WMN19 - Mantiques

Originally Joines Motor Company, later Wheeler Hosiery Mill, Pearlman’s Furniture, and Rice Furniture Company

History

When the original town of Brevard was laid out, the block bounded by Main street on the south, Caldwell street on the west, Probart street on the north and Broad street on the east was divided into five lots. This property, in the southwest corner of the block, was Lot 23.  Back in the mid-1860s, the streets were usually referred to by different names in deeds and official papers.  Main Street was often called the “Public road” or the “Public Square” block. In the earliest days of the City (seen in the earliest deeds), Main Street was sometimes called the “street leading to the French Broad River.” In the mid-1870s, Caldwell Street was frequently called the “street leading North.”  Today’s Broad street was mentioned by referring to its location crossing the Public Square (it was initially called Broadway before being shortened to Broad sometime before 1889). Early deeds referred to the section of modern-day Probart street between Broad and Caldwell as only a “20 foot alley.”

The Hume Era (1972-1883)

Sometime in 1872 or 1873, Thomas R. Hume acquired all of Lot 23 (the southeast corner (one quarter) of the entire block. This was probably transferred from the town commissioners in deed book 1, at page 634 (DB 1/634).  The lot size was 99 x 198 feet.  Hume passed away in 1881, leaving the property in his estate.  By March 1883, his widow Jane was formally granted the lot as part of her inheritance (DB 4/480).

The King and Whitmire Era: Subdivision of the lot

Jane Hume sold all of Lot 23 to Mary King on March 6, 1883. I’ll admittedly speculate here and say that it is likely that King defaulted or had some problem with the property and probably created a deed of trust to attorney T.L. Gash around 1891. Gash transferred the property to Annie M. Whitmire on January 30, 1891.

Annie Whitmire subdivided the lot, selling a parcel that was 41.5 x 60 feet to C.E. Wilson. This sale, on May 19, 1891, established the first commercial identity of the lot. The parcel was the at the northeast corner of today’s Main and Caldwell streets.

The Miller Era: Expansion of individual properties and first construction

On October 11, 1900, J.A. Miller bought the lot from Wilson. The deed for this transaction (DB 17/247) mentions “buildings and storehouses”, so this might be the year that the first building, a frame structure, was built on the corner. From 1903 through 1910, Miller bought other adjacent properties from O.C. Morgan, expanding the depth from 60 to 100 feet. This encompassed what today is lot NCE11. The 1911 Sanborn Map clearly shows a two-story frame building at this corner, with a grocery store along Caldwell and a hardware store next to it. A man named T.M. Mitchell was the proprietor of the grocery store. By 1916, the Sanborn Map indicated that the hardware store had been replaced by a grocery store - likely an expansion of Mitchell’s grocery.

Miller sold the frame building to A.M. Verdery, Jr and his wife Ella on May 26, 1919. Several months later, on September 22, he sold the lot to W.S. Ashworth. While J.S. Silversteen isn’t mentioned in this deed (DB 42/242), Ashworth had already created a partnership with Silversteen - giving him an interest in the land. It appears (a bit of speculation here) that Silversteen essentially owned the land while Verdery continued to own the frame building. In 1922, the frame building was condemned and demolished. Nothing was built in its place and the vacant lot was often used as a popular “curb market” four years later.

By mid-1925, it was announced in the newspaper that the J.H. Tinsley real estate company (assumed here to be an agent for Ashworth/Silversteen) sold the property to H. Patterson of Hendersonville. However, research into old deeds didn’t yield any deed to Patterson in this timeframe. The article said that Patterson intended to put up “$75,000 building for his department store in Brevard. The building which will be opposite the Brevard Banking Company’s new home, will be ideally located.” Patterson never built there.

Automobiles and Hosiery

S.R. Joines and his wife executed a Deed of Trust on August 13, 1926 to a man named Julian Price. A deed of trust is like a mortgage, where Joines agreed to pay Price for his future acquisition of property. On December 6, 1927, the SPERJES Realty Company sold the lot to S.R. Joines. Not much is known about the makeup of SPERJES Realty; the only record is on the deed to Joines (DB 60/91) where its president, Jessee Rapport, signed the document. Newspaper searches for “SPERJES” and “Jesse Rapport” returned nothing.  Perhaps the 1925 sale to Patterson never happened and SPERJES Realty had something to do with Silversteen.  Or maybe Patterson did buy it and sold it to Joines through the mysterious SPERJES.  Regardless, Joines gets the title from Silversteen/Ashworth (or Patterson?) and is now able to begin operating his company.

