Rough stonework and half-timbering give the substantial bungalow a naturalistic character in keeping with its wooded site.

A favorite landmark on the main street of the state capital, the Art Deco style movie theater—considered Raleigh’s foremost movie theater—was one of many designed by Stillwell, most of which have been lost. This one was razed in the 1970s when Fayetteville Street was made into a mall. See Mitchell, Building as History and the website “Going to the Show” for images of this and many others of his theaters.

One of Stilwell’s most imposing residences, the elaborately detailed Georgian Revival house occupies a large, wooded lot in the sylvan suburban community.

The private boys’ school was the pride of Hendersonville for more than 50 years, and Stillwell designed most of its buildings.

During the 1930s Stillwell began a long relationship with the Western North Carolinia Teachers College (now Western Carolina University). On his own and with Six Associates, he planned several buildings, beginning with Breese Gymnasium. It was erected with WPA assistance; some accounts state it was built with student labor and of native stone.

A stone portico gives a classical formality to the relatively small building.

The substantial stone building followed Stillwell’s general plans from the Davidson River School. It replaced a circa 1920 frame Rosenwald School, built with assistance from the Julius Rosenwald Fund, that burned in 1941.

One of the few of Stillwell’s movie theaters still standing in the state (though no longer used as a theater), its red brick “Colonial” design was meant to fit in with Chapel Hill’s “village” vocabulary.

The magnificently showy theater was the pride of Durham for many years, a bold composition in the moderne or Art Deco style that dominated movie theater architecture in its day. The rounded corner and stepped lines made the most of the corner location.

The Center was High Point’s largest movie theater and one of the few of Stillwell’s surviving theaters.

At the apex of the real estate boom, Hendersonville’s chamber of commerce commissioned plans for a grand skyscraper that epitomized the town’s success and prospects. Stillwell’s drawings show a sequence of ever taller designs, the last of which reached more than 10 stories. Working drawings were made, and the basement was excavated and foundations were laid before the Florida land boom collapsed and with it the boom it had fed in western N.C. towns. Construction on the ambitious building stopped before it rose any higher; eventually some small buildings were erected atop the basement. Another ambitious scheme in the area ended by the Florida crash was the Fleetwood Hotel at nearby Laurel Park, a still taller building planned by architects Henry Irvin Gaines and Beacham and LeGrand of Asheville, had reached a full 13 stories in height before construction stopped, and it was torn down in 1936 and its plumbing fixtures and other materials reused throughout the area.

Among Stillwell’s premier examples of the Georgian Revival style, the large house combines carefully proportioned forms with fine craftsmanship and details.

Stillwell’s initial design for the Ambler house was a formal, Georgian Revival composition, but probably at the client’s request, Stillwell designed the present Tudor Revival residence with its dramatic, asymmetrical form and plan. Ambler was a physician active in the region’s natural conservation efforts including the formation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Mt. Ambler is named for him.

For the Episcopal boys’ school founded in 1900, Stillwell designed several buildings of local rough-cut brown stone quarried from the site.These complement the Gothic Revival chapel (1905), which was probably designed by school founder Thomas Wetmore. Stillwell’s initial connection came through his partner, H. C. Meyer, who planned a classroom building in 1913, and Stillwell alone designed dormitories in 1930 and 1937, Wetmore Hall in 1940, and other buildings.

One of many early 20^th century banks of this type, the columned entrance set in antis and pilasters along the side emphasize the prominent corner location of the bank.

One of several schools planned by Stillwell in the 1930s and 1940, the 1-story building of local stone features an unusual Art Deco inspired entrance pavilion; it has been used for a variety of purposes.

The 2-story, red brick public school typifies many of its era of widespread public school building throughout the state. Some of its original classical detailing has been removed. It was one of several schools Stillwell planned in the area.

Stillwell invested heavily in the booming real estate economy of Hendersonville, including purchasing this lot in 1920, where he built this substantial Norman Revival stone house as his own residence in 1925. The real estate boom crash in 1926 cost him heavily and was followed by the Great Depression; Stillwell had to sell the house in 1931.

The stone façade graced with garlands at the cornice line has a strong presence in the streetscape.

Across from its nearly contemporary neighbor, Citizen’s National Bank, this larger building commands its prominent corner with tall pilasters in yellow brick and contrasting classical detail.

The authorship of this large, neoclassical brick church is especially interesting, since Stillwell’s records show that architect Baylor of the Methodist Board of Church had a role in its design. It is known that such sources often provided church designs, but thus far little is known of the process. Although Stillwell did not sign the drawings, they are in his papers and show his usual drawing style.

The Tudor Revival house with half-timbering is one of several houses Stillwell planned for the Ewbank family.

The picturesque, rural Tudor Revival residence of stone and half-timbering featured a plan with wings and porches intended to catch the cooling breezes; it has been substantially altered from its original character.

