Stories from the
Gray Rock Inn
1962 Miss Asheville Victoria Greene
By Victoria Greene Maddux Miss Asheville 1962 The summer of 1962 was a magical interlude between my first and second years in college, a season full of amazing surprises. In 1962 I was known as Vicki Greene. I was nineteen years old and home from my...
1932 Mrs. Sorrell’s Boarding House
Wouldn’t it be a shame, Flora thought, the box of True American Diamond Matches rattling in her hand, wouldn’t it be a shame if the old place burned down? The cool night air tugged at Flora’s apron, somewhere down the way a dog barked. Biltmore Ave. was deserted...
1928: The Doll Sanatorium, Part 4
The year 1928 was momentous for Asheville and surrounding areas. Asheville High School was being built, Beaucatcher Tunnel was being blasted into the city’s downtown mountain, and an hour and more further west, the first phases of the Great Smoky Mountains National...
1962 Maria Fletcher’s Parade
Maria Fletcher was crowned Miss America in 1962, after becoming Miss Asheville 1961 and Miss North Carolina 1961. A parade was given in her honor in November of 1962, featuring local organizations and beauty queens from the WNC region.
1928: The Doll Sanatorium, part 3
In the summer of 1928, teenager Catesby Eleanor Wythe moves to Flora Sorrell’s Boarding House with her mother.
1935: Hemingway’s Typewriter
A writer battling creative block comes to Asheville hoping for inspiration for a new book. Could a discarded typewriter by the key?