Historic Martin house comes down, new houses will go up

Martin house has come down
Tyler San Sauci, developer, is pictured with the historic wooden columns from the porch that were made locally most likely at the Bryson City Pump Works. The columns, as well as doors and some other items were salvaged.

An old house on Martin Street that faced Highway 19 in Bryson City was demolished last week. The house stood empty for a number of years but holds memories of 20th century life in Swain County.

Tyler San Sauci and Kyle Henry of Bryson Investment Group purchased the property that is nearly 4 acres. San Souci’s construction company, Slickrock, will soon begin construction work to make way for six new homes on the site. The modular homes will have three bedrooms and will be approximately 1,800 square feet. Since the houses are prefabricated, the turnaround should be quick. According to San Souci, installation is anticipated in about three weeks and ready for walk-throughs in about six weeks. The houses will be for sale.

“We’re trying to build some housing for the working class,” he said, adding as the county grows, it is important to find a way for the community to have more options for people who work here to have places to live.

The company also built the duplexes and tiny house on Deep Creek across from the Nantahala Brew Pub (previously the RC Cola plant), and is currently constructing two new town homes in that same area.

Unfortunately, with the condition the old Martin House was in, San Sauci said it didn’t make sense to try to renovate it. He was told the old house was a Sears and Roebucks house and found it to be likely. These were house kits that could be ordered through the catalog and shipped to the location. They were hugely popular in their time. According to a report from Popular Mechanics, the company sold between 70,000-75,000 such homes between 1908-1940 to households across the country.

Although the structure came down, San Souci and Henry were able to salvage porch columns, some doors and windows to be repurposed.

 

Historical connections

Don Casada, a local historian and founder of Friends of Bryson City Cemetery, reached out and got a few of the porch columns. According to his research, he is almost certain the columns were fabricated by Bryson City Pump Works at the original factory location, east of the depot. The other, less likely possibility, Casada estimated, is they were made at the successor operation, Carolina Wood Turning plant. Both were huge employers for local residents in their time.

“This is a great piece of our area’s history, and I really thank Tyler being both aware and appreciative to have saved these,” Casada said.

Casada estimates the house to have been built in the mid-1920s, since records indicate that Joel and Fannie Gibson bought the property from Fannie’s brother-in-law and sister, Garfield and Jessie Moody Penland in 1923.

“Two of the Penland’s daughters, Vivian Penland Williams and Mildred Penland Woods, and one of the Martin’s daughters, Inez Martin DeBord, taught me in elementary school,” he recalled. “The same would be true for many of my generation.”

 

Family memories

Siblings Betty Sandlin, Beverly, and cousin Martin DeBord owned the property together before its most recent sale. Betty Sandlin shared several memories associated with the old house that paint a picture of life in Swain County in the mid-1900s when her grandparents lived there.

“There was a barn up behind the house, behind the hill,” she recalls. “My grandparents had a horse and a cow. My grandmother always had fresh milk, made her own buttermilk, and they had a wonderful garden in that hard red clay my grand daddy used a horse to till it.”

She has strong food memories associated with her grandmother’s cooking. “She had a woodstove and made the best cornbread I had ever tasted,” she said. “They also had a smoke house. I can remember hams hanging there to dry— really delicious country ham and red eye gravy my grandma made.”

The two-story house had a couple of bedrooms downstairs along with the bathroom, living room and kitchen, Upstairs, the were also two bedrooms, a bathroom, a small living room and small kitchen, she recalls.

After their daughter Inez and her family moved out, Betty’s grandparents used the upstairs as a tourist house, renting rooms out with many who visited for the summer every year.

“It was a very pleasant place, it was warm, inviting and pleasant,” Sandlin recalls. “My grandmother lost both of her legs, she was diabetic and she was in a wheelchair for several years, but she still managed to cook and do several things.”

She remembers how when her grandparents had tourists staying at the house, she and her mother would help with the chores, such as the laundry. She remembers her grandmother had “old wringer washer she washed the sheets in and she used bluing to make them look whiter. Then, we climbed the bank and hung them on the clothing line to dry. When they dried, they had to be ironed.”

Her grandparents also developed many friendships with the visitors.

“That was in the day when people visited and sat on the front porch and talked,” Sandlin said.