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  • In Search of Edward C. Jones – Part 2, the Trek through Henderson County

In Search of Edward C. Jones – Part 2, the Trek through Henderson County

Posted on October 6, 2016October 6, 2016 By Tom No Comments on In Search of Edward C. Jones – Part 2, the Trek through Henderson County
History and Genealogy, Local, Photography, Rambling

Mansouri Inn-003

In Part 1 of this series I took a look at the legacy of Edward C. Jones, a South Carolina architect who until just a few weeks ago was unknown to me. Having done a bit of research, I decided it was time to do a bit of ground-truthing. Wednesday was an absolutely spectacular fall day, despite an oncoming hurricane, so I wanted to take advantage of the weather while it held. My ramble would take me on a loop up through North Carolina then back down through Spartanburg. As usual on these rambles, I made discoveries I never intended, and met some cool people along the way.

I was much more familiar with Jones’s corpus than I had thought. There were lots of his buildings that I had already visited. Of course, I never visited Furman’s Old Main, but I certainly have lots and lots of memories of the Belltower replica that now graces Furman’s campus.

Furman Belltower
Belltower
BellTower HDR 2

I had also visited the Church of the Holy Cross in the ghost town of Stateburg in Sumter County. This was the final resting place of statesman Joel Poinsett, who lent his name to so many places around Greenville.

Church of the Holy Cross 1
LCU Swamp Stomp 2013-112

I knew there was lots to see in the lower part of the state, but I didn’t have enough time to drive that far. I needed to find examples fairly close, and that meant driving up to North Carolina, oddly enough.

So why would a Charleston architect be so active way up here and in the wilds of North Carolina? This actually makes quite a bit of sense.

In the early 1800s a road called the Buncombe Turnpike was built between Asheville and Greenville. Remnants of this road still exist as Buncombe Road in Greenville, and a monument stands across from Buncombe Street Methodist Church.

Bankhead Highway through South Carolina-195

The road was paved as a “plank road”, making it more accessible to travelers. Wealthy plantation owners from Charleston could now make the trek up to resorts in the mountains to escape the heat. The town of Flat Rock, in particular, became known as “The Little Charleston of the Mountains.” As they built their new homes in the mountains, they would want someone with whom they were familiar. So, Edward Jones became involved with several projects in Henderson County.

I got up early and drove up US 25 and took the turn onto NC 225 toward Flat Rock. My first target was another spot with which I was familiar – the Mansouri Inn, aka Woodfield Inn, aka the Farmer’s Hotel.

Mansouri Inn

Mansouri Inn-006

Back when Laura and I were just dating this was known as the Woodfield Inn, and we came up here for dinner. The Woodfield Inn closed, but the venue re-opened as the Mansouri Inn in 2009. The inn was built as the Farmer’s Hotel in 1852 on 28 acres of rolling land at the height of Jones’s Italianate period, and the architectural touches reflect that style. Note the shallow pitch of the roof, the wide eaves, and the arches created by lattice work around the porch, and compare those to the upper windows of the Furman Belltower.

Mansouri Inn-005
Mansouri Inn-007

When I drove onto the property I was greeted by a deer eating apples from a tree. Other than that, I didn’t see anyone else. I wasn’t sure if the place was even still open.

Mansouri Inn-008
Mansouri Inn-001
Mansouri Inn-002

There was a marker that had obviously been built during the Woodfield days.

Mansouri Inn-004

It was backlit by the morning sun, so I didn’t get a good image. The marker reads as follows:

Farmer Hotel
now
Woodfield Inn
Built in 1852
Famous resort for visitors
from the Low Country
on their annual summer trips
to the Little Charleston
of the Mountains
at Flat Rock
Western North Carolina
Historical Association

As I pulled out of the drive I finally spotted life around the inn. A pickup with workers was parked at the spot where I had seen the deer.

My next stop was on the other side of Flat Rock, closer to Hendersonville. It was a spot I had passed many, many times, but never stopped. Today I was finally going to stop at St. John in the Wilderness Episcopal Church.

St. John in the Wilderness

Friend and fellow explorer Keith Dover and been telling me for years that I need to visit the cemetery here. He said that many of the names located here were the surnames of famous families from Charleston, such as Pinckney, Middleton, Tradd, and Rutledge. That’s where I started my visit.

St. John in the Wilderness
St. John in the Wilderness-002
St. John in the Wilderness-003
St. John in the Wilderness-004
St. John in the Wilderness-006
St. John in the Wilderness-009

The thing that struck me were the number of Celtic and other crosses throughout the cemetery.

St. John in the Wilderness-010
St. John in the Wilderness-013
St. John in the Wilderness-015
St. John in the Wilderness-016

I was able to find some of the prominent Charleston names.

St. John in the Wilderness-011
St. John in the Wilderness-014
St. John in the Wilderness-029
St. John in the Wilderness-035

One of the most prominent was the grave of Christopher Gustavus Memminger, who served as Secretary of the Treasury for the Confederacy.

St. John in the Wilderness-041
St. John in the Wilderness-043

As you might expect with a cemetery full of prominent Charlestonians, there were a couple of signature stones. W. T. White made an appearance, along with a new name to me – “A M & M.”

