Asheville Citizen-Times, 10 November 1991, Sunday, Page 35
Friday, September 27, 2019
Smith-McDowell House: "Twists and Turns"
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| Smith-McDowell House |
In 1881, Alexander Garrett and wife Elizabeth purchased the Smith-McDowell House (purportedly then called "Buck House") from William Wallace McDowell and wife Sarah Lucinda Smith McDowell (daughter of James McConnell Smith, who built the house).
The Garretts, along with their son Robert Urey Garrett, his wife Mary Frances Tarr Garrett, and six-year-old granddaughter Alexandra, moved from St. Louis to Asheville. The family had emigrated from Ireland in 1847. Alexander Garrett had amassed a sizeable fortune as a businessman in the midwest. He retired to Asheville to enjoy the climate and to engage in land speculation. The elder Garrett sold the Buck House for $1 to his son Robert Urey Garrett (who owned the property until 1898).
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Shufordville and Fort Shuford
"Running up and down Cane Creek . . . is a wide belt of lime rock from which, for more than a century, quicklime has been manufactured in large quantities on Cane Creek by burning. . . . From this belt of lime rock Limestone Creek, once known by an objectionable designation, takes its name and Limestone Township of Buncombe County is called."
A History of Buncombe County County North Carolina, F. A. Sondley, LLD
"When certain varieties of quartz and limestone are strongly rubbed, they give off the odor of rotton (sic) eggs. This peculiar smell is occasioned by the evolution of sulphureted (sic) hydrogen ; and substances which possess this property are termed fetid."
"The Odors of Minerals", Scientific American 13, 18, 139 (January 1858)
Today, Limestone Township is split in half. One side abuts Avery Creek Township and the other, Fairview Township. Asheville's southern city limits run right down the middle of the township along Hendersonville Road (U.S. Route 25). Arden, Avery's Creek, the town of Biltmore Forest, Royal Pines, and Skyland are familiar communities in the township. Have you heard tell of Limestone or Shuford(s)ville?
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