THE
OLD RED
HOUSE
The Red House on Probarte Street, now by
common consent the Old Red House, was probably
the first building on the Brevard plateau. Its story
presents an economic pattern quite characteristic
of this region, and the homely anecdotes that
cluster about it originated with pioneer village
life.
The sturdy frame building with its shell of red
concrete, its double south porches, and awkward,
overhanging roof, cocks a heavy shoulder to the
street. It was there when Probarte Street was an
indefinite wagon track, skirting the bit of open
swamp that laid between the heavy woods of
the Indian mound and the lighter oaks and maples
that stretched to the bluffs of the French Broad.
Here in 1851 the old house began life as a trad
ing post. Once each year mountain products
were sent to Charleston by wagon train. The
store and the rooms for the storekeeper formed
a rambling one-story building, which rested on the
hand-hewed logs that still support the house.
By 1860 the valley was filling up. Several
families had already established themselves in
the Davidson River neighborhood and along the
upper French Broad, many of them were grand
parents of Ecusta employees. The iron mine on
East Fork, which furnished ore for forging guns,
used in the Revolutionary battle of King’s Moun
tain, was still being worked. Indeed the section
was booming and the Secretary of State, Zebulon
Vance, was busy signing papers for Transylvania
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