Schenck House (1899-2018)

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

Blowing Rock grew in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as economic prosperity and improvements in transportation allowed more families to enjoy a vacation in the high mountains of the Appalachians. Constructed at the turn of the century, the Schenk House was one of the first vacation cottages built in the town. In the winter of 2018 the Schenck House was torn down and replaced with condominiums.

Images

Schenck House Summer 2018

Condos on the corner of Main St and Pine St

Neighbourhood, Residential area, Town, Property

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

In 1889 former Confederate Major Henry Franklin Schenck built a vacation cottage at this location in the tiny village that would become Blowing Rock. Major Schenck had served in the Confederate Army until he was discharged due to poor health, and he would go on to become quite wealthy after the end of the American Civil War by founding and managing the Cleveland Cotton Mill in Cleveland County. Schenk was also a business partner and good friend of northern industrialist James E. Reynolds. His son John F. Schenck Sr. lived in the cottage for almost 60 years.

Sources

Buxton, Barry M., JERRY W. BURNS, and Robert S. Jones. "Land Of The Breeze And Home Of The Brave." In Village Tapestry: The History of Blowing Rock, 1-25. Boone, North Carolina: Appalachian State University, 1989. Accessed November 28, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1xp3mj3.5.

“Historical Marker Program”, Historical Markers, The Blowing Rock Historical Society, Accessed November 27, 2020, https://www.blowingrockhistoricalsociety.com/historicalmarkers

“The Late Major H.F. Schenck”, Hot off the Hoover Rail, Digital NC. Accessed November 29, 2020, http://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/2014236865/1944-02-01/ed-1/seq-4/#index=1&rows=20&proxtext=Henry+Franklin+Schenck&searchType=basic&sequence=0&words=Franklin+Henry+Schenck&page=1

Image Sources(Click to expand)

McCorkle Ellie, “Schenck House”. 2018.

McCorkle Ellie, “Corner of Main St and Pine St. 2020.