Blantyre Farm Instrumental to Agriculture

The North Carolina Department of Agriculture, Board of Agriculture and Agricultural Experiment Station were all established by a legislative act in 1877.  The initial goal was to study crop nutrition and growth, as well as fertilizers.

In 1885 the Board of Agriculture began purchasing property and machinery to establish field testing stations or "test farms" throughout the state.   This allowed for more extensive study of farming practices, including crops, fertilizers, and soil type, as well as livestock and poultry. 

In 1905 the North Carolina Department of Agriculture purchased 290 acres for a test farm on the west side of the French Broad River and north of Fodderstack Mountain in the Blantyre area.  Studies in crop rotation included corn, wheat, red clover, rye and oats.  Fertilizer tests used potash, phosphoric acid, nitrogen and lime.  The Blantyre farm also harvested and sold timber.  In addition, they had a small number of sheep and pigs.

The farm had 16 acres of orchards on Little Fodderstack with a variety of apples, peaches, cherries and plums.  There were 500 apples trees that were particularly productive.  Pruning and spraying trees, curing and preventing disease, and packing and marketing the fruit were all part of the educational component at the farm.

The 1907 Soil Survey of Transylvania County, North Carolina by W. Edward Hearn is a valuable resource for information on soil types and agricultural practices within the county in the early 20^th century.  It also contains a map of soil types and identifies communities and roads from the period.  Both are available online or print copies are available in the North Carolina Room at the Transylvania County Library.

The U.S. Weather Bureau assisted North Carolina in establishing weather stations on test farms, including in Blantyre in 1911.  The purpose was to study thermal belts and the suitability of raising specific fruits.

In 1917 the state sold the property to a private owner.  The Department of Agriculture continued to operate a large test farm in Buncombe County.  They also had test plots on the former Blantyre test farm and other farms throughout Transylvania County.

The large barn at the former state test farm in Blantyre.

The architectural survey conducted in the 1990s includes a file on the former state farm.  It shows a small home and a large barn.  The barn is described as “typical of institutional barns of the period, larger and finer than those found on private farms.  A vented cupola crowns the ridgeline of the front-gable roof.  Weatherboard siding and board-and-batten siding cover the exterior.  Under the eave and tapered, exposed rafters are horizontal slated vents.  There are many windows and doors, and the loft is very large.  A side shed addition behind the block silo has been roughly enclosed with horizontal boards.”

Thank you to Earlene Orr for extensive research on the Blantyre test farm and assistance with this article.

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 828-884-3151 X242.

Outbuildings Served Multiple Purposes

Farms in Transylvania County, both in the past and more recently, have been relatively small and general in nature.  They may have a variety of livestock including cattle, chickens and pigs.  Earlier farms had horses for both work purposes and riding.  Typical farm crops included hay and corn.  In the past a variety of grains were grown and milled locally.  Sorghum or cane was grown for molasses.

 

A variety of structures were needed for the animals, crops and associated activities.  Along with a farmhouse and a traditional barn there were usually numerous outbuildings.  Some, like sheds of various sizes, were multi-purpose.  They may have housed livestock, been used for storage or as workshops. 

Traditional corn crib at Chestnut Hill.

Pole barns are a simple structure with a roof supported by poles and are often open sided.  These provide storage for tractors and large farm machinery.  Pole barns are also use for the storage of hay.  Because hay is highly combustible typically they are away from other buildings to prevent the spread of fire. 

Other common structures for crop storage include corn cribs and silos.  A traditional corn crib has horizontally-slatted walls and a gable-front roof.  This allows for the circulation of air so the corn can dry after it is picked and remain dry while in storage.  Corn cribs are normally elevated off the ground.

Numerous farm throughout the county had silos.  Examples of common bond brick silos included in the architectural survey are on the Virgil McCrary, Freeman Nicholson, John Talley and Bud Tinsley farms.  The Nicholson farm also has a concrete block silo.  The Johnstone-Ramsey farm has a tile silo.  Eastview Dairies silos were molded concrete.  Brevard College and the Otto Wells farm had silos of poured concrete.  The Robert Waldrop farm in Cherryfield had a large concrete trough silo set in the hill.

