Tryon History
How Tryon Came to Be
Soon after the Civil War, Pittsburgh investors brought new people and fresh ideas to Polk County. Lemuel Wilcox (born 1815, Continue Reading
Video: The Tryon Artists Colony
During the late 1800s “country colonies” came about where professional artists and serious amateurs gathered seasonally, Continue Reading
1956 Olympic Equestrian Trials
During the first week of June 1956, millions of Saturday Evening Post readers saw a dramatic full-color photo-spread Continue Reading
Monster Freight Locomotives for Saluda Grade
Nobody in the Roaring Twenties foresaw that, some two decades hence, diesel engines would replace coal-fired steam Continue Reading
The Nation’s Historian in World War II
Charles Beard wasn’t in an optimistic mood when he and Mary checked in at secluded Pine Crest Inn in late 1943. Roosevelt Continue Reading
Tryon’s Splendid 1926 Water Works
A rare illustrated brochure describes the up-to-date system of water works Tryon put into service in January 1927. Designed Continue Reading
Tryon Riding & Hunt Club: 1885 Tally-ho Coach
North Carolina’s most impressive equestrian artifact is a rare sporting coach made in Belgium in 1885. Luxurious “Tally-ho” Continue Reading
The Lanier Club and its Tryon Library
In 1881 writer Sidney Lanier spent his last weeks at McAboy’s resort near Tryon, where he died in one of the cottages on Continue Reading
Across the Burning Trestle 1914 Silent Movie
Early on, prominent theatrical and entertainment personalities came to the Tryon colony, so it’s no surprise Western Continue Reading
Private Letters: Helen and Roy Bates
A premonition, perhaps? The artist and poet Roy Elliott Bates once wrote – at least partly in jest – of his reluctance to purchase land Continue Reading
Rock House Gallery
By the time cosmopolitan painter Josephine Sibley Couper (1867 – 1957) opened her Rock House Gallery in 1933, Tryon Continue Reading
Tryon's Woodworking Traditions
From the town’s founding in the 1870s, local virgin wood resources shaped its culture and enterprises. An unusual Continue Reading
Tryon as Traumfest in 1913
Down-North and Up Along, her 1900 account of Nova Scotia, was Margaret Warner Morley’s first success authoring a Continue Reading
1895 Madole Plat of Spring Mountain Park above Columbus
This developer’s plat is a rare example of commercial lithography printed in Ohio by Cleveland Lithograph Co. It’s the only known Continue Reading
Grace Clemons: Music in Early Tryon
From its earliest days the Tryon colony attracted musicians, among them pianists Hilda von Siller from Milwaukee and Louis Continue Reading
Mrs. Calvin Coolidge at White Oak Mountain
Grace Goodhue Coolidge was a popular First Lady while her husband, Calvin, served as the 30th President of Continue Reading
First Photo-Illustrated Brochure about Tryon: 1916
Several early brochures survive showing amenities of Tryon. The first to depict the village in general, and to be illustrated with Continue Reading
Gan-Ed Inc. Invents the Kangaroo Golf Caddie
The first advertisement for a walker’s self-propelled bag-caddie, easily dismantled to fit in a car trunk, appeared in the Continue Reading
The Mimosa: 1908 Resort Hotel
A handsome 1908 booklet produced by Barnes-Crosby Co. in Chicago — presented here as a slide show of images — offers Continue Reading
