Ruralite Cafe: Published 12/20/01

By Lynn Hotaling - Associate Editor

Book offers glimpses of region's history, culture

Recent past winners include "web," "chad" and "Y2K." The commentator listed some of the words (and phrases) in the running this year: "jihad," "anthrax," "Ground Zero" and "9/11."

And I'm sure he's correct about those being the words that linguists will look to when making their selection for 2001, based on news across the nation.

If I had to pick a word of the year for the Ruralite Cafe, I'm grateful it would be an old standby rather than one of those. My word or this year would be "history." I think "history" would win because so many columns this year have looked back at the county's past, and it would win because "sesquicentennial" is too hard to spell.

History is a good word to bear in mind when doing your last minute Christmas shopping, too, with the Sesquicentennial Edition of "The History of Jackson County," available again. Other good choices might be two paperbacks published by the Jackson County Historical Association -"Knowing Jackson County" by former Sylva Herald News Editor J.D. McRorie, and "A Place to Call Home" by Vernon Hoyle.

And now comes word from City Lights of a recently published book that includes information about our region's history and culture. "May We All Remember Well" Volume II is edited by Robert Brunk and labels itself a "journal of the history and cultures of Western North Carolina."

Though it seemed to me to be a somewhat random collection of interesting stuff, that's not meant as criticism. It's lack of organization may be why Brunk considers it a journal. For example, the book has a story that lists familiar WNC family names; that section includes a photo of Will and Depina Blanton of Ochre Hill and their 13 children.

Though the section I found most interesting is about an area of Madison County, the former town of Stackhouse, that particular essay was written by Jackie Painter of Sylva.

Painter incorporates maps and photos as she tells the story of the town's founding by a Pennsylvania Quaker, Amos Stackhouse, a mining associate of Thomas Clingman (as in Clingman's Dome) the man for whom the highest peak in the Smokies is named. Located on the French Broad River, Stackhouse was near Hot Springs, which was referred to in the 1870s as "Warm Springs."

In addition to Painter, the book's other Sylva connection is a picture of the "Sylvan Theater," constructed on Main Street in 1927. That building still stands and today houses Sylva Insurance.

Information about the theater, which the book says was built by J.S. Higdon for Theodore "Bo" Stevenson, is included in a section on Asheville architect Douglas Ellington. According to the chapter, the Sylvan was one of Ellington's "few commissions in WNC outside of Asheville," and the building "apparently incorporated minimal architectural detail."

I found it interesting to find the information about the theater, which I hadn't heard of before, in a chapter about an architect whose name I had never heard, though I have admired his buildings.

Since my first trip to Asheville some 25 years ago, I have loved looking at the First Baptist Church. Thanks to "May We All Remember Well," I now know not only that it's an Ellington design, but also that it was the architect's first project in Asheville and typifies his art deco style. While watching a Smoky Mountain soccer game on a perfect October day, I was struck by the beauty of Asheville High School, another Ellington creation. Others include the S&W Cafeteria on Patton Avenue and the Asheville City Building.

Ellington designed the gates at Chimney Rock Park. Included in the book is an illustration of a design Ellington conceived for a "fantastic, castle-like stone structure that emerged from a towering eminence as an extension of the forest and mountain on which it was to be built. Ellington's proposed inn called to mind the alpine castles of Bavaria and the Greek monasteries of Meteora," but was never built.

Another photo from Jackson County was taken near Whittier early in the 20th century by photographer Herbert Pelton and is found in a section detailing that photographer's work. Included are a number of Pelton's pictures of the 1916 flood in Asheville.

"May We All Remember Well" is a beautiful volume packed with fascinating tidbits about WNC culture and history. It's a book to savor.

Signed copies are available at City Lights in Sylva, which held a book signing for local contributors Dec. 9.

Back to Archive: 12/20/01.