As the leading resident architect in Hendersonville, it was appropriate that Stillwell designed its principal civic building. Red brick with classical detail, it features a prominent portico and a columned loggia on the side façade.

Amid the great educational building campaign of the 1920s Stillwell designed the imposing high school, which was meant to accommodate eleven grades and had first-rate facilities including a gym and an auditorium, the latter of which serves the local public as well as the school.

The Browns asked Stillwell to design their residence after a house they had seen in Rueil, France.

Stillwell designed the large mountain inn with its chestnut bark walls to replace an earlier hostelry of the same that had burned. It is a remarkable survival from the many rustic mountain inns that once welcomed visitors to the region. Its owner, E. L. McKee, also owned the Sylva Tanning Company, which produced tannin from the chestnut trees. Construction of the inn provided welcome local employment in the depths of the Great Depression.

These relatively modest bungalows, apparently Stillwell’s first commission, were probably built as speculative houses for resale or rental.

This was Stillwell’s first major commission. The hilltop site sets off the imposing composition of the large stone house with full-height portico; like other Flat Rock residences, it was built for a family with Charleston connections.

The 2-story brick commercial building is one of several such structures Stillwell planned in his adopted home town, and which help define the downtown character.

Beginning in the late 19^th century, Hendersonville civic leader William A. Smith invested in and began to develop a large “summer playground” on a tract west of town. By the early 20^th century, it featured lakes, pavilions, and drew crowds from far and wide. In 1911 he began selling lots for residential construction, and eventually sold off his investment in 1922. His son-in-law, Stillwell, likewise invested in the enterprise, and provided designs for the Casino, a golf club, and likely many other structures. The collapse of the land boom brought the development to a halt, and none of the early buildings is known to survive. A few years later, new investors began construction of the skyscraper known as the Fleetwood by architects Henry Irvin Gaines and Beacham and LeGrand, which was never completed and was eventually razed.

The original Lynncote I was a picturesque stone house planned for the Erskine family in the 1890s and attributed to architect Richard Sharp Smith. It was gutted by fire in 1916, and several years later an Erskine daughter, Susan, and her husband, Carroll Pickens Rogers, commissioned Stillwell to rebuild and use the surviving stone walls. He produced a dramatically picturesque Tudor Revival residence that is one of the finest of its style in western North Carolina.

The restrained classical design features simple pilasters defining the large windows of the upper two stories.

Funded by the PWA, this was built as a school building to give WCTC students practical experience and training as teachers. Along with other Stillwell designs on the campus, including Hoey Auditorium and Robertson Hall, it features red brick and classical detailing and has been remodeled. During this same period, noted landscape architect E. S. Draper created a campus plan, which Stillwell followed.

The rustic residence of local stone and wood complements its rural, wooded setting.

Mountain Lodge was among the earliest houses built for wealthy Charlestonians who created a summer retreat community at Flat Rock. It began as a hip roofed house with square plan; Stillwell’s 1936 addition doubled its size, with a large wing on one side, a sun room on the other, and a dramatic full-height portico.

After Stillwell’s fortunes rebounded when he became a favorite of the Wilby-Kincey franchise of Paramount Theaters, he designed this relatively modest Norman-influenced residence “for Mrs. Erle Stillwell” next door to the larger residence he had lost in 1931. He and Eva lived there for the rest of their lives. The brick walls originally had a white wash or stuccoed surfact that enhanced the Norman character. (If hte property was actually in Eva’s name, that was a frequent strategy to protect the wife’s financial security.)

The picturesque brick residence won a design award for Stillwell from the North Carolina chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1929. The drawings include a landscape plan by Beadle and Swope; Chauncey Beadle was associated with the Biltmore Estate and a founder of the Biltmore Forest community; he designed numerous landscape plans in the Asheville area.

Stillwell designed the Tudor Revival residence for Smart, regional manager for the Wilby-Kincey theater chain for which Stillwell planned a large number of movie theaters.

A rare example of the architect’s work in a Mediterranean mode; a Tudor Revival scheme was also considered.

Stillwell was a member of the parish and is said to have traveled in England with the parish priest. The parish began plans for a new church in English Gothic style, to be built in stages. Economic problems delayed completion, and the chancel and chapel were completed in the 1950s and the nave in the 1960s.

The modest Art Deco style theater across Hillsborough St. from the North Carolina State University campus maintains its striking presence in the streetscape, though the interior has been remade for a new use.

The Mediterranean style house, one of the few by Stillwell in that mode, was built for Knight, a businessman from St. Augustine, Florida, and a founder of the Biltmore Forest community. About 1925 he commissioned a more elaborate residence by Stillwell, which was never built, perhaps because of the collapse of the Florida land boom in 1926. Knight had another house built in 1927 from plans by architect William W. Dodge (see William A. Knight House II).

The spacious bungalow features bold half-timbered effects in Tudor Revival style. The drawings are undated.

The dramatic and colorful Art Deco theater has been renovated for use as offices.