Vance Monument
The Vance Monument was a late 19th-century granite obelisk in Asheville, North Carolina, that memorialized Zebulon Vance, a former North Carolina governor from the area. The monument was designed by architect Richard Sharp Smith and was an "iconic landmark" and key structure in the Downtown Asheville Historic District. Smith was the supervising architect for George W. Vanderbilt's Biltmore Estate and the leading architect of the region in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He donated his services to design the monument, which was a project envisioned by community leaders.
The Vance Monument was mostly funded by George Willis Pack, a New Yorker who had recently moved to Asheville. Other contributors included Jewish organizations and politicians and businesses from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Massachusetts. In addition to serving three terms as governor of North Carolina, Vance was a United States Congressman before the Civil War and a United States senator from 1880 until he died in 1894. The project's donors reflected Vance's influence and reach as both a politician and popular speaker of the era.
In the early 21st century, concerns were raised about the monument because of its association with Vance, a former slave owner. The monument was removed by the City of Asheville in May 2021.
History
Zebulon Vance was a United States Congressman before the Civil War, Governor of North Carolina during and after the war, and a United States senator from 1880 until his death in 1894. He was born in a log cabin in Buncombe County, about south of Asheville, and later practiced law and lived in Asheville before entering politics.Vance Monument Association
In May 1896, the Vance Monument Association was organized by George S. Powell and George Willis Pack, a New Yorker who had recently moved to Asheville from Cleveland, Ohio. Other members of the association included W. D Gwyn Esq., J. P. Kerr, John A. Nichols, Thomas Walton Patton, J. E. Rankin, and J. P. Sawyer who was its treasurer.Chaired by Powell, the association's purpose was to raise funds and collect subscriptions or pledges to create a memorial for Vance. The association held fundraising events, including a performance of Punch Robertson Company at the Grand Opera House. Twenty volunteers under the leadership of Mrs. John M. Campbell went door to door to raise funds and sell tickets to the charity event. There was another community-wide fundraiser on July 4, 1896, at Battery Park Hill.
Pack donated $2,000, or nearly two-thirds of the $3,326 raised, equivalent to $ in 2023. He made his pledge on the condition that Buncombe County would give land in front of the courthouse for a monument to Vance in perpetuity; the county promptly passed a resolution. Other contributors included Jewish organizations, Senator Mathew S. Quay of Pennsylvania, Senator Blair Lee of Maryland, Philadelphia paper firm A. G. Elliott & Company, S. Hecht Jr & Son of Baltimore, and James Logan of the Logan, Swift and Brigham Envelope Company in Worcester, Massachusetts. English-born Logan wrote, "I, too, looked upon Senator Vance as one of the large men of North Carolina. I did not always agree with him, but that is not strange. Our training was wonderfully different."
In September 1897, the Asheville Daily Citizen noted, "The fact that George W. Pack gave about two-thirds of the money for the building of the memorial to Senator Vance speaks far more eloquently in Mr. Pack's favor than it does for the people of Senator Vance's old home county of Buncombe." Contributions were also made by the Buncombe County communities of Black Mountain, French Broad, and Swannanoa.
Pack's goal for the monument was "to inspire civic pride and virtue in mountaineers". Both Pack and the association agreed that the monument should not be a statue of Vance given the limited budget. The most popular idea discussed by the association was a granite shaft on a base.
The association appointed a Ladies Auxiliary to design and care for the grounds around the monument and raise funds for the dedication ceremony. So that the association could wrap up its operations after the monument's dedication, there was a call on May 6, 1898, asking donors to pay the final $75 due from subscriptions. On May 9, all but $35 had been paid.
Designer selection
In June 1897, the association asked for bids to design "a single shaft fashioned after the Washington Monument and placed on a substantial pedestal". Designs for the monument were submitted by firms from Asheville; Atlanta, Georgia; Augusta, Georgia; Charlotte, North Carolina; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Greensboro, North Carolina; Mount Airy, North Carolina; Pacolet, South Carolina; and New England. F. M. Miles, a sculptor from Asheville, submitted two models, one of which was displayed at the A. Trifield cigar store on Patton Avenue in Asheville. The association indicated they preferred "a monument that is plain, in keeping with the plain, sturdy character of the man in whose memory it is to be erected."More than three weeks after the deadline for design submissions, The Asheville Daily Citizen announced that Asheville artchitect Richard Sharp Smith was drawing plans for the association. On September 9, the association announced their selection of Smith, a native of England who was known for his work as the supervising architect of Biltmore Estate and had just opened a private architectural practice in Asheville. In addition to his solid reputation and local affiliation, Smith agreed to work free of charge. Smith submitted three designs to the association: the selected design in two heights——and a third design that was a fluted column tall. The association requested a revision of the former that was tall, along with completed drawings and work specifications.
