A portion of a photo taken of dancers at Black Mountain College. Photo is courtesy of the N.C. Department of Archives and History, Western Regional Archives.

Before you go …

If you like what you are reading and believe in independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan journalism like ours—journalism the way it should be—please contribute to keep us going. Reporting like this isn’t free to produce and we cannot do this alone. Thank you!

As Carolina Public Press recently reported, Asheville is now home to the state’s western branch of the N.C. State Archives. On Aug. 10, the State Archives will open its first western regional archive, relocating Western North Carolina-related records like the Black Mountain College collections from the state capitol to Asheville.

The archive, on the top floor of a former nurses’ dormitory next to the Charles George VA Medical Center in Oteen, is a dream realized for local historians, genealogists and public-records enthusiasts.

Investigations and Open Government Editor Jon Elliston and photographer Katie Bailey got an inside view of some of the historic, cultural, environmental and arts collections held at the new branch. Here is some of what they saw.

[galobj viewid=61]


Want to go?

The western regional archive, at 176 Riceville Rd., in Asheville, will host its first public event, an open house, on Aug. 4 from 1 to 5 p.m. An official ribbon-cutting will take place at 10 a.m. on Aug. 10. To RSVP for these events, or to schedule a visit thereafter, contact archivist Heather South at 828-296-7230, ext. 232.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may republish our stories for free, online or in print. Simply copy and paste the article contents from the box below. Note, some images and interactive features may not be included here.

Jon Elliston is the lead contributing open government reporter at Carolina Public Press. Contact him at jelliston@carolinapublicpress.org.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *