Watch our news interview on WLOS-TV 13 with Charu Kumarhia, 5pm or 6pm EDT Tues. April 26, or wlos.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Saving the Merrimon Magnolia and George Pack’s stone wall
A large heritage magnolia on the former site of George W. Pack’s
mansion — now slated for a new Harris Teeter grocery store — could
be picked up and moved by a California company that claims the
Guinness World Record for the largest tree ever moved. The old tree is
in need of a new home, however.
An architecturally unique feature of the massive retaining wall that
once bounded Pack’s “Manyoaks” property will unfortunately be
demolished for the new store. Its stones will be incorporated into an
expanded bus stop at the site at 136 Merrimon Ave., which will include
a memorial to Pack. But anyone who wants to see the impressively
built, brick-paved carriage entrance to Manyoaks had better hurry,
because it will soon be added to the ever-lengthening roll of
Asheville’s lost historic treasures.
1) The magnolia tree
Asheville residents have been urging Harris Teeter to save the stately
magnolia at Merrimon and Chestnut through a Facebook page
(http://www.facebook.com/merrimon.magnolia), letters to the editor,
and a postcard campaign directed toward Harris Teeter’s president,
Fred Morgenthall, a resident of Charlotte
(https://oldenwilde.org/blog/93/take-action/send-a-postcard-to-save-the-merrimon-magnolia/).
At the final Technical Review Committee meeting last week that granted
the city’s approval to the development, Harris Teeter’s
representative, Garland Hughes, noted that grading requirements
related to the site’s brownfields status would not allow the magnolia
to remain in place. He assured concerned citizens, however, that the
company is interested in relocating the tree (as well as planting many
more trees on the site), had spoken about it with the city’s arborist,
Mark Foster, and would be open to proposals for doing so.
Moving big trees is not something many, if any, area arborists and
landscapers are equipped to do. So I followed a tip from local
landscape contractor Steve Ambrose and contacted the Senna Tree
Company in La Crescenta, Calif. Senna’s website, www.sennatree.com,
shows the company transporting an 80-ton oak to a new site (I don’t
know if that is the tree that won them the world’s record!).
Surprisingly, the California company knows a lot about moving large
magnolia trees, I learned from president John Mote in an April 25
phone conversation, since they are a popular landscaping feature for
antebellum-style homes in the West. Based on the measurements and
photos I gave him (see
http://oldenwilde.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=89), he informally
estimated his company could send a few men out here and relocate the
tree for about $25,000 to $30,000. [NOTE: $25,000 is just 1/100th of what Harris Teeter President Fred Morganthall makes in 1 year, and he is not even the company’s highest-paid executive. So this should be quite affordable! — S.R.]
Where to move the tree to, however, has not been decided. To survive,
the tree will need some 74 cubic feet of water twice a week without
interruption for months after transplanting, till it recovers from the
shock. One possibility I am suggesting to officials might be a nearby
public park or city greenway, where Parks and Recreation personnel and
citizen volunteers could ensure that it receives the regular attention
it needs during that period (and where it’s not likely to be uprooted
yet again by yet another building project).
2) The stone wall
In the late 1800s, several years before making his famous donation of
Pack Square to the city, George W. Pack built a grand mansion on
Merrimon Ave. that he named “Manyoaks.” The mansion was, sadly,
demolished in the 1960s or 1970s around the time the last Pack
descendant living in the house died, and the property became the Deal
Motor Company lot. [NOTE: After the last local Pack owner died, the mansion became a funeral home, and then was demolished when Deal Motor Company bought the lot, according to a longtime neighbor. — S.R.]
But the massive stone retaining wall along Chestnut and Holland
Streets was left in place, along with two stone pillars and a section
of wrought-iron fence next to Merrimon. (Now only one pillar, thanks
to an auto accident last fall.)
As can be seen from the photo gallery at
http://www.oldenwilde.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=29, a carriage
entrance graces the wall on Chestnut near Merrimon. The carefully
curved stonework of the entrance that terminates in two pillars is
unusual.
In response to public and official requests, Harris Teeter designed
its site plan so as to keep as much of the wall as its engineers
deemed possible. The stretch along Holland will remain intact
(although it will be penetrated by a pedestrian entrance), as will
much of the wall along Chestnut Street, which will not be widened
owing to neighborhood traffic concerns. However, the company will
install a large parking-lot entrance where the carriage entrance
stands now.
Harris Teeter is working with the city and the Asheville-Buncombe
Preservation Society to design an expanded bus stop at the present
stop on Merrimon by Chestnut, which will incorporate portions of the
demolished wall and possibly the iron fence and pillar on Merrimon. It
will likely include a historical plaque commemorating Pack’s former
residence here.
For more information:
Garland Hughes, Harris Teeter representative: (704)367-5003,
(704)622-5855, ghughes@mpvre.com
John Mote, Pres., Senna Tree Company: (818)957-5755, (818)279-3054,
www.sennatree.com
Jack Thomson, Director, Preservation Society of Asheville and Buncombe
County: (828)254-2343, director@psabc.org
Julia Fields, City Planning staff: JFields@ashevillenc.gov
Photos and information about the Manyoaks site:
http://www.oldenwilde.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=29 and Montford
Newsletter article “Elegant Relics on a Car Lot: George Pack’s Lost
Merrimon Avenue Mansion”, http://montford.org/?p=953
— Steve Rasmussen
(828) 335-2486
(828) 251-0343