R. G. Coffey & Co. Hardware and Grocery stores

R. G. Coffey & Co. Hardware and Grocery stores

Automobiles

Commercial buildings

Grocers

Hardware stores

Horse-drawn vehicles

A horse and buggy are going down Everett Street in front of the John Ransom Logan Cole building and the R. G. Coffey & Co. Hardware and Grocery stores which are nearly completed. A man is working in the window above what was, at the time, Gibson Street, and today is Bryson Walk. The Presbyterian Church steeple is barely visible above the Coffey building. The sidewalks are paved in front of the buildings, Everett Street appears to be a macadam surface, and Gibson Street a dirt road. B 388 is written on the negative. The photographer, “Doc” Kelly Bennett (1890-1974), was a prominent pharmacist in Swain County, NC. Owner of the Bryson City Drug Company, Bennett served as alderman and mayor of Bryson City, on the Swain County Board of Education, as well as several terms as NC State Senator and NC State Representative. He participated in numerous other initiatives and organizations. Known as the “Apostle of the Smokies,” Bennett was an instrumental figure in the movement to create the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He was also an avid photographer, skillfully documenting a wide variety of people, places, and events in Swain County and the surrounding area.

Bennett, Kelly, 1890-1974

Kelly Bennett Collection

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

negatives (photographs)

eng

StillImage

71039

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/71039

Bryson City (N.C.)

Swain County (N.C.)

3.5" x 5.75"(dimension)

Picturing Appalachia