Brevard is the county seat of Transylvania County in western North Carolina, with a population of less than eight thousand in a little over five square miles.
It is surrounded by Pisgah National Forest, DuPont Recreational State Forest, and the French Broad River, located about 25 miles south of Asheville and 8 miles north of the South Carolina state border.
Brevard is known as the Land of Waterfalls which include Looking Glass Falls, Sliding Rock, Slick Rock Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, Rainbow Falls, Moore Cove Falls, Hooker Falls, Triple Falls, Turtleback Falls, and so many more.
Scottish and Irish immigrants settled this region in the 1800s, drawn in by the homely green valleys and winding French Broad River, making it ideal for farming.
In the mid-1800s there were enough people to start a town center near present day Rock Springs. State Representative, Joseph P. Jordan, created a bill in 1861 to create a new county from parts of Henderson and Jackson Counties, calling it “Transylvania” which is Latin for “across the woods.”
Soon, a group of wealthy local men donated fifty acres to create the new town of Brevard, named after a highly respected surgeon named Ephram Brevard.
It would be another 38 years before the Transylvania Railroad laid its tracks but in the meantime, residents of the new Brevard set to work creating a courthouse, jail, churches, homes, and small businesses.
When the train routes were established, residents of Brevard had easy access to the larger town of Hendersonville among other towns, supported the timber industry, and contributed to the tourist economy of wealthy families coming in to stay at Lake Toxaway.
Learn more about Brevard and regional history by visiting the Transylvania Heritage Museum.
Brevard is famous for its white squirrels. You will see the motif all over downtown mixed into decor, business logos, souvenirs, murals, and everything else.
White Squirrels are not albinos, they are variants of the Eastern Grey Squirrel, and they usually have a small streak or two of grey in their fur.
In 1986, Brevard City Council established an ordinance of sanctuary for these prized white squirrels, making it “unlawful for any person to hunt, kill, trap, or otherwise take any protected squirrels within the city.”
The photos are blurry because the squirrels move so quickly that they are hard to capture, but I may not have believed in them if I had not seen them for myself.
I am pleased to report that we are now on a first name basis with a local white squirrel, Mr. Nutterbutter, thanks to a really chill lady who had no hesitation about inviting us into her yard for a close up.
The following day, my bestie spotted another white squirrel AND a black bear in Lake Toxaway. You should have heard us carrying on!
Brevard College has kept Brevard at the top of academic lists for music performance, athletics, and environmental studies.
Festivals like the White Squirrel Festival, Brevard Music Center Summer Festival, Halloweenfest in Transylvania, the Twilight Tour, and the Plein Air Open Air Festival draw new visitors each year.
We attended the Plein Air festival last weekend and had a blast talking to local artists and business owners, having our photo taken with a dude in a white squirrel costume, and picking up a few treasures.
Navigating downtown Brevard is incredibly easy and we found plenty of paid parking lots down all the side streets off Main Street, even during the Plein Air festival.
Main Street, Broad Street, and King Street are the primary streets for entertainment, shopping, dining, and galleries.
You can wander aimlessly or follow the sculpture trail and the bike path brewery trail once you get parked.
MUSEUMS & HISTORIC SITES
In addition to the Transylvania Heritage Museum I mentioned earlier, the Cradle of Forestry Museum, the historic Allison-Deaver House, and the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) Dark Sky Park are all fascinating places to visit in Brevard.
We honestly did not have time to visit Cradle of Forestry, and neither the Allison-Deaver House or PARI were accepting tours at the time of our visit, but there was so much more to see.
Silvermont Mansion is a 1900s Colonial Revival mansion with 33 rooms, and it is surrounded by an eight-acre park with gardens that include a paved 0.4 mile ADA-compliant trail, basketball courts, tennis courts, and a playground, and the Transylvania County Walk of History trail.
The mansion once belonged to the family of Joseph Silversteen, a Russian immigrant who spearheaded the tanning and lumber industries, eventually becoming a magnate with multiple businesses that employed the region’s workforce.
He and his wife, Elizabeth Mount, were beloved philanthropists who donated land to create public schools and churches, paid to build better roads, voluntarily worked in a wide variety of public service offices, and left many historic buildings to the people of the town.
The Inn at Brevard has been known in the past by other names like the William Breese Jr. House and the Colonial Inn.
As soon as we arrived, I noticed was that the inn’s porch ceilings are painted a nice haint blue, which is typically found closer to the coast.
According to the website, this Classical Revival style home was built in 1855 and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1983.
Other online sources say 1902, some say it was called the Transylvania Inn, and many seem to mix up this house with another that is no longer standing. I wish the history of this property was more clear.
Prior to 1901, the land was part of the Franklin Park community, but now it is classified in the East Main Street Historic District.
A woman named Martha Woodbridge purchased the property for a mere $1,000 as a home for herself, her daughter, and her son-in-law, William Breese Jr.
Woodbridge opened the house as the Colonial Inn in 1955, taking in guests and boarders on a steady basis.
These facts are generally agreed upon consistently through various property records and newspaper websites.
