Rob Neufeld

Special to Asheville Citizen Times

The Fleetwood Hotel, pictured here in 1926 in an almost completed state on Jump-Off Mountain, remains the symbol of Hendersonville’s 1920s aspirations and of the bust that followed. Commodore J. Perry Stoltz, builder of Miami’s Fleetwood Hotel, was extending his luxury brand to such places as Augusta, Georgia, and our local site. The construction got as far as the 12th floor with the delivery of furnaces and $10,000 worth of bathtubs before halting for lack of funds, notes Ramsey Library’s Special Collections at UNC Asheville, owner of the photo, taken by Jody Barber. Greenville, South Carolina, architect Henry Gaines had come to Asheville in 1925 and had been asked by G.W. Buchholz, a builder, to come up with sketches quick because Stoltz was “in a hell of a hurry to get started,” Gaines recalled in his memoir, “King’s Maelum.” Properties in the area were increasing 700 percent in four months. But Florida’s woes preceded the nation’s; contractors were not getting paid; and the Fleetwood was torn down in 1928. Movable items, such as the bathtubs, disappeared; and the steel was resold.

-Rob Neufeld, RNeufeld@charter.net