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Then and now
Cornelius Buchanan and his wife, Katie Keen Buchanan, built this Cowan Street home in 1894, around the time the top photo was taken. The Buchanans left Sylva in 1908 for Florence, Ore., according to information obtained with the photo. Several of the couple’s 10 children were born in the house, and four of their childrenn are buried in Keener Cemetery, in the Buchanan section. J.W. McKee bought the house in 1909 from Cornelius Buchanan. McKee’s wife and daughter (Carrie and Dorothy) then sold the house to Charlie Allison in 1923. Hattie Hilda Allison moved into the house in 1957 when she married Charlie Allison’s son Edwin, and the couple lived there for 20 years. After they had both retired, in 1977, the Allisons moved into a new house they built directly across Cowan Street. The Allisons initially rented the older house but sold it after a few years to Jan Caddell, who moved to Sylva to manage WRGC radio station for the Childress family. The house changed hands twice more (Caddell sold it to Joseph Sonderleiter, a doctor in Cherokee; and Sonderleiter sold it to Charlie Bowen, a Western Carolina University tennis coach) before being purchased in June 1984 by Dr. Clay Smallwood and his wife, Katherine, who restored and renovated the century-old structure and continue to make it their home. – Photo courtesy town of Sylva (top) and Herald photo by Nick Breedlove
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