West Main Street in Brevard, N.C., in 1925, also known as Fritz’s old stomping grounds.
More materials from the Transylvania County Library have recently been added to our site, including several issues of Brevard-area newspapers from the early 20th century, a set of telephone directories, and a couple of yearbooks. It is thanks to this batch of newspapers that the life of one of Brevard’s beloved community members was brought to light.
From The Transylvania Times, March 10, 1932.
Fritz was “the famous Nobby Shoppe cat,” “well known among the business houses of Brevard” and “petted by everyone.” He was, according to his obituary, “the object of much admiration on account of his enormous size and his beauty.” Sadly, Fritz succumbed to illness, but his obituary shares front page real estate of The Transylvania Times with a feature on the Lindbergh baby and updates on the county tax penalty—in other words, he was a big deal. (Then again, this front page also features a story about Ralph Woodfin, a farmer who found two “freak eggs,” or an egg within an egg—known today to happen because of a counter-peristalsis contraction).
Fritz’s home, the Nobby Shoppe, was a popular women’s store on West Main Street and a frequent advertiser in The Transylvania Times. In the 1930s, the shop seemed to specialize in ladies’ hats, which sold for $1-$2.95. They also sold “frocks” and “triple crepe dresses” in an expansive selection of sizes.
A cat lounging at the H. R. Bradley House in Transylvania County (likely not Fritz himself).
You can read more about the noteworthy community members of Transylvania County in the three newspapers just added to our site: The Transylvania Times(issues from 1887, 1932, 1953, and 1967), the French Broad Hustler (issues from 1893, 1894, and 1896), and the Brevard News (issues from 1905 and 1923).
The full list of telephone directories included in this batch can be found here. These include the names and numbers of local businesses and individuals across the county from 1952-1984.
Thanks to our partner, Transylvania County Library, 28 telephone directories for Transylvania cities from 1956 to 1997, a program for the county’s centennial celebration, a brochure for Camp Sapphire, and more are now available on our website.
An intriguing piece from this batch is the 1914 Camp Sapphire brochure. The brochure provides a look into what kind of activities were considered fun and available in Brevard, N.C., camp life, and the importance of staying on top of education during the summer months. One fascinating piece of information about camp life is that students could smoke as long as they had permission from their parents and could bring their own shot guns for trap shooting. Thankfully, the students had to deposit the guns with camp directors for safe keeping.
To learn more about the Transylvania Public Library, please visit their website.
These scrapbooks share photos and ephemera documenting club meetings, members, and events. Many community service events are highlighted within their pages. Not only do they give a look into the history of these clubs, but they also reflect changes in the local community. Fastidiously organized, the scrapbooks detail events such as construction of new buildings and beautification projects.
Cover or title page of the 1977 Homesteaders See-Off Community Club Scrapbook
Transylvania County Library has shared 70 additional scrapbooks from their extensive collection, adding to the over 100 already on DigitalNC. This latest group includes a number of community clubs and groups:
Like previous batches, these community club scrapbooks share photos and ephemera documenting town events, club members, and club activities. Many of these clubs took part in regional or statewide contests encouraging community “beautification” by landscaping roadsides, installing signs, or improving publicly used buildings or even private homes.
This page from the 1955 Dunns Rock Community Club Scrapbook shows before and after photos of the remodeled Lance home.
Thanks to Transylvania County Library for scanning these at their library and sending the images for addition to DigitalNC. You can view all of the items from Transylvania County Library on their contributor page.
From Balsam Grove to Brevard, we’ve recently added over 100 scrapbooks documenting communities and organizations in Transylvania County. These scrapbooks were scanned by the Transylvania County Library, which forwarded the scans to us for DigitalNC. They represent a number of organizations, many focused on community development.
Community development scrapbooks from the 1950s-1960s are common throughout North Carolina. These typically document efforts at beautification of homes and public areas, upgrading infrastructure like hospitals and sanitation, and fostering community spirit through local gatherings. The image at left from a Balsam Grove scrapbook is a good example of the types of information and photos you might find; it shows newly placed town signs.
These scrapbooks include photographs, many with descriptions and captions, along with newspaper clippings and ephemera from programs and events. Search all of them along with other items from Transylvania County at the Transylvania County Library’s partner page.
