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The McDowell House at Pleasant Gardens, located about three miles east of Marion on Highway 70 near the intersection of Highway 70 and 221 North, is in danger of being destroyed. The important historic home, which dates back to the late 1780s, not only is a Registered Historic Site, but served as the home of many generations of a family that played many important roles in the history and development of McDowell County, Buncombe County, and the State of North Carolina.
According to reports from Martha Barrett, a McDowell family descendant and resident of Baltimore, MD, current property owner Richard Buchanan has sold a large portion of the land to the developer of a new Sonic Drive-In. Further, Ms. Barrett reports that the land has been bulldozed to within ten feet of the historic home and that the home and the four remaining acres are also on the market. While real estate sales and the resulting property taxes and sales taxes that new buildings and businesses generate are certainly enticing, the rich history of McDowell County simply cannot be replaced. Bit by bit, piece by piece, and with the rallying cry of �progress,� modern-day generations chip away at the very places and people who brought us to where we are today. Yet historic preservation has met with many successes in recent years, with many historic buildings and districts in Asheville and Hendersonville finding preservation and modern uses (and the resulting tax credits that are available on many buildings) instead of demolition. �Hunting� John McDowell, his son Colonel Joseph McDowell (cousin of Major Joseph and General Charles McDowell of Morganton, Burke County, North Carolina), his son James Moffett McDowell, and his son Major William Wallace McDowell, later of Asheville, all lived in the McDowell House at Pleasant Gardens. These men, representing four generations of the McDowell family, played significant roles in the development and prosperity of Western North Carolina. �Hunting� John McDowell was granted fertile land on the upper part of the Catawba River on December 22, 1768. This land included Round Hill Bottoms and Pleasant Gardens. The original home, a log cabin, stood against the hill directly across from the present McDowell House. Round Hill was a high, wooded knoll on the bend of the river, which became the burial grounds for the McDowell family. The McDowell home, Pleasant Gardens, was built by Joseph McDowell in the late 1780s.
William Wallace McDowell, son of Joseph, is important in Asheville�s local history. After moving to Asheville in 1845 and marrying Sara Lucinda Smith, William Wallace McDowell became part of the Civil War as a Captain of the Buncombe Riflemen, the first volunteer troop in the state of North Carolina. He and his company fought at the Battle of Bethel Church on June 10, 1861, the first battle of the Civil War. After fighting in several battles in Virginia and Tennessee, he returned home as a Major, and spent the greater part of his adult life in mercantile and various aspects of the construction business (including the Swannanoa railroad tunnel and many houses in Asheville, particularly in Kenilworth). The residence of Sara Lucinda Smith and William Wallace McDowell from 1857, when he purchased it, until 1880, was built by James McConnell Smith for his bachelor son, John Patton Smith. The Smith-McDowell House Museum, located on Victoria Road on the campus of AB Tech, is preserved as the oldest remaining brick home in Buncombe County. (Images provided by the Smith-McDowell House Museum.)
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Colonel Joseph McDowell is important for his heroism at the Battle of King�s Mountain, a turning point in the American Revolution. He marched through the mountains with his men, reaching the site of the battle at King�s Mountain on October 7, 1780, after covering 100 miles in 11 days. He participated in other skirmishes in North and South Carolina, including the skirmish at Cowan�s Ford, the only Revolutionary battle that was fought in what is now McDowell County. Joseph went on to be a practicing lawyer and physician, and served as a legislator in the North Carolina House of Commons, a delegate to the North Carolina conventions for the ratification of the US Constitution, and a member of the third US Congress.
