|
Newspaper building once housed garage
Last week’s foray into our early files, teamed with this week’s “Then and Now” research has created a hunger for more things past.
Fortunately for me, Richard’s research into early deed books often supplies a starting point that “The History of Jackson County” and assorted Sylva sources can carry along to a conclusion.
This week’s history lesson starts with a pair of deeds executed on July 28, 1926, and filed in Book 100, pages 272-275. Parties to both deeds are Wayne and Daisy McGuire and the Tuckasegee Motor Co., represented by its president, Clarence Bales. As is the case with most deeds, these two include property descriptions complete with measurements and compass headings. What’s unusual about them is that they are for a long, skinny tract of land – the strip that measures 18 inches by 80 feet and is covered by the common wall between the “McGuire, McGuire Building,” which is now The Sylva Herald’s reception area and printing sales offices, and the Tuckasegee Motor Co., the present-day home of this newspaper’s newsroom, advertising offices and production department.
In the first deed, the McGuires give Tuckasegee Motors an undivided interest in the land the wall occupies; in the second, Tuckasegee Motors grants the McGuires a half-interest in the same real estate.
According to the history book, Tuckasegee Motors was purchased by Dan Allison in 1936. It goes on to say that Allison secured the Oldsmobile and International Harvester franchises and operated in the former Sears location (It’s by Nature gallery is there now). That’s accurate, but the book leaves out information supplied by Daniel Allison, Rachel Phillips and Steve Gray. Allison ran his automotive business out of the Tuckasegee Motors building (now The Sylva Herald) for close to a dozen years before moving down Main Street.
Rachel can remember Allison’s being in this building as late as 1942, and Steve and Daniel think the auto dealership remained here until around 1948.
Enloe Moore operated Tuckasegee Motors, according to Rachel. She remembers Clarence Bales, who was once the fire chief, but doesn’t recall his connection to the auto shop. She also said she came across information in old issues of The Ruralite (The Herald’s predecessor) that shows Moore leased the Tuckasegee Motors building in 1926 and that Dutch Hagler then rented the second floor from him for an auto repair shop. At that time there was a wooden ramp that led from the back of the building to the second floor, and that’s how cars were driven into the shop. Rachel’s research indicates that Moore was a Dodge Overland dealer.
The 80-plus year-old wall now belongs entirely to Herald Publisher Jim Gray, who purchased the McGuire Building about a decade ago. Its history, like our “Then and Now” features, provide us with glimpses of an earlier Sylva – one that now exists only in the memories of those who have spent their lives here.
|
