First Post Office -1880 

This impressive home was built by Captain Moore around 1800. It was one of the first post offices in this area. The mail was brought in weekly and dumped out of the bag onto the floor and people came there and sorted through it to find letters addressed to them. This picture was taken around 1918.

Local actors and actresses 1896

Players in "Ten Nights In A Bar Room" given in Burnsville around 1896. Reading [left to right] Back Row: Charlie Ray, Julia Ray Silvers, Gaither Parker, George Lewis Riddle, Prof. E. E. Hawkins, Little Ray Chase, Sol Evans. Center Row: E. Frank Watson, Cora Ray Watson, Bert Austin Smith. Seated on the Ground: Oscar Lewis, Fred Ray, J. Bis Ray, Dora Lewis Anglin, John Lyon, Ida Lewis Letterman.     

Old Courthouse, By Hotdog Stand 1918 

Pictured on the extreme left is the original First Baptist Church building in Burnsville. Standing next to the church is the Yancey County Courthouse, built in 1908. The new First Baptist Church has just been built in this photo taken abound 1918 and can be seen just beyond the courthouse. Across the road can be seen Rex Wilson's General Store which sold everything from toothpicks to caskets according to one town historian -- who also stated that he thought when this picture was taken it had changed hands and then was the Monroe McCurry Store. If you look hard at the area just to the right of the courthouse and below the new church you will see Miss Salome Bank's Hamburger and Hotdog stand. She operated it herself and did a good business. 

General Stores On Town Square , East Side, 1918

The east side of the town square around 1918 held John Evans store [on the left] and George Anglin's Store [on the right]. These general stores did a good business and the building which housed Evan's Store was not torn down until recent years.       

 Town Square , South  Side, 1918

In this picture of the town square, south side, taken around 1918, the Nu Wray Inn stands on the left. Just to the right of the statue of Otway Burns is a building which was used as sort of a museum by Mr. G. D. Ray. The building on the right housed the Citizens Bank originally.         

Town Square , North  Side, 1918

The scene on the north side of the town square as it appeared around 1918. The house on the left is know  as the Carter House [Sol Carter]. He was  a Captain in the Civil War. This house stood where the Baptist Church is now located. The Jule Abernathy House is just across the road [now the Old Green Mountain Road]. In the extreme front corner of the picture , on the right, is an old knotty locust next to the Inn by which was located the first Gas Tank in town.        

Nu-Wray Inn 

No one is sure when the inn first opened her doors. In the beginning she was a trading post with a few rooms for lodgers traveling in the area. The first proprietor was Bacchus Smith who, sometime in the early 1830's sold his building to Mr. Milton Penland, a wealthy slave owner of Yancey County. Mr. Penland established the inn as a permanent lodging and operated it prior to the time that Garrett Dewese Ray acquired control in 1870.  See The Nu Wray Inn web site.   

Stanley McCormick School (early 1900s)

The Stanley McCormick School became the Carolina New College which closed down in 1928. The Terrell House B&B in Burnsville was originally built as a girl's dormitory for the Stanley McCormick School.