A local business owner told us that Woodbridge was once investigated by the FBI under suspicion about missing people, only to find out that she was sheltering abused women and children, helping them take on new names and identities and move away from their abusers.
She said Woodbridge was even interviewed on Oprah once. I have spent almost two hours scouring the internet and old newspaper articles, and can find absolutely NOTHING of the sort, so I think we were trolled.
Good one, Mary.
Anyways, when we arrived to inquire about staying the night, the place was completely empty. Doors unlocked, lights on, all their fancy antiques and art sitting out, and not another person in the building. It was super eerie. Does anyone know what is actually going on there?
The attractive Italianate style Transylvania County Courthouse sits adjacent to the Veterans History Museum of the Carolinas.
We had a nice stroll around the grounds, admiring all the animal statues and war memorials, but the museum was not open at the time of our visit.
Transylvania Trust Co. was once the home of Brevard Banking, but is now the Art for Life! Gallery, maintained by the Transylvania Community Arts Council.
Brevard Banking Company was established in 1898 and spent its first 27 years in business inside the nearby McMinn Building and the lovely Aethelwold Hotel up until 1925.
Both of those buildings are worth checking out if you have time.
At the former Transylvania Trust Co., this 1924 Neoclassical Revival building has a gorgeous interior with gold chandeliers, and its original vault is still in tact.
Co-Ed Cinema was founded in the 1930s and is still going strong. It has one single screen theatre but shows new releases and art/independent films each week from Wednesday-Sunday.
We just so happened to visit at the start of this year’s spooky season, right as the new Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice film was released, and I was thrilled that the building itself has black and white stripes.
COFFEE, TEA, & CAFES
Brevard is stacked with counter culture, and we did our best to sample as much of it as we could.
Pisgah Bakehouse was my personal favourite because among the delicious brownies, peanut butter cookies, turnovers, cookies, croissants, and other treats, they have cardamom sugar buns.
I literally squealed out loud ordering mine.
Their savoury ham and gruyere roll is also fire.
Bracken Mountain Bakery was recently voted #7 on Southern Living Magazine’s list of Top 20 Bakeries in the South.
They use organic flour and specialize in super grainy, hearty, crusty European-style breads.
We tried their cheese Danish and a specialty Ciabatta type of bread with Bleu cheese, onions, and walnuts baked into the top. Both pastries were delectable.
Quotations Coffee, Blue Ridge Bakery, Canto 34 Coffee, Morning Social, Cup & Saucer, Bill’s Boiler House Café, and Brown Bean are some of the other cool spots to check out.
RESTAURANTS
Our top pick for restaurants is 185 King Street, which is a concert venue and restaurant adjacent to Noblebräu Brewing.
You can order food and drinks, enjoy it in either location, or chill outside on the lawn behind the two businesses.
The stage is visible with seating arranged on either side of it, whether you are inside the tavern-like restaurant or hanging outside.
We tried a few different brews, the hot chicken sandwich, BLT, house salad, and our favourite item, the sweet potato fries that come with a ginger-turmeric aioli. That stuff is pure sunshine.
The vibe outside is really chill with lots of Adirondack chairs, vintage decor, and a couple murals.
The Bohemian, Blind Mule, and Wild Morel were all very tempting, but we were feeling a bit more casual over fine dining that night.
Stop by Rocky’s Grill & Soda Shop for old-fashioned favourites like burgers and fries, malts, and then browse their general store for gifts and nostalgic items.
BREWERIES & BARS
After trying out Noblebräu, be sure to visit UpCountry Brewing down the street.
This small district is known as Brevard’s Lumberyard Arts District and has a few other businesses like vape shops, guitar repair stores, an antique shop, and cafes.
Do not miss out on Brevard Brewing, Oskar Blues Brewing, Dugan’s Pub, and DFR Lounge to catch a live music show also.
SHOPS
Shopping options are abundant in Brevard, especially on Main Street. We visited several of them including Magnolia Vintage, the White Squirrel Shop, Crystal Mountain Gem Mine, A Blast From the Past, Gravy, Paper + Wood, and Bullwinkle’s.
Mantiques was our favourite, we just wanted to kick our feet up and chill among the scented leather, whiskey sets, odd paintings, and taxidermized animals for the evening.
Highland Books was another favourite, especially for their section by local authors.
Earth Mountain Bike Shop & Bullwinkle’s both cater to the biking, mountain biking, hiking, and water sports community surrounding Brevard.
Bullwinkle’s Map Room upstairs is a place for perusing trail maps and travel guides while sipping local beers.
Speaking (again) of beers, Brevard has something called the Social District which, if you are from or living in southwestern Ohio, it is like our version of a DORA or any other open container district.
You can buy a drink in a specially marked cup and drink it outdoors anywhere within the parameters of the district. Just look for signs while visiting.
A Blast from the Past has the wildest decor, vintage items, and large props from all decades and all kinds of themes.
Hunters & Gatherers, like several other sportsy man shops, also has a small corner bar.
