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.