asheville Citizen-Times, May 28, 1908, p. 5.
[71] “Swannanoa Hill”, Asheville-Times, June 20, 1910, p. 4.
[72] 03/31/1920 Hannah Belle Paquin to James Anderson, Bynum Sumner et. al (Stikeleather)- (8 acres Kenilworth) Db. 237/149. -Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
[73] 12/09/1920 James Anderson, Bynum Sumner et. al to Amelia Hamner BILTMORE AVENUE 6 ACRES Db. 238/306. – Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
[74] Asheville Citizen-Times, June 14, 1923, p. 10.
[75] 11/29/1924 John B. Anderson, TR to Powers Engineering & Construction Company 6.85 ACRES EAST SIDE BILTMORE AVE KENILWORTH Db. 295/305. -Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
[76] 12/15/1924 Powers Engineering & Construction Company PLAT KENILWOOD HEIGHTS KE NILWORTH Db. 6/46. -Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
[77] 01/03/1925 Powers Engineering & Construction Company to L. F. Leeper 4 LOTS BK 6 P 46 Db. 294/272. -Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
[78] 07/01/1925 L. F. & Sallie Leeper to E. E. Reed LOTS 4 5 6 7 BK 6 P 46 Db. 306/264. -Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
[79] “OLD SANITARIUM IS DESTROED BY FIRE; LOSS NEAR $40,000”, Asheville Citizen-Times, July 19, 1925, p. 2.
