Swannanoa Valley Museum (Black Mountain)
History is unique. With just one disaster, it can be gone, wholly wiped from contemporary memory, and likely never to be seen or heard again. That highlights the importance of places like the Swannanoa Valley Museum of Black Mountain, North Carolina. These museums don’t just house history. They preserve it and keep it safe so generations to come have access.
The Swannanoa Valley Museum doesn’t just house the decades-old stories from Black Mountain’s earliest citizens, though. It can also act as a magnet, sometimes drawing those individuals back by a century’s worth of stories and artifacts from civilizations long lost to time.
Spend even just a day in the town of Black Mountain in North Carolina, and you’re bound to hear a bounty of ghostly tales, many of them traceable to something housed with the museum. It helps, of course, that the museum itself is a relic from Black Mountain’s earliest days, a former haven for the people of the quaint town and a symbol of hope and community in times of dire need.
Why is Black Mountain haunted?
Though quaint, Black Mountain is not short on ghost stories and sightings of apparitions from years past. There’s the slender man from the former Inn Around the Corner, thought to be the spirit of a former owner, and “Petunia,” the door-slamming specter trapped within Blue Ridge Assembly’s Abbott Hall.
Nestled within the namesake mountains, the small town radiates with energy built up over generations, from the earliest civilizations to more contemporary residents. Book your Asheville ghost tour to explore the local history and hear more haunted legends.
Settling the Black Mountains
Once home to the Cherokee tribes of North Carolina, the sprawling Black Mountains drew the attention of European settlers during the mid-16th century. Hernando de Soto, a Spanish explorer, arrived at the mountains looking for their most precious resource, gold, when he stumbled upon the Cherokee. Over the next century, a relationship was cultivated between the natives and the Europeans, but as more settlers came, the more they pushed the Cherokee west.
A land once cared for by the indigenous tribes now fell under European control. With the Cherokee gone, the settlements thrived, quickly becoming growing hubs for businesses and landowners. Through the Industrial Revolution, Black Mountain flourished, its people building institutions that helped shape the local culture and capture the history predating structures like the Black Mountain College or the former firehouse that now houses years upon years of local history.
The Museum and Black Mountain’s Downtown Historic District
The red-brick facade of the Swannanoa Valley Museum, named for the valley that sits just west of the Black Mountains, matches the aesthetic that runs up and down the town’s Downtown Historic District. Today, the small town feels like a hidden paradise, located within a half hour of the much larger city of Asheville. Each building has its own story to tell, but rather than try to visit them one by one, there’s a centralized location that contains the town’s chronicles: the museum.
Exhibits and events take the museum’s guests through Black Mountain’s extensive history, from the Cherokee tribes to modern civilization. There’s another side to the stories contained within the museum, one that explores a realm just beyond our reach. Hauntings are abundant in Black Mountain, with many encounters being completely personal and attached to former residents.
Others have been witnessed by travelers who sought the town for its quaint charm and proximity to its namesake mountains. There are two haunts, in particular, whose histories don’t need to be captured within historical texts as they’re quite well-known to locals.
The Slender Man of Black Mountain
One legend focuses on an unassuming structure just one mile from the museum. Formerly the Inn Around the Corner, the Victorian-style home was built by two school teachers, Luna Williams and Estella Walker, and finished construction in 1915. First, a boarding house, the building changed hands on multiple occasions before 1962. Drawn to Black Mountain, Australian native and former Floridian Charles Seidel purchased the home and used it as a residence.
Seidel was a skilled artist, even at a very young age. At 12, his skills earned him a spot in Philadelphia’s industrial arts school. By the time he was 20, Seidel moved to Florida and started working with Addison Mixner, a well-known architect in the region. The young artist could match Mixner’s eccentricities, creating unique designs for new homes.
In 1962, he moved to Black Mountain alone. The town locals didn’t know Seidel had left behind a family, including his children, Melisse and her brother. That didn’t emerge until after his death in 1993, and years after, the presence of a mysterious, slender man was felt throughout the building.
The identity of the specter perplexed the building’s then-owner, Nancy Schnepp, but things started to come together when Melisse visited to see where her father had lived. When Melisse spoke of Charles, she curiously described him as tall and thin, aligning with the figure that had been spotted throughout the Inn.
The Slamming Doors of Abbott Hall
The Blue Ridge Assembly’s Abbott Hall may be permanently closed, but that hasn’t stopped one persistent presence from still drawing attention to the building. According to local lore, the banging of doors was first heard on July 22, 1956, coincidentally the same day that one Elsie Wilson fell 25 feet from her room at the Blue Ridge Assembly.
Elsie worked closely with social work executives and attended the yearly Blue Ridge Conference of Social Workers. In a 1950 Shreveport Times article, the Louisiana native was credited with the success of the Council of Social Agencies, though she remained humble and shared the praise with her coworkers. Elsie’s work benefited many, making her untimely passing more tragic.
On the evening of July 21, she retired to her room to rest before another busy day. Despite the milder summer temperatures of Black Mountain compared to Louisiana, Elsie still wished to cool her room down. With no air conditioner in the second-floor accommodations, she slept with her window open.
At some point before sunrise, she awoke in the middle of the night to turn on a lamp, setting off a chain reaction of events that left her broken and dying on the ground outside the assembly. Her account, told to a friend after she briefly regained consciousness, is that she tried bracing herself against the bed, unaware it was on wheels. When she put her weight on the bed, it rolled away from her, causing her to lose balance and fall through the open window.
The Spirits of Black Mountain
Is it Elsie Wilson banging on the doors throughout the Blue Ridge Assembly, slamming windows to ensure they remain shut? Could there be another spirit that spurred the name Petunia and possibly another tragedy to uncover? Is Charles Seidel still haunting his former home? Or has he moved on, knowing his daughter still loved him?
Book your Asheville ghost tour today for even more unusual stories from the former land of the Cherokee. Be sure to follow our blog for a deeper look at some of North Carolina’s most haunted locations, and keep up to date with our tours by following us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
Sources:
https://www.ncpedia.org/history/1776-1860/mountain-settlement
