Funds volunteered by Asheville civic leader Harry Blumberg restored the childhood home of Thomas Wolfe in 1949. In his Look Homeward, Angel, Wolfe described his boyhood home as "Dixieland". Blumberg's funds made a popular museum out of the 29-room storehouse of memories. Center City at 52 North market St. Admission: adults $1, children 50¢. Open April-October 9AM-5PM, Sunday 1-5PM. November-March 10AM-4PM, Sunday 1-4PM, closed Mondays .
Moses H. Cone Memorial Park includes 3,500 acres of gorgeous mountain property. On it are 25 miles of trails and the original Cone mansion containing exhibits of mountain crafts assembled by the Southern Highland Craft Guild. You can watch live demonstrations by mountain crafts people. Admission free. Open 7 days a week 9am-6pm May-October, 9am-4pm April, November December. At milepost 294 on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Blowing Rock, NC.
Created by the Blumenthal family of Charlotte, Wildacres mountaintop retreat is devoted to interfaith and Jewish events in a stunning setting. Site of countless annual assemblies of religious and professional groups with nationally known guest speakers. Campus includes theater, dormitory, lounge, art and mineral exhibits, trails, dining hall, recreation facilities. Just off the Blue Ridge Parkway south of Little Switzerland. NC near Gooch Gap and Wildacres Tunnel. Visitors welcome; advance notice needed.
The center of Asheville, NC, is dominated by an immense monument to Zebulon Baird Vance, NC governor, Freemason, U.S. senator and Charlotte attorney. Considered best friend of Jewish people in Carolinas in l9th century. Wrote and delivered his lecture, The Scattered Nation, praising the Jewish people and their faith to national audiences over many years. For decades B'nai B'rith and United Daughters of the Confederacy conducted annual services at this monument. Broadway and Patton Avenue.
This mountain city calls itself the smallest in the U.S. to support a JCC. The new 18,000 square foot facility includes social hall-gymnasium, 25-meter outdoor pool, kitchen, pre-school wing and multi-purpose rooms. A van brings children from four schools daily. Programs serve all ages with religious, social, sports, educational and arts activities. Just north of downtown on corner of Charlotte and Hillside streets.
CAMP JUDAEA
Five hundred Jewish children 8 to 17 enjoy fun and experiential education each summer at this Hadassah-owned mountain camp. Cabins, dining hall, softball, soccer, lake, 25-meter pool, roller hockey rink, horses/stables and auditorium. Open daily mid-June to August. 4 miles from Hendersonville, NC, on US 23 east.
Brevard Music Center offers visitors a delightful music camp in the NC mountains with frequent concerts, noted guest artists and fine musicians. The music library contains orchestra, band and opera scores, and archives of performances dating from 1960. Named to honor Hinda Honigman, past president of the National Federation of Music Clubs. Free admission to visitors; small fees for concerts. Open late June to mid-August. 1000 Probart street, Brevard, NC.
Possibly the thing the Carolina traveler will remember best is the way Jewish families in small communities contribute to the welfare of their non-Jewish neighbors. In Liberty, SC, population 4,000, a department store owner and accountant named Ralph Sarlin has given his home town its library, public park, post office building and free-loan equipment pool for the disabled. 19 miles west of Greenville, SC, on US 123.
Imagine a torah five feet tall — human size. Now imagine the Ten Commandments where each letter is five feet tall. That is the eye-feast awaiting you on a mountainside 18 miles west of Murphy, NC, on NC 294 near the Tennessee line. A century ago Ambrose Tomlinson came from Indiana to the NC mountains to found a new church, now 300 thousand strong in 86 counties. The church bought 210 acres including the mountain where Tomlinson prayed for guidance — a holy place like the one where Jacob beheld his ladder to heaven. There he created his Ten Commandments of lime, later in painted concrete — two giant tablets in English. Later several huge Christian symbols were added. It's called Fields of the Wood. Open daily year round. Picnic areas; no admission charge.
Next to a great church in little Fletcher, in the North Carolina mountains, stands this bronze and stone memorial. It reads, "In loving memory, Zebulon Baird Vance, Friend, Patriot, Philanthropist, Scholar, Orator, Statesman—Loyal friend to the Jewish people whom he honored in his classic lecture 'The Scattered Nation.'"
"Born near Asheville, NC, May 13 1830, elected Governor of North Carolina 1862-1864-1876, Senator from North Carolina 1879-1894, died in Washington, DC April 15, 1894, his body is interred in Riverside Cemetery, Asheville, NC"
It stands in a group of matching memorials outside Fletcher's historic Calvary Episcopal Church on US 25.