Groundbreaking ceremony
The Vance Monument Association held a groundbreaking ceremony on the winter solstice, December 22, 1897, at the western head of Court Square. The cornerstone was laid in the northeast corner of the monument in a rare public Masonic ceremony by Grand Master Walter E. Moore of the North Carolina Grand Lodge. The gavel used by Moore was made for the event by George Donnan of Market Street Woodworking from locust procured at Vance's birthplace. Moore was joined on the stage by other Masons and members of the Zebulon Vance Camp of the United Confederate Veterans.The Masonic ceremony began with a procession of seventy Masons from the Patton Avenue Lodge to the monument site in Court Square. Moore placed a copper box under the cornerstone, containing a Bible, the Charter and Code for the City of Asheville, an honor roll from the city schools, a muster roll for Vance's Rough and Ready regiment, current issues of all local newspapers including The Colored Enterprise, proceedings of North Carolina's Grand Lodge, a program for the day's event, newly minted United States coins, and a yearbook for the City of Asheville. The groundbreaking included music by the Asheville Orchestra, oration by Dr. R. R. Swope D.D., and local school children singing "The Old North State" and "America".
Asheville's Zeb Vance Democratic Club was not included in the groundbreaking ceremony, although the group offered their members as speakers for the event. In October 1897, this group had ordered 1,000 club buttons featuring a picture of Vance and the words "white supremacy" and "ZVDC".
Construction
On September 10, 1897, two days after he met with the association, Smith ran an ad in the local newspaper calling for contractors to bid on the construction of the monument. Ten bids were submitted by firms from Asheville, Atlanta, Georgia; Augusta, Georgia; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Pacolet, South Carolina; and Wilmington, North Carolina. The contract was awarded to James G. Colvin of Asheville, who bid $2,758. There was also a call for bids on granite from the Mount Airy and Salisbury quarries in North Carolina, and the quarry in Pacolet, South Carolina. Southern Railway Company offered to reduce the freight rate for shipping from the North Carolina quarries. However, J. C. Johnson of the Keystone Granite Quarry in Pacolet received the contract and had quarried the stone by mid-November 1897.The association decided the best place for the monument was on Court Square where there was an existing water fountain. This location was approved by Asheville's Board of Aldermen and Buncombe County's Commissioners, with the fountain being removed on September 27, 1897. Lines from the Asheville Telephone Exchange that crossed court square near the proposed location were relocated to a back street.
R.M. Ramsay received the contract to dig the monument's foundation and began work on October 23, 1897. The first shovelful of dirt was thrown by John Y. Jordan, with the second by John O'Donnell. By October 28, the foundation was excavated and contractor Colvin was installing of cement for the monument's foundation.
The groundbreaking ceremony of December 22, 1897, laid the monument's cornerstone. By January 6, 1898, polished granite panels for the pedestal had arrived and were being installed. However, after two panels were installed, superintendent of construction and architect Smith rejected both because the stone had a naturally occurring white line running diagonally across it. This defect was not visible until the granite was polished. Replacement stones were ordered from the Keystone Granite Quarry. The next day, the first capstone was moved from the railroad station to the construction site; it weighed over six tons and took eight mules to move it. Each stone cost more than $100, delivered. On February 4, 1898, four railroad cars of granite arrived from South Carolina, including the replacement pedestal panels.
Once the pedestal was completed, work began on placing the stone for the obelisk. Each stone block was raised by attaching it to a derrick boom lift, using rope and chain. A team of men then used a windlass to raise the stone, one inch at a time. While using a boom to raise a capstone over the monument on February 27, 1898, one of the ropes on the block slipped and fell to the ground. Instead of having to lower the block to the ground, Will Ward, a climber with the Asheville Telephone Exchange, came to the rescue. To get a new rope lashed to the block, he climbed a distance of hand over hand to the peak on the monument. His climb took ten minutes and nearly ended in tragedy when he accidentally slid partway down the line provided for his descent. Ward got construction back on track, with plans to install the capstone the next day.
By March 8, 1898, only of the monument remained to be constructed. The next day several hundred people and photographers gathered at Court Square, with others at the courthouse tower, to watch the placement of the final pyramidal top stone which weighed. The plan was to move the stone block to the top of the obelisk, and then use the derrick to raise stonemason Hugh Crawford to the top of the monument via a rope tied around his waist. However, as the workers were using the windlass to raise the stone, the boom started to lean slightly to the south. Once the stone was raised several feet off of the ground, it started to hang to the north like a giant plum bob. The boom "groaned and strained" and there was the sound of timbers cracking. As the crowd panicked and rushed to safety, one man tripped over an apple vendor's baskets, causing apples to roll everywhere. However, the windlass men gave enough rope to relieve the strain on the boom and safely brought the stone to the ground. They determined that the problem was caused by the breaking of a board that was part of the splicing of the boom; the boom had to be lowered and re-spliced and lashed before work could continue.
As the crowd gathered the next day to watch the second attempt at placing the top stone, they stayed farther away for safety. However, the repaired boom worked and the stone was placed on the obelisk with "absolute smoothness". Throughout the entire construction process, there were no injuries.