The 150-year-old Zachary-Tolbert House, one of the first homesteads built in the Cashiers Valley, may well have been lost had it not been for a concerned group of local citizens who became the Cashiers Historical Society.

The Society formed in 1996 as an affiliate of the Village Conservancy to save and protect this historic house located two miles south of Cashiers on Highway 107.

In 1997, Thomas and Wendy Dowden purchased the house from owner Robert Red “Bubba” Tolbert, who wanted to make sure the house and its handmade furniture would be in good hands. The Dowdens donated the house to the Cashiers Historical Society. Under the guidance of Harris Architects of Brevard and the building services of Lupoli Construction of Highlands, the home underwent a restoration and was put on the National Register of Historic Places.

For their efforts, the Cashiers Historical Society received the 2003 Gertrude S. Carraway Award from Preservation North Carolina, an organization that honors individuals or organizations for their commitment to historic preservation in North Carolina.

In the fall of 2005, the Cashiers Historical Society hired Arlene Hendrix as an administrative director of the house to oversee the day-to-day operations and tours.

“It’s just fun for me to see what has transpired over the years,” Hendrix said.

What began with a goal to save a house and a handful of ardent supporters eight years ago has grown into a thriving historical society with 250 members and slate of popular events throughout the year. Annual highlights for the Cashiers Historical Society include Founder’s Day, a hands-on festival for local 3rd- and 4th-graders to tour the Zachary-Tolbert House, and the presentation of the Village Heritage Award, which honors a local business or homeowner that has been able to preserve an historic building in the Cashiers community.

For a weekend in May 2005 at the High Hampton Inn, the Cashiers Historical Society held the Symposium on the Life and Times of Will Thomas, marking the 200th anniversary of his birth. Thomas, a self-made lawyer and businessman, became a Cherokee chief (even though he was white), led a Confederate legion of Cherokees and mountaineers in the Civil War, and later bought up the land that became the Qualla Boundary Cherokee Reservation. Thomas’ story is expected to become more famous with a soon-to-be-released book by Charles Frazier, who penned the international Civil War-era bestseller Cold Mountain.

In June of 2006, the Cashiers Historical Society plans to hold a symposium on Wade Hampton, the Confederate general who was a guest at the Zachary-Tolbert House.

For more information about the Cashiers Historical Society, visit the Web site at www.cashiershistoricalsociety.org or call 828.743.7710. Guided tours of the Zachary-Tolbert House are available 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. each Friday and Saturday from June through September. Tours run about 45 minutes and cost $5.


The history of the Zachary-Tolbert House

Completed in 1852, the Zachary-Tolbert House is an excellent example of Greek revival architecture with its front porch columns. When it was built, it had no electricity, no plumbing, no central heating and no paint on the interior walls. Much of the furniture within the home was hand-crafted by its original owner, Mordecai Zachary, who built the house as a present for his wife Elvira Keener. Mordecai was only 9-years-old when the Zachary family came to the Cashiers Valley in 1832. They were among its first white settlers and built a new homestead on what was previously Cherokee land.

Later on, the house became an inn and summer retreat for well-to-do families and guests such as Confederate General Wade Hampton III. The house was sold to South Carolina statesman Armistead Burt, then to a pair of brothers, and then to the Tolbert family from South Carolina. The Tolberts maintained the house for much of the 20th Century.

The Zachary Tolbert House opened as a public museum in 2001. In 2004, the Cashiers Historical Society received a $15,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina to plan for further additions to the Zachary-Tolbert House and its property. These plans include a pavilion for meetings and special events, a kitchen renovation, archeological work, and hiking trails to be laid out throughout the property.