A group after our own heart: the 1967 Rosman High Library Club
A new batch of Transylvania County, North Carolina, are now up on DigitalNC, courtesy of our partner, the Transylvania County Library. Included in this batch are several editions of The Oriole from Rosman High School, and the 1967 and 1968 editions of Brevardier from Brevard High School.
A photo of the 1967 Brevard High School Marching Band
These yearbooks show what it was like to go to school in Rosman and Brevard at that time. These yearbooks show individual portraits, class portraits, and photographs of activities, sports teams, and organizations like the Future Farmers of America and the Library Club. They also include photographs celebrating the years’ school plays, and faculty at the school, as well as honor societies.
Some also include class histories, class songs and poems, and more. For example, the 1949 Oriole contains a class prophecy, where the author tried to predict where the graduating seniors would be in several years, and “class wills”, where the graduating class left behind skills and memories to the future graduating students.
Follow the links below to browse the yearbooks from the schools included in this batch:
Transylvania County Courthouse, Letter from the NC Department of Cultural Resources
Duckworth Mill Data Sheet
The nearly 500 objects in Transylvania County Library‘s architectural survey have been updated with more detailed information and are now available on DigitalNC.
Lydia Morrow Raines House
Added over the summer of 2016, the Architectural History of a Mountain County exhibit contains nearly 1500 photographs of structures in the county, including homes, farms, cemeteries, churches, and businesses. This update adds even more information, such as maps, data sheets, historical building registrations, newspaper articles, and official communications between the State of North Carolina and property owners.
These documents add context and usability to the photographs. The hand drawn maps, property records, and legal documents build a model of Transylvania County through documents. These could be excellent resources for genealogists interested in family and property records of those from Brevard, Cedar Mountain, Rosman, Lake Toxaway, and Pisgah Forest communities. Most objects include a data sheet with the official survey records, a write up about the property, a hand drawn map, and notes.
The exhibit, Transylvania: The Architectural History of a Mountain County, features nearly 1,500 images taken during an architectural survey done of the county in the early 1990s. Architectural surveys are inventories of built, intact structures in a given area. These images document structures and communities in Brevard, Rosman, Lake Toxaway, Cedar Mountain, Pisgah Forest, and other areas. The County was founded in 1861 as an agricultural community, which is evident through the survey. Hundreds of images depict homes, barns, spring houses, smokehouses, chicken houses, silos, and many other structures that reflect the activities and roots of the rural community.
In addition to farms, the survey also documents churches, cemeteries, local businesses, and schools, some of which have since been demolished. These resources include corresponding data that describe locations, family names, and historical information that could serve as excellent resources for genealogists or researchers.
7 new yearbooks from the Transylvania County Public Library are now available on DigitalNC. The yearbooks document the lives of students and teachers from Brevard High School, Rosman High School, and Brevard College.
The yearbooks from Brevard High School may be of particular interest because of their many humorous photos and captions. While all of the yearbooks on DigitalNC document the distinct character of a given school, some are a bit more dramatic than others. The editors of this batch of yearbooks from Brevard definitely had a sense of humor!
Brevardier [1964], page 49
You can see all of the newest yearbooks at the links below:
Over 240 images of railways and the logging industry in Transylvania County can now be found on DigitalNC. This group of photographs, digitized and submitted by the Transylvania County Library, date from the early 20th century on.
These images show logging and tannin operations in Rosman, Brevard, Lake Toxaway and Quebec, which all border on or lie within the Pisgah National Forest. Featured prominently are the trains, necessary to transport lumber, workers, and logs throughout the area. Sawmills, rail cars loaded with lumber, oxen pulling logs near work camps, and steam-powered machinery are in many of the photos, as well as group portraits of lumber and tannery workers.
This blog is maintained by the staff of the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center and features the latest news and highlights from the collections at DigitalNC, an online library of primary sources from organizations across North Carolina.
![A page from the Cedar Mountain Extension Homemakers Club Scrapbook [1966-1967]. It documents the meeting held on May 18th. Held at the community center, the club members listened to a program on landscaping in the home. The page has a newspaper clipping of the event, two color photos of the members at the club, a clipping of a magazine of trees and plants, and a small, black-and-white illustration of a gardener that reads "Suggestions from the TAR HEEL GARDENER".](https://www.digitalnc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/default-5-1024x981.jpg)
