Last week Picturing the Past featured the
Brevard homes designed by Hendersonville architect Erle Stillwell in the early
and mid-1900s. Stillwell also designed a large number of commercial
buildings in Western North Carolina. In Transylvania County this included
Brevard Banking, Emma Bagwell’s Store, the Silversteen-Ashworth Building, and
the Misses Shipman’s Inn.
On March 16, 1925 Brevard Banking opened in
their new building on the corner of Main and Caldwell streets where Miss Emma
Bagwell had previously had a grocery and general merchandise store.
William Mitchell’s description in Buildings as History: The
Architecture of Erle Stillwell states, “It is built of brick with some
fine neoclassical stonework, making its simple facade one the Stillwell’s most
elegant.” Stillwell’s drawings, preserved at the Henderson County
Library, include 24 sheets of working drawings, 3 blueprints and a section of
specifications for fixtures and furnishings.
A July 4, 1924 Brevard News article stated
that work had begun on Miss Emma Bagwell’s store on Caldwell Street directly
behind Brevard Banking. Stillwell also design this building.
Brevard Banking and Bagwell’s Store were Transylvania Trust and Peoples Market in the 1940s. |
Another set of Stillwell preliminary and
working drawings are for the Silversteen and Ashworth Building on the
“corner of Main and Depot Streets” in Brevard. These two
Brevard streets do not intersect, however research in the Brevard News
indicates that Silversteen and Ashworth owned two lots on the northeast corner
of Main and Caldwell streets. They intended to build there but never did.
Presumably these drawings were for that building. By 1927 they had
sold the property where Rice Furniture is located today.
A set of 13 drawings dated August 1930 show a
large brick Colonial Revival house with oversized common rooms and 16 bedrooms.
Annie and Rose Shipman, sisters of Thomas Shipman, intended to operate it
as a boarding house. They never built the inn but operated the Walnut Inn
and later the Franklin Hotel for many years.
Thomas Shipman and Randall Everett, who both
lived in Stillwell designed homes, as well as Joseph Silversteen and W.S.
Ashworth were members of the Board of Directors for Brevard Banking. At
one time Annie Shipman also worked as a cashier for the bank.
During the 1920s this group of Brevard
businessmen and women provided Stillwell with a large amount of business.
Although the stock market crash and Great Depression were difficult for
Stillwell it also led to a new opportunities. During the next two weeks
Transylvania County buildings designed by Stillwell and his associates will be
featured.
Photographs
and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina
Room, Transylvania County Library. Visit
the NC Room during regular library hours (Monday-Friday) to learn more about
our history and see additional photographs.
For more information, comments or suggestions contact Marcy at [email protected] or 828-884-1820.