NEWS

Valley Rewind

Black Mountain News
The first drug stores in Black Mountain were in the railroad depot area. Dr. Clifford Porter operated a pharmacy across the street from the depot for many years. Elijah Kerlee was his assistant. During the boom of the late 1920s, Porter built the building at the corner of State and Broadway that is now Town Hardware. The building Porter vacated across from the depot was later run as a drug store and soda fountain by Roy Campbell. In the late 1930s, Campbell built a modern dance and entertainment facility on Old U.S. 70 with the financial help of a Black Mountain College student and primarily for the use of the college students, the interior of which can be seen in this photograph from the Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center's extensive archive. It was open to the public and called Roy's Inn. Joe Lance ran this business before World War II, and years later it became Peek's Place. The museum in conjunction with Mary Emma Harris' class at UNC Asheville are searching for information and photographs of Roy's at either location.