Valley Rewind: Penwood House

In this 1911 photograph from the Swannanoa Valley Museum and History Center's archives, a group poses in front of the Penland boarding house in Swannanoa. Known variously as the Penland and Penwood boarding house, this elegant wood-frame structure stood on the north side of the railroad tracks in downtown Swannanoa. The house was run for a time as the "Penland Farm tourist home" by Bessie Penland, a lifelong resident of Swannanoa who passed away in 1948. Later, the structure became known as the Jones boarding house when it was run by Veltie T. Jones and his wife Manila Lyons Jones, who also operated the adjacent Jones trailer park. On June 11th of this year, a fire destroyed the building, which had been abandoned for some number of years.