They claim that their bar is the smallest bar in the USA but I have heard that before.
This one jewelry shop, name forgotten, caught my attention because of all the bits of metal, gears, keys, clasps, and other jewelry components embedded into the sidewalk around the shop and sealed under epoxy inside the store.
As soon as we rolled up into Brevard, we noticed this gorgeous mural and found out that it had just been finished in time to be showcased at the Plein Air Festival that day.
Artist Scott Nurkin created this image of Loretta May Aiken, better known by her stage name of Moms Mabley.
Her comedy and acting career spanned more than fifty years and landed her the position of being the first female to headline a show at the Carnegie Hall in 1962.
The “funniest woman in the world” is credited as a founder of stand-up comedy, and you can read more about Brevard’s own Comedy Queen in this article.
I found a few other murals downtown like this alley with a white squirrel and flowers, but the one of Moms was the most stunning.
PISGAH
Just a few minutes drive north of downtown Brevard, around the intersection of Asheville Highway and Hendersonville Highway, there is a small community where most of the businesses start with “Pisgah…” like Pisgah Bakehouse (I miss those cardamom buns already), Pisgah Coffee Roasters, Pisgah Forest Gem Mine, Pisgah Tavern & The Hub, and Pisgah Fish Camp.
Reluctantly, we walked into Pisgah Fish Camp expecting a cruddy old shack that reeked of cigarette smoke and fish guts but we were so, so wrong.
Everything we tried, from blackened grilled flounder, hushpuppies, baked macaroni and cheese, real mashed potatoes and gravy, cinnamon apples, collard greens, and pinto beans was delicious.
The interior was super clean, everything was pretty modern, and not even a whiff of cigarettes could be detected. We loved this place and look forward to returning!
Pisgah Fish Camp is the oldest seafood restaurant in western North Carolina, so they have made quite a name for themselves. I am super into all their fish art.
LAKE TOXAWAY
North Carolina’s largest privately-owned lake is just 14 miles from downtown Brevard.
Lake Toxaway covers 640 acres and can only be legally accessed by residents or guests visiting rental properties.
You all know us though, we found an in.
There is a cute gift shop, cafe, and depot nearby but for the most part, it is closed off to the public.
We checked out the private Lake Toxaway Country Club while we were at it.
DUPONT STATE RECREATIONAL FOREST & CEDAR MOUNTAIN
Scenes from the Hunger Games and The Last of the Mohicans were filmed in DuPont State Recreational Forest on Cedar Mountain, so you know it is a pretty place.
DuPont, like Brevard as a whole, is known for its waterfalls. The main ones here are High Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, Triple Falls, Grassy Creek Falls, and Hooker Falls.
Take a tour of the Visitor Center to get trail maps and helpful info for that particular day and weather before starting out on your hike, and peep that model of Cedar Mountain while you are inside.
There is a cute little Cedar Mountain Village you drive through before entering DuPont State Recreational Forest.
You will see a coffee cart, restaurant, distillery, and some other businesses on the intersection before turning into the forest.
Cedar Mountain Outpost is just a mile and a half west of this village, and you will pass it if you are driving to DuPont from Brevard.
We stopped in for drinks and snacks, and our favourite was the ham and gruyere croissant with housemade pesto, and the curried chicken salad.
The Outpost is a really large, clean, open space with indoor and outdoor seating.
We were surprised to see a vibrant Wicked Weed mural covering the whole hallway leading into the bathrooms.
We saw a few other cute markets along the way, but the Outpost is my pick.
JETER MOUNTAIN FARM APPLE ORCHARD
We found Jeter Mountain Farm unintentionally. We were just driving home, minding our own business, but someone had to put some signs along the road talking about fresh apple cider and fresh apple donuts and fresh this and that.
So we roll up into this place and I groan because I see hundreds of cars parked up on the hill and tractors with flatbeds attached to them hauling people up and down it, and I was not looking for a Dollywood type of experience that day. However, this turned out to be one of the most hassle free experiences to date.
A nice dude told us to park here and get on the tractor, they will take you right to the entrance, and buddy he was right. Within two minutes we were easily parked and loaded in the back of a flatbed.
The ride took us through the apple orchards and we were delivered right to the main entrance, as promised.
The farm has a cul de sac type of setup with the orchard counters to the left and then a donut and pie bakery.
You can try their ciders and local beers by the pint or in a custom flight.
In the center, taking up the most space, is their marketplace where you can buy anything on this green earth that can be made with apples, their apples, from apple butter, canned ciders, fresh produce, gifts, and build-your-own bouquets.
In the middle of the complex there is a large covered patio full of tables and high tops. Bluegrass bands were set up on stage, and everything just felt so warm and fuzzy.
They also have a coffee shop and smokehouse restaurant.
When we were ready to go, we simply walked to the tractor and flatbed, got on, and were delivered to our cars.
Parking was free. Admission was free. This place is magical.
In the area for a while? Follow me to Hendersonville, Waynesville, Sylva, Tryon, Saluda, Marshall, or Hot Springs.
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