Asheville NC

Yeah, It’s Tweetsie

Bob LawrenceLeave a comment

You know I’d post Tweetsie some time or other.  So, here goes:
 

Built in 1957 up near Greer Branch north of Blowing Rock, Tweetsie Railroad is a popular destination (more on that later).  This shows old (1917/Baldwin/9-6-0) #12, formerly of the fabled ET&WNC railroad.  The card is from the early 60s.

Here’s what it enthusiastically states on the back:
“TWEETSIE’S LOCOMOTIVE #12, CROSSING DEAD HORSE TRESTLE: Tweetsie Railroad; Eastern America’s most exciting travel destination.  Full size steam locomotives daily carry fun loving tourists thru three miles of scenic mountains, where trains are attacked by renegade Indians and robbed by outlaws.  Authentic western town features live entertainment at Tweetsie Palace, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway at Blowing Rock, North Carolina.”

For the deltiologists:
Color-King Natural Color Cards, W. M. Cline Co., Asheville, N.C.  Inventory number 14958A
Photogaphed in Natural Color by Jack W. Bowers (who was, apparently, a quite popular photographer in Asheville)

Found several of these cards in an unlikely little antique/car repair shop near Asheville.

Southern Passenger Station, Morristown, Tenn.

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mtownfrontmtownback

The Southern passenger station in Morristown TN pre-1906 (when his card was mailed).  For the time, the printer was generous with the area on which to write a message, since, as an undivided back card, you could only write the address on the back.  I still find it amazing that this card was mailed at 2:30 pm on October 3, 1906, and arrived in Bristol at 7:30 that evening.

Isabella writes that they are laid over in M’town until 2:30, but will be spending the night in Asheville.  I wonder if the train that took this card to Bristol also took Isabella and her companions on to Asheville.

Kidding my older brother, I mentioned that I thought one of the people posed there at the station looked a bit like him.  He was not amused.

The card was published by Rose & Rice and is on a slightly heavier stock that one usually sees in postcards.

Incidentally, there’s a Jennie Rose Rice (1867-1946) buried in Jarnagin Cemetery in Morristown.

Southern Railway Freight Office

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sofreight

Well, it was the Southern Railway Freight Office on Meadow Road in Asheville.  Habitat for Humanity occupies the back portion (cropped out in this picture) for storage, I guess, since their retail store is just across the parking lot from this building.  This portion appears to be unoccupied.

I especially like the SR medallions in the upper corners.  Southern was a deal back then.