Hemlock Hedges
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| "The pride and joy of the Marmon's was their spacious
"Hemlock Hedges" in Avery County, located a quarter of a mile
from the Pineola post office on Highway 221," wrote Douglas C.
Brookshire in the Asheville Citizen-Times. Its grounds contained a
sixty-acre lake and giant shade trees interspersed with flowering shrubs
and rich green lawns. The house was spacious and comfortable,
containing a well-filled library and modern conveniences. On the
grounds was a small guest house, a gate house, and a garden house for
outdoor picnics, as well as servants' quarters, stable, workshop, and
laundry. The gate house is noteworthy as the former home of Dr. W.
C. Tate, founder of the Cannon Memorial Hospital during the early days of
his medical practice in Avery County. The furnishings included
beautiful pieces collected in their travels, especially some that came
from South Africa where they were traveling shortly after buying the
house. The house was originally used by the Ritter Lumber Company as
a country club and residence, with other houses for permanent employees
also on the grounds. It became home to Marmon's in the later part of
the1920's
The small bark gatehouse, is now gone. Other structures remain, but are deteriorating badly. There is a front gate entrance made of stone and wrought iron. The house itself is large and rambling, with a wraparound porch, and an unroofed terrace floored with multi-colored ceramic tiles. Windows are generally 2/2, many of them double. Front and rear have gable dormers, and a large rock double chimney on the north end encloses a small gable end with a window on the second floor. The rooms are large with transoms over the interior doors. |
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Hemlock Hedges Photographs |
