Fernihurst
Contributors:
Henry Irven Gaines, architect (1930s);
Luther L. Merchant, contractor (1930s)
Dates:
ca. 1875; 1930s
Location:
Asheville, Buncombe County
Street Address:
Victoria Rd., Asheville, NC
Status:
Standing
Type:
Residential
Note:
As related by Gaines in King’s Maelum, in the depths of the Great Depression, Mr. and Mrs. John F. Curran commissioned him to expand and remodel a Victorian residence they had recently acquired—a welcome project when he had no other work. He transformed it with a portico and other Colonial Revival elements. Gaines recalled that he “moved a drafting board out to the Curran house, and while Mr. Merchant [the contractor] proceeded with his work I was busy with the plans. We . . . worked out a sequence of work, listing the plans and details in the order in which he would need them. In this way I managed to keep ahead of the construction workers.”