North Main Street

Aerial view of a very rural Waynesville, with Main Street as a dirt road and only a few buildings around. — North Main Street in 1886

Aerial view of a much more developed Main Street with more buildings but still a dirt road. — North Main Street in 1910

Grand-looking two story hotel on the front of a postcard. — Postcard of the Gordon Hotel

Also a postcard of the front of the Gordon Hotel but at a different angle. — Postcard of the Gordon Hotel

In 1932, Pink Martin described the Waynesville of 1882 as a “country crossroads: a few business houses, a post office, a courthouse and jail, and a few houses scattered around…No sidewalks. No street lights, almost no streets. That was all.”

The First Presbyterian Church (top center), first erected in 1882, was later rebuilt and re-dedicated in 1907. Directly across from the Church is the Alden Howell residence, which later became the site for the Gordon Hotel. Today, in the place of the Gordon Hotel is a parking lot.

Photographs courtesy of Henry Foy, The Haywood County Library Digital Collection