Stillwell Designed Several County Schools

Architect Erle Stillwell designed his first school while he was partners with Hans C. Meyer.  The drawings for the classroom building at Blue Ridge School for Boys in Hendersonville are dated February 1914.  After Meyer left Henderson County Stillwell continued to do work for that school and others.  He designed all of the Henderson County public schools from the 1920s through 1950s. 

When Henderson County built several schools in the 1960s they were designed by Six Associates, the Asheville architectural firm of which Stillwell was a founding partner.  In addition Stillwell designed buildings for several private schools in Henderson and Buncombe counties.  Stillwell himself, and later Six Associates, also did a large amount of work for Western Carolina Teacher's College.

Six wooden pilasters gave the front of Rosman High School a classical appearance.

The first Transylvania County school Stillwell designed was Rosman High School in 1926.  The design was for a typical symmetrical two-story brick classroom building with a one-story auditorium at the back.  The building was used until the mid-1970s.  When the current elementary school opened in 1975 the high school moved into the former elementary building while the present day high school was being constructed on the site of the 1926 building.

In 1940 Stillwell designed the Pisgah Forest Elementary School, today the Davidson River School.  Although the school is very traditional in style it does have a unique feature in the Aztec-Deco entrance.  The exterior of the building is uncoursed cut-stone. 

Pisgah Forest Elementary School (top), December 1940 and
Rosenwald School (bottom), August 1946 used the same basic drawings.
However Rosenwald School, today the Morris Education Center, has
a traditional entrance.

During WWII Stillwell and five others joined together to create the Six Associates architectural firm in order to compete for government defense contracts.  They went on to be one of the most successful architectural agencies in North Carolina.

As a Six Associates partner, Stillwell designed Rosman Elementary School in April 1948 and North Brevard and Lake Toxaway elementary schools in December 1950.  North Brevard, later named Straus Elementary, is today part of Blue Ridge Community College.  Lake Toxaway Elementary was named for longtime educator and school superintendent, T.C. Henderson.  The two original schools were identical.

Erle Stillwell had a long and productive career in private practice and in partnership with Six Associates.  Several of the buildings he designed remain a piece of Transylvania County's architectural history today.

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 marcy.thompson@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-1820.

Erle Stillwell Designed Local Movie Theaters

Erle Stillwell built a successful architectural design agency in the early 1900s.  However, like the businessmen he designed homes and businesses for Stillwell struggled to stay in business following the stock market crash and throughout the Great Depression.

These two similar shots show the Clemson and Co-Ed theaters 50 years apart.
Top photo--1941.  Bottom photo--1991

Stillwell had designed Hendersonville’s Rex Theater in 1924 and he did the redesign work when it burned in 1932.  Through this work he met Robert Wilby and Mike Kincey who managed most of Paramount’s southeastern movie theaters.   This relationship would lead to work for additional theaters in North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.  Most of his theater designs featured Art Deco facades, a few were Streamline Moderne, but all were uniquely Stillwell’s.

Although designs for Brevard’s Co-Ed Theater are not included in the Henderson County Library collection an article in the December 8, 1938 Transylvania Times identifies Stillwell as the architect.  The theater design featured 500 seats, plus a semi-balcony for groups or private parties.  In addition there was a “cry room” where mothers could take disruptive children and continue to watch the movie.  The Co-Ed featured an Art Deco sunburst front.

Undated drawings by Henry Gaines, one of Stillwell’s partners with Six Associates, in the Pack Library collection in Asheville appear to be for renovations to Brevard’s Clemson Theater.  A June 29, 1939 Transylvania Times article covers the opening of the new Co-Ed and improvements to the Clemson.

A few years later, after new owners took over the Brevard theaters, Stillwell was hired to redesign the Clemson and Co-Ed into one large theater.  A picture of his drawing for the building’s exterior was found in the August 22, 1946 Transylvania Times.  This work was never undertaken though.

Stillwell was able to keep and expand his business during and after the Depression by designing over 50 theaters in the 1930s and 1940s.  He also got work through Roosevelt’s New Deal projects for government buildings and schools.  Next week's Picturing the Past will take a final look at Stillwell’s work through the local schools he designed.

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 marcy.thompson@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-1820.

Stillwell Designed Large Commercial Buildings

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 marcy.thompson@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-1820.

Stillwell Designed Many Older Homes

Erle Stillwell moved to Hendersonville as a young man in the early 1900s.  In January 1904 he invested in property near Laurel Park.  Over the next few years he studied architecture at Cornell University and travelled throughout Europe.  By 1913 Stillwell had returned to Hendersonville and begun his long career in architecture.

Stillwell went on to design many large fashionable homes in Henderson, Buncombe, Polk, and Transylvania counties.   He built his reputation on adapting the Tudor, Colonial, Georgian, and Neoclassical revival styles popular in the early 20^th century.  Stillwell was known for high quality work in both design and building construction.

Thomas Shipman's house was located
where Shepard Square condominiums are today.

A number of Stillwell’s architectural drawings from 1913 through the mid-1950s are preserved at the Henderson County Library.  William Mitchell’s book, “Building as History:  The Architecture of Erle Stillwell” is a catalogue of those drawings.  It includes the Brevard homes of Thomas Shipman, Randall Everett, and Don Jenkins.

Thomas Shipman got his start as a teacher and was a manager with the Toxaway Company but was best known as a banker.  He worked his way from cashier to president of Brevard Banking.  Mitchell identifies the Shipman House drawings as among Stillwell’s earliest work.  A Sylvan Valley News real estate advertisement from March 1912 identifies it on S. Broad St. (now Country Club Rd.) and lists Shipman’s Main St. home for sale.

The home of Randall Everett was located on the northwest corner of
S. Broad and Morgan streets where First Citizen's Bank is today.

The drawings and blueprints for Randall Everett’s home are dated July 1924.  Mitchell states the “floor plan was typically symmetrical, with a central stair hall, living room on one side, and dining room and kitchen on the other.”  Everett was a businessman, who also owned and operated Everett Farm from 1917-1930.  He served as director of Brevard Banking and later the Federal Savings and Loan.

The eight working drawings of Don Jenkins’ home on Maple St. were probably drawn by William O’Cain who worked for Stillwell.  The exterior of Jenkins’ home is typical brick ranch style but Mitchell describes the interior as “stunning finish is work—paneling of vertical maple board with over-scaled maple crown moldings.”  The drawings are dated January 1949.  It is the only of one of these homes that is still standing.

In addition to houses, Stillwell designed many commercial buildings during this time.  Drawings for two downtown Brevard businesses are included in the collection.  Next week’s Picturing the Past will continue with Stillwell’s story by featuring these buildings.

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 marcy.thompson@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-1820