The first concrete for the new Joines Motor Company building (to be a Ford dealerhip) was poured in February 1928. That same month, Judson McCrary sold a 30x40’ parcel on the northeast side to allow for some expansion. This created the L-shape of the structure. The building features distinctive 1920s ornamentation, including medallions (often used in auto dealerships and car repair buildings of the 1920s and 30s) and a dentillated cornice (a dentillated cornice is basically the roofline molding that projects outwards and is decorated with a repeating row of small block-like “teeth”). The 1991 architecture survey noted that there were “decorative brick panels under the windows, and pressed-glass transoms.  Windows are metal frame multi-light awning style, with display windows wrapping from the front around to the east side. Flat roof with parapet walls.” A car ramp was built in the building to allow vehicles to be driven up the the second floor for sale or to be repaired. 

In 1936, Joines defaulted on his loan (the August 1926 Deed of Trust) and transferred the property Julian Price, the Trustee. Price offered the property to the public at the courthouse in April 1936, at which time the Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company purchased it for $7000. 

Five months later, in September, A.W. Wheeler and Son, Inc. officially incorporated. They planned to transform the former car dealership into a hosiery mill. In October, they began extensive remodeling  that included heating, plumbing and lighting systems. It was announced in the newspaper that “The new plant will manufacture full fashioned silk hosiery of the better type, and will employ around 75 people when it gets started fully.” 

The Wheeler’s got their business running and needed to expand. Two years later, they bought the property at NCE11 from R.P. Kilpatrick. The new addition, behind them on Caldwell street and known as the Kilpatrick building, was used for knitting machinery.

For the first two years, Jefferson Standard continued to own the property. The local representative for Jefferson Standard was Judson McCrary.  When the Wheeler’s signed their three-year lease in 1936, they paid the first year’s rent in advance - and included an option to buy the property in the agreement. On October 24, 1938, Jefferson Standard sold it to the Wheeler’s. The 30x40 section in the northeast corner of the building was also deeded.

Between 1936 and the mid-1950’s, A.W. Wheeler and Son operated its hosiery plant, where they manufactured silk stockings and employed over 100 people during their peak years. It was in operation during World War II. 

In 1941, people wondered why Wheeler was occasionally flying a red flag from one of its windows on Main Street. The local newspaper finally looked into it and explained that Wheeler had a shipment of products that had to go out “by motor express” every few days and needed a way to notify the drive that he needed to stop for a pick-up. Hence the red flag.

A.W. Wheeler retired in December 1951, but his son George continued to run the mill. The last advertisement for the business appeared in the 1953 Christmas Eve edition of the Transylvania Times. No articles about the closing could be found. The mill’s last entry in the local telephone book was in 1954.

Furniture

Pearlman’s Furniture store opened on East Main Street (the north side of East Main east of the court house) on August 25, 1950. By 1956, Wheeler’s hosiery had closed and Pearlman’s enlisted contractor Charles Astworth to renovate the building before they moved in. They also used the building directly behind them (NCE11) as a warehouse.

Edwin Rice was a delivery man for Perlman’s store in Asheville beginning the late 1940s. He went into the Army before returning to Perlman’s as a manager of their store in Canton. On June 1, 1968, Rice bought the Brevard store and opened it under his name.  The Rice Furniture Store used all three floors of the structure to sell living room and bedroom furniture. They even used the buildings behind the store along Caldwell for everything from appliances to televisions to flooring.

The Pearlman’s sold the property to the Rice Furniture Company on April 3, 1970. The Rice family acquired the northeast corner lot at Caldwell and Probart in 1979.

Rice Furniture operated in this building for fifty years, closing in 2018.

Present Day

The building was empty for a few years until the Rice family sold WMN19, NCE11, NCE12 and NCE13 to 1600 West Morehead St, LLC. Today, that firm still owns the properties. Mantiques took over the building in 2017, and a new owner purchased the store in 2024 and is using all four floors for its merchandise.

This building, along with the buildings on NCE11 and NCE12, were contributing buildings for the architectural survey that created the Main Street Historic District.