The Carolina Connection

Cynthia Barnett | 10/1/2007

[Photo: Kelly LaDuke]

Florida’s connection to the mountains of North Carolina dates to the late 19th century. University of South Florida historian Gary Mormino says those who could afford it began to leave coastal Florida each summer to escape annual scourges of deadly yellow fever.

Asheville area leaders worked shrewdly to make sure their region became a major destination for those fleeing other states, says Western Carolina University history professor Richard D. Starnes, author of “Creating the Land of the Sky: Tourism and Society in Western North Carolina.” During south Florida’s real estate boom in the 1920s, the Asheville chamber hired director Fred Weede away from the Miami chamber, “a clear statement that Asheville wanted what was happening in Miami,” Starnes says.

Boom towns like Palm Beach and Miami had proven that transportation — rail or road — was key to landing tourists and second-home buyers. Weede was among the North Carolina leaders who persuaded federal officials to route the Blue Ridge Parkway through North Carolina, excluding rival mountain destinations in Tennessee.

Throughout the 20th century, Asheville’s real estate fortunes were tied closely to Florida’s. “You see many of the same people operating under different business names in both markets, and the same speculators speculating in both markets,” Starnes says. In the 1930s, he says, “When the Florida market crashed, the Asheville market followed.”

Starnes, North Carolina real estate agents and others say they see a similar symbiosis today. “We can pretty much connect the dots,” says Tom Tveidt, director of research with the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, who tracks migration data for Buncombe, Madison, Haywood and Henderson counties. Tveidt’s research shows Florida is the top feeder state by far.

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Tags: North Central, Housing/Construction