Common Word Community Read – With Dan Pierce, Professor of History, “What George Vanderbilt Saw: Asheville and the Western North Carolina Mountains in 1887 – 88”

The Common Word Community Read, curated by New York Times bestselling author and fellow UNC Asheville alumnus, Wiley Cash ’00, brings the UNC Asheville community together to engage in a collective educational experience. Each semester, one book will serve as the focus of numerous virtual and in-person lectures and discussions that will allow participants to delve deeper into the text. Over the course of the academic year, participants will read one book each semester, gaining insights and sharing ideas in a welcoming and respectful environment. Learn more and pick up your copy of the spring 2022 community read selection: “The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home” by Denise Kiernan. This event will be livestreamed on YouTube.

Legend has it that either on his first visit to Asheville in 1887 or on his second visit with his mother in 1888, George Vanderbilt gazed south from the veranda of the Battery Park Hotel and picked out the site for his estate and palatial chateau at the confluence of the Swannanoa and French Broad Rivers. But Vanderbilt also spent time on those two trips exploring the booming city of Asheville and its surrounding mountains. In this talk, Dan Pierce, professor of history at UNC Asheville, will take you along with Vanderbilt as he explored a city and the countryside in the midst of rapid transformation prompted by the arrival of the Western North Carolina Railroad in1880. During the short interval between 1880 and 1887-88, Asheville’s population doubled and outsiders like Frank Coxe, the builder/proprietor of the Battery Park, brought new energy to the once sleepy “cow town” which soon began to characterize itself as “The Paris of the South.” Vanderbilt also made forays into the mountains on exploring and hunting trips taking in the spectacular scenery of what local-color author Francis Tiernan termed the “Land of the Sky,” but at a time when it was on the cusp of transformation by industrial logging also brought by the railroad.

REGISTER to attend.

For more information, visit: giving.unca.edu/alumni/the-common-word-community-read/

This event is the first of three events for the Spring 2022 Common Word Community Read series. Additional events include an exclusive documentary screening of America’s First Forest: Carl Schenck and the Asheville Experiment (March 22), and a visit from Denise Kiernan, author of “The Last Castle”, in conversation with Wiley Cash (April 26).

Community Expectations
As members of this community, we care about everyone. Faculty, staff, students, and visitors have a shared commitment to take the necessary precautions to avoid spreading COVID-19 while following all recommended health guidelines. Please see UNC Asheville’s Community Expectations. Masks are required of all students, faculty, staff, and visitors.