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Richmond Hill House
Photo courtesy of Richmond
Hill House |
The Richmond Hill House is located northwest of Asheville on a bluff
high above the French Broad River. The Victorian mansion was built in
1889 as the private residence of ambassador and congressman Richmond
Pearson. Considered one of the most elegant and innovative buildings
of its time, the house was designed by James G. Hill of Washington D.C.,
Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury in the 1870s and 1880s. The site of the estate, originally purchased by Richmond Pearson's
father, was part of 820 acres inherited by Richmond Pearson and his
four siblings.
Historic view of Richmond Hill House
Photo courtesy of North
Carolina Collection, Pack Memorial Public Library, Asheville,
North Carolina
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By 1879, Pearson had spent nearly $3,000 purchasing his siblings' shares
and held full title to the property. In 1882, Richmond married Gabrielle
Thomas and a few years later, the couple moved to Asheville and decided
to build a home on the estate. Despite being a 30 minute carriage ride
away from Asheville, Richmond Hill was a center of social and political
activity for many years. The Queen Anne style mansion could accommodate
large gatherings and Richmond's beautiful and vivacious wife, Gabrielle,
was a gracious hostess. After Richmond's death in 1923 and Gabrielle's death in 1924, the estate
was left to their two children Marjorie Noel and James Thomas Pearson.
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The Oak Hall in Richmond Hill House
Photo courtesy of the
Richmond Hill Inn |
The house remained closed for nearly 27 years until Marjorie and Thomas
returned, made some renovations and opened it to the public as a
museum in 1953. Both Thomas and his father collected valuable objects
from all over the world. These objects, combined with family heirlooms
and antiques awed visitors to Richmond Hill, many of whom
were conducted through the house by Thomas Pearson himself. Neither
Marjorie nor Thomas ever married. Before Thomas's death in 1963, he
and his sister sold the remaining Pearson property along the French
Broad River, including 29 acres of the Richmond Hill tract, to developers
of the Bingham Heights residential community. Following Marjorie's death
in 1972, the Pearson family sold Richmond Hill to the Western North
Carolina Baptist Retirement Home. After many years as a focal point
in the community, the mansion faced demolition in 1978. In an effort
to preserve and rehabilitate Richmond Hill, the Preservation Society
of Asheville and Buncombe County moved the house 600 feet from its original
location in 1984, on land that was part of the original estate. The
Mansion was reopened as an inn in 1989. In 2005, the inn was sold to William Gray who fell behind on his mortgage payments. The inn was subsequently foreclosed. The house was destroyed by a fire on March 19th 2009 due supposedly to arson. In February of 2010, the inn ceased operations and was demolished.
The Richmond Hill House is located at 87 Richmond Hill Dr.
The inn is no longer available to the public since it was destroyed.
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