In honor of the start of another school year in the Swannanoa Valley, we’re reprinting (see at left) this 1862 advertisement for the short-lived Swannanoa Male and Female Academy, a school that operated during the time of the Civil War. The advertisement proclaims that the school is located in “. . . a moral, enterprising and intelligent community. Swannanoa is eminently healthy, and in the present excited condition of the country, its geographical location renders it a quiet and safe retreat.”
True to the advertisement, there were no battles in the Swannanoa Valley during the Civil War.
NOTE: The above is excerpted, with permission of the author, from the book Images of America, Swannanoa, by Anne E. Chesky Smith. The book is available for purchase at the Swannanoa Valley Museum, 223 West State Street, in Black Mountain. Cost is $22 ($20 for museum members).