In May 1913 the voters in Jackson County, N.C., approved a measure to relocate the county seat from Webster to Sylva. While the town of Webster had been designated as the original county seat in the early 1850s, Sylva had benefited from the arrival…
On September 18, 1915, a crowd estimated at 3,000 people arrived in Sylva, N.C., to attend the dedication of the Civil War monument. The monument had been located prominently on the steps leading up from the town's main street to the new Jackson…
This picture highlights the Main Street of Sylva, N.C., as seen on September 18, 1915. Taken from the vantage point of the new Jackson County Courthouse, completed in February 1914 and situated on a hillside overlooking the town, the photograph…
This fold-out postcard for the Balsam Inn, built in 1905 - 1908, in the community of Balsam, N.C., contained multiple views of the inn and extended descriptions. The hotel was situated near the depot of the Murphy Branch of Southern Railway, a…
This image from a multiple-view postcard advertising the Balsam Inn's 1909 season depicted the Balsam, N.C., railroad depot along the Murphy Branch of the Southern Railway, located near the border between Jackson County and Haywood County, North…
A view of the town of Waynesville, N.C., from the tower of the Haywood County Courthouse that was built in 1884. The Windsor Hotel is seen in the foreground to the left. This postcard was postmarked September 14, 1910, from Canton, N.C.
The Willets school house at the Willets community in Jackson County, N.C., exemplified the many small schools that operated throughout the county. For a quarter of a century, S. Jerome Phillips (1880- 1965) taught at the Willets Graded School and…
The extent of the Champion Fibre Mills may be seen in this perspective taken from a slight elevation. The sender of this postcard view of the large pulp mill noted that the building marked with a '1' showed the boiler house 'exactly as it looks…
The Tennessee & North Carolina Railroad linked the community of Sunburst, N.C., and its large lumber operation to Canton, N.C., located to the north. Sunburst could be reached by rail in about an hour and fifteen minutes. A July 25, 1913,…
The cover of the souvenir album 'Western North Carolina R.R. Scenery,' published in the 1880s, features a decorative design of embossed black and gold on a red background.