St. John in the Wilderness-031
St. John in the Wilderness-032
St. John in the Wilderness-036

On the other end of the socio-economic spectrum, one part of the cemetery was set aside for the slaves and freedmen who work on the Charlestonians’ homes and who also worshipped at St. John.

St. John in the Wilderness-067
St. John in the Wilderness-066
St. John in the Wilderness-065
St. John in the Wilderness-062
St. John in the Wilderness-061

While the cemetery was cool (quite literally this fall morning), I was here to look at the church architecture. St. John in the Wilderness started as a private chapel of ease in 1838. In 1852 Edward Jones was tasked with enlarging the church and adding the bell tower, the same year he was working on nearby Farmer’s Hotel. It was very difficult to get a clear photo of the building because of all the trees.

St. John in the Wilderness-001
St. John in the Wilderness-005
St. John in the Wilderness-007
St. John in the Wilderness-020

The tower looked very similar to Furman’s, with the shallow cap and arched windows.

St. John in the Wilderness-045
St. John in the Wilderness-024
St. John in the Wilderness-025
St. John in the Wilderness-063
St. John in the Wilderness-068

There were some workers painting the wrought ironwork around the family plots. I asked the sexton about the possibility of seeing the interior, and he welcomed me. I headed on inside.

St. John in the Wilderness-040
St. John in the Wilderness-046

The interior was stunning, with plaster walls and dark wooden beams that reminded me of Fourth Presbyterian in Greenville. The seats were box pews, similar to St. Philips in Charleston. The pipe organ console was near the front with one small rank of pipes, but the bulk of the pipes were at the rear of the church.

St. John in the Wilderness-048
St. John in the Wilderness-047
St. John in the Wilderness-049
St. John in the Wilderness-051
St. John in the Wilderness-052

There were memorials on the walls, and even one in the floor.

St. John in the Wilderness-055
St. John in the Wilderness-054
St. John in the Wilderness-057

There was an opening on the tower end of the building, and that led to a carpet staircase heading up into the tower. I just had to explore. It just went up one more level to a storage for choir robes. Oh well. I didn’t see any secret doors leading to subterranean chambers.

St. John in the Wilderness-059
St. John in the Wilderness-058
St. John in the Wilderness-060

I thanked my hosts, made a small donation, and headed back to the car.

My next stop was about 20 miles up the road in Fletcher. I drove through the town of Hendersonville, then cut across country to Fletcher. There, on US 25, I found Calvary Episcopal Church.

Calvary Episcopal

Even before I started my exploration of the church and its grounds I got distracted by an unusual feature. On the church grounds, but separate from the church buildings and cemetery stand two rows of monuments. These are rough granite monoliths with brass markers attached to them.

Calvary Episcopal-001
Calvary Episcopal-010

The individuals memorialized were completely random, as far as I could tell. Some had connections to the area, but others didn’t. The names included Jefferson Davis, Francis Scott Key, Stephen Foster, and “O Henry.” It looked like these were erected in 1928.

Calvary Episcopal-002
Calvary Episcopal-003
Calvary Episcopal-004
Calvary Episcopal-005
Calvary Episcopal-006
Calvary Episcopal-007
Calvary Episcopal-008
Calvary Episcopal-009

When I turned my attention to the church I began to wonder if I was in the right place. The building looked far to new to be from Jones’s era. I started to wonder if the Jones church was no longer extant, and this was a replacement.

Calvary Episcopal-011
Calvary Episcopal-012
Calvary Episcopal-013

The church was a Romanesque design, and I could see elements similar to the Church of the Holy Cross. So, the design looked like something Edward Jones would build, but something was still not quite right.

Calvary Episcopal-030

Another rough monolith with a brass marker said that the church had served as a barracks for Confederate soldiers, and it seemed to indicate that it was THIS church. That would make the age correct, but the bricks still looked too new.

Calvary Episcopal-034
Calvary Episcopal-035

It wasn’t until I got home and checked the church’s website that I learned the true story.

The original church building burned in 1935, with only the brick shell left standing. One stained glass window, the baptismal font, the Bishop’s Chair, and a few smaller items were saved. The congregation moved quickly to rebuild; Architect S. Grant Alexander, a Scotsman recently emigrated to Asheville, was engaged for the design.

The nave was lengthened and widened, but the west front of the old building, with its beautiful bell tower, were saved and incorporated in the new building.

Looking back at my photos I could see the difference between the new bricks and the old of the bell tower.

Calvary Episcopal-036

Oddly enough, Edward Jones’s name is never mentioned on the Calvary website. It says that the design was based on an original by 17th century builder Christopher Wren. Strange.

As for the cemetery, it’s still active. The cemetery is expansive, and felt peaceful. It looked like there were later generations of the families I found at St. John.

Calvary Episcopal-018
Calvary Episcopal-017
Calvary Episcopal-016
Calvary Episcopal-033

So far I had visited three locations attributed to Edward C. Jones, and I could definitely see similarities between these buildings and others designed by Jones. I was done with the North Carolina targets, but I had more to see back down in South Carolina. That’s going to have to wait until Part 3, though.

Mansouri Inn-003

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❮ Previous Post: In Search of Edward C. Jones – Part 1, The Architect
Next Post: In Search of Edward C. Jones – Part 3, the Trek to Spartanburg ❯

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