The Eastview Dairy used molded concrete blocks for the silo
 and lower level of the dairy barn.

Buildings used to house animals included diaries, pigpens, chicken coops and even pigeon coops.  Transylvania County has had several dairies.  Unlike traditional barns, dairy barns were often built with stone, cinder block or molded concrete block and may have had a frame loft area.  The Blythe-Whitmire farm in Penrose has a handsome fieldstone and frame dairy barn.  Everett farm had a dairy barn constructed of roughly-coursed cut stone. 

Pigeon coop on the front
of the corn crib at the
Bill Breese Mill.

During the mid-20^th century several local farms had large chicken houses.  These had relatively low roofs with open windows under the eaves and often had roof vents.

Next week Picturing the Past will continue exploring Transylvania County’s agriculture history.

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 828-884-3151 X242.

 

This small, low shed with a corrugated tin roof was the pigpen at the Evan Talley farm in Penrose.

Old Barns Reflect Vital Role of Farming

Agriculture is a vital piece of Transylvania County’s economy.  Farms, large and small, have played a major role in the development of the county.  Agriculture statistics for Transylvania County are available through the University of Virginia, Geospatial and Statistical Data Center’s Historical Census Browser at mapserver.lib.virginia.edu from 1870-1950. 

Basic information includes the number of farms, total acreage of farmland, average size and number of farms within size ranges.  The total value of farms in the county, as well as building, crop, livestock and machinery values are provided.  While these statistics are general and do not provide information on individual farmers they do offer a picture of local agricultural practices.

From 1870 through the early 1900 the number of farms in the county steadily increased.  The numbers then declined until after the Great Depression when the total number of farms peaked at 1165 in 1940.  Although there are some large farms in Transylvania County the majority have always been relatively small.  By 1940 over 85% were under 100 acres.

The Dave Holiday barn, in the Blantyre area, is typical to
early 1900's Transylvania County farms.

When the Transylvania County Architectural Survey was taken in the early 1990s approximately 80 farms with barns and other outbuildings where included.  The barns, themselves, offer insight into farms and agricultural practices. 

Most of the Transylvania’s barns are modest in size, constructed of wood and served multiple purposes.  A common style of barns included a central pull-through, with animal stalls and storage areas for grain and tools on either side.  There was often an attached, open lean-to for storage of larger machinery. 

The rustic James Owen barn.

It can be difficult to date farm buildings because they are often expanded and modified as needs change.  Often a new barn is built on the foundation of an older barn that fell into disrepair.  This is the case with the barn at the Allison-Deaver House which dates from the early 1900s but contains elements that are much older.

Around 1880 James Marion Owen moved to the Tanassee Gap area in the county’s Gloucester section.  He built a barn of chestnut, poplar and locust logs.  It had three pens on one side and an open area on the other.  The rough-sawn lumber roof had hand-split wood shingles.

The original Blythe barn (on the right end) was expanded
into a larger structure by W. T. Whitmire.

The barn at the Blythe-Whitmire Farm in Penrose is a good example of a typical frame barn that was expanded.  Originally built by Clyde Blythe, a large side addition was added by W. T. Whitmire after he purchased the farm in 1935.  The addition, constructed of wood-frame and fieldstone, extends into the bank and has a row of short windows beneath the eaves of the metal roof. 

Next week Picturing the Past will take a look at the role of other structures typical to Transylvania farms.

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 828-884-3151 x242.

Rural Homes Make National Register Too

The Jesse McCall lived in one Vanderbilt's lodges
 in the Balsam Grove ares.

Picturing the Past has been featuring local historic landmarks that are designated locally or on the National Register.  This week’s features properties in the Pisgah National Forest, the Lake Toxaway area and the Rosman area on the National Register of Historic Places.

Structures on the Cradle of Forestry’s Biltmore Campus Trail listed on the National Register include Black Forest lodges constructed around 1896 and the 1880’s Hiram King House.  The lodges, which served as housing for rangers on George Vanderbilt’s vast property, were built of heavy timber with a high pitched roofs in the style of Black Forest architecture.  The wood frame Hiram King House was built as a family home and later used as housing for Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Forestry School.

