Life

Museum exhibit highlights Laurel Park history

Craftsman Knox Crowell works on a tiny scale model of the Fleetwood Hotel, which was erected but never completed during the Laurel Park land boom and bust.

By Bill Moss, Published: July 15, 2014

The Henderson County Heritage Museum will unveil the new Golden Age II exhibit on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. and celebrate with an old fashioned Ice Cream Social on the Courthouse Square until 4 p.m.

The new exhibit features a display depicting the history of Laurel Park, including a scale model of Jump Off Mountain and the never-completed Fleetwood Hotel. There will also be a model of the "Dummy Line," a rail car that ran from Main Street out Fifth Avenue into Laurel Park during that era when tourists crowded the area's lakes and pavilions to swim by day and dance by night. Many artifacts and early photographs will complete the presentation.
Another area will display historic photographs of the Wheeler Hotel, which once stood on the hilltop where the Bruce Drysdale Elementary School stands today. The pictures are on loan from the great-granddaughter of David Henry Wheeler, who built the hotel.
Also new will be the Courthouse Room, located on the third floor of the Historic Courthouse, accessible only to guests accompanied by a docent. Unrelated to the Golden Age II but also opening at the same time is a new display cabinet in which the two local chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution will present exhibits. The new exhibit will complement the first Golden Age display.
"The first Golden Age exhibit included the wonderful diorama of the Saluda Grade that the Apple Valley Model Railroad Club made, as well as a late 1800s general store and a pictorial display of the works of early architects here," said Museum Chair Carolyn Justus. "These have been so popular, we decided to leave them in place and expand upon the theme."