 | Hendersonville business & community directory |
|
If you are planning a visit to the Asheville area for the color season, you might want to plan a visit to the Smith-McDowell House Museum. Built circa 1840 by James McConnell Smith, the Smith McDowell House is Asheville's oldest surviving house and the oldest brick house in Buncombe County, North Carolina. 
According to the Smith-McDowell Museum, the house was built on a land grant issued after the Revolutionary War. Smith's parents were among the earliest settlers to the Asheville region, and James McConnell Smith was one of the first settler children born west of the mountains of North Carolina.
When James McConnell Smith's son died in 1857, William McDowell, Smith's son-in-law, purchased the house. McDowell lived in the house until 1881. The McDowell's reared nine children while living in the house. 
Today, the restored Smith-McDowell House is a nonprofit museum and is included in the National Register of Historic Places. The museum features period rooms, special exhibits and educational programs.
Currently, the Smith-McDowell House features a period 1840's kitchen, 1850's bedroom, 1860's and 1880's parlor and an 1890's dining room. The Smith-McDowell House also features gardens designed by the renowned Olmsted Brothers. The Olmsted's are famous for designing New York's Central Park and the landscaping and gardens on the Biltmore Estate.
The Smith-McDowell House Museum has the following events and exhibitions scheduled:
Hard Times and Happy Days: The Civilian Conservation Corps in NC: Through October 27,2000. This special exhibit explores the lasting impact of the Civilian Conservation Corps, a Depression era works program for young men that touched the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Blue Ridge Parkway, the national forests, and numerous state parks.
Victorian Christmas Celebration: November 14, 2000 -January 7, 2001. Celebrate Christmas the old-fashioned way. The Museum's timeline of authentically decorated period rooms showcase the evolution of Christmas celebrations and include handcrafted decorations and live trees.
Road to the Promised Land: Martin Luther King, Jr. & the Civil Rights Movement: January 30 through March 17, 2001. This special exhibit from the Texas Council for the Humanities surveys the Civil Rights Movement from the mid-1950's to the present day.
The Smith-McDowell House Museum is located at 283 Victoria Road on the campus of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College in Asheville, NC. It is open 10:00 a.m. - 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturdays and 1-4 p.m. Sundays (May-December). It is closed on Mondays and all major holidays. Admission is $4.50 adults, $3.50 children. Seniors (over 65) and students with IDs, $3.50.
Victorian Christmas Season, $6.00 adults, $5.00 Children. Children under five are free. Seniors and students with IDs, $5.00. For further information call, 828-253-9231.
 all contents copyright © 1999, hendersonville.com. contact: info@hendersonville.com or 828.253.2880 For listing and advertising information...
|