Lake Toxaway Methodist Church
serves full-time and summer residents in the are

The Lake Toxaway area has three properties on the National Register, including Lake Toxaway Methodist Church, Hillmont and Backus Lodge. 

Lake Toxaway Methodist Church is a traditional one-room frame structure constructed in 1912 just one-half mile from the five-story, 100+ room Toxaway Inn.  The entire building, including the vestibule, is only about 1300 square feet.  A six-sided belfry tops the central enterway.

Greystone Inn on Lake Toxaway.

Lucy Armstrong’s summer home, Hillmont, on Lake Toxaway was completed in 1915.  One year later the dam broke and the Toxaway Inn closed.  Armstrong remained at Hillmont, making it her permanent home.  After the death of her first husband, Lucy married timberman Carl Moltz.  Lucy lived to see the lake rebuilt and developed.  Before her death in 1970 she sold the home to the Lake Toxaway Company because she “wanted it to be used by many people; that’s the way it should be.”  Today it is known as Greystone Inn and reflects the elegant lifestyle of wealthy Southerners who spent their summers in the mountains.

Backus Lodge was a summer retreat/hunting lodge for Chicago industrialist Edward Backus.  The main lodge, two cottages, a stable and a barn were built between 1908 and 1922.  The buildings are Adirondack style, with the lodge, caretaker’s cottage and stable constructed of chestnut logs.  The property is in Transylvania and Jackson counties but the buildings are all located in Jackson County.

Flem Galloway House in the Calvert community.

Northeast of Rosman on the Old Rosman Highway is the Flem Galloway House.  This two-story house was built in 1878 by Flem Galloway and is still owned by family descendants.  A two-tiered porch covers the front entrance and a large ell extends from the back.

Built in the Cherryfield section of the county in about 1856 by Morgan Mill was added to the National Register in 1979.  It remains on the listing even though it collapsed under the weight of heavy snow in 1998. 

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 828-884-3151 X242.

County Homes Receive Special Designation

Locally Designated Historic Landmarks featured in previous articles have been within the City of Brevard, however there are also several properties located outside of the city.  These include the Allison-Deaver House and the McGaha Chapel, both owned and maintained by the Transylvania County Historical Society.  In addition the Surrette-Lankford House in Penrose, the Hanckel-Barclay House in Dunn’s Rock, Partridge Hill in Little River, and the Lodge in Cedar Mountain are Local Designated Historic Landmarks.

Surrette-Lankford House on Old Hendersonville Highway.

Surrette-Lankford House was built around 1835 by David Surrette and is the third oldest standing frame home in Transylvania County.  It is a timber-frame house, built into a hillside.  The full basement is ground level on the back.  The Surrette family lived in the home for about 100 years.  Later it belonged to Randall Lankford. 

Chestnut Hill on Barclay Road.

Hanckel-Barclay, also known as Chestnut Hill, was built in 1856.  It was the summer residence of Charlestonian, Rev. James Stuart Hanckel.  The Barclay family lived there through most of the 1900s.  The house is Greek Revival in style and has a full two-tier front porch.  The porch has elaborate embellishments on the balusters and brackets.

Partridge Hill on Everett Road.

Partridge Hill was built in 1901 by a member of the Patton family.  It was the home of author Hamilton Basso in the 1930s.  The Queen Anne style home has a stone foundation, chestnut framing, cypress paneling and a metal roof typical to the era.

The Lodge is unique in that some of its interior features are also
designated as historic.

The Lodge was as a summer home built in 1934 for the McKissick family.  Ted Snyder constructed the rustic home which combines American chestnut shingle siding, stonework inside and out, wood paneling and hand-wrought iron.  The wooded setting, open lawn areas and a nearby pond add to the rustic atmosphere.  The Lodge received Local Historic Designation in 2013.

For more information on Local Designations and the Joint Historic Preservation Commission contact Transylvania County Planning & Community Development.

Next week, Picturing the Past, will feature National Register Historic Places in the Rosman and Lake Toxaway areas, as well as at the Cradle of Forestry.

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 828-884-3151 X242.