Jones House
Built in 1908 by Dr. John Walter Jones, this Queen Anne style home sits prominently in the heart of Boone. The house served as the Jones family home and Dr. Jones’ medical offices until his untimely death in 1925. After the loss of her husband, Mattie Blackburn Jones rented rooms in the house as a means to support herself and her children, John Walter Jr. and Mazie Jean. Mazie was an advocate of conservation and public green spaces. The demolition of the Daniel Boone Hotel prompted her to sell the Jones House to the Town of Boone in 1983 with the stipulation that the house be used as a cultural and community center and the property remain green space. While this stipulation expired in 2008, the Town of Boone continues to honor her wishes. Today, in addition to a community art gallery and offices for the Cultural Resources Department, the Jones House is the center of activity for downtown Boone offering concerts, music lessons, holiday events, and a wonderful outdoor gathering space. The Jones House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
Mast General Store
Currently known as the Mast General Store, these two buildings (west building constructed in 1922, east building in 1927) have held various storefronts throughout the years including a bank, a telephone exchange, numerous retail stores and five and dimes, a café, a radio station, a beauty salon, and Belk Department Store. It is most associated with Hunt’s Department Store, which opened in 1943. Mast General Store moved into the building in 1988.
Doc Watson Statue
Arthel “Doc” Watson (1923-2012), an 8-time Grammy winner, was born down the road in Deep Gap and always remained “Just One of The People,” as this sculpture states. Blind since infancy, Doc started his career in his 20s busking in front of Boone Drug, and playing his guitar at local spots like the Appalachian Theatre. In the early 1960s he was discovered and made his appearance at the Newport Folk Festival. He became part of the Folk Revival and is known worldwide for his flat-picking style of guitar playing. The Town of Boone celebrates Doc Watson Day every year with a concert at the Jones House. This bronze statue of Doc Watson was dedicated on June 24, 2011, and sculpted by Alexander M. Hallmark.
Downtown Boone Post Office
The downtown Boone Post Office was dedicated on April 10, 1940, with a crowd of more than 3,000 people. This was originally the site of JD “Crack” Councill’s house, whose ancestors operated the first post office in Boone, beginning in 1828. Construction of the Post Office was completed in 1939 through the Works Progress Administration and was designed by Louis A. Simon. Its colonial revival style and prominent position downtown have helped make it a part of the fabric of downtown Boone. The interior features original mailboxes, windows, brass ceiling fixtures, and a mural of Daniel Boone, painted by Alan Tompkins of Stamford, CT. The Town of Boone purchased the historic building in 2008 and renovated the lower level to provide offices for the town’s planning and development offices. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996, restored in 2012, and received local landmark status from the town in 2016.Daniel Boone Mural: Inside the Post Office one can view Alan Tompkins’s “Daniel Boone on a Hunting Trip in Watauga County.” This mural is actually the second one completed by Alan Tompkins for the Boone Post Office. The first, which showed tobacco growers in a lowland field, prompted the Watauga Democrat to opine, “As far as the artistic imagination goes, the thing stinks.” In response to local input, Tompkins completed the second mural prior to the dedication of the Post Office on April 10, 1940. Alan Tompkins was a graduate of Yale University’s Art School in 1933 and was selected as a muralist by the WPA (Works Progress Administration) to paint this and many other post offices during this period. The mural was refurbished by the Town as part of the 2012 restoration.
Linney House
This house sits on the site of the first courthouse in Watauga County, which burned down in 1873. The original well for the courthouse is still on the property as well as the washhouse, the interior of which features graffiti from famous Boone residents such as Romulus Linney, award-winning author and playwright. This house is most affiliated with Frank A. Linney, a prominent attorney and politician in the early 20th century. Linney was an attorney for the Town of Boone between 1920-1930 and served as District Attorney for Western NC from 1921-1927, and for Middle NC from 1927-1928. Linney later helped to establish the university in town. Richard Lenoir Councill built the original portion of the house in 1894 so that it faced Queen Street. Linney purchased the house in 1902 and added on to it multiple times, including a massive reworking of the main block of the house into its present configuration in 1915, with the main entrance facing King Street. He constructed the smaller stone building at grade with King Street in 1923 to use as his law office and garage. The stone building has since held numerous storefronts, including a stint with Palmer Blair’s photo shop around 1950. Playwright Romulus Linney IV, spent summers in Boone staying at the Linney House with his uncle, Frank. Romulus IV took his first college course at Appalachian State from Cratis Williams who was influential in developing his style and tone of writing. Romulus IV is the father of actress, Laura Linney. The playwright’s papers are part of the Leonard Eury Collection at ASU’s Belk Library. A summary of his work can be found online. Google: Linney Back Home in the Mountains.
Chocolate Bar and the Junaluska Community
A café and gathering place for the members of the Junaluska community once occupied the building that is today home to the Austin and Barnes Funeral Home’s storage facility. In the 1940s and 50s, the Chocolate Bar was a thriving business and a popular neighborhood social club, serving the African American community located just to the north. Although there are few surviving records of the early Junaluska community, its earliest residents initially lived scattered across the Rich Mountain and Howard’s Knob hillside. In 1898, residents build the Boone Chapel, a small, African-American church located adjacent to the present site of the lower water tower on the hillside. The Junaluska Turnpike, from which the community later took its name, was built in 1905 and passed directly by the church. About 1917, the community’s residents also began to settle around today’s Church Street, which was known as African Street in the early twentieth century. By the 1940s, this Church Street area, so named for the Boone Mennonite Brethren Church built there about 1918, was the geographical center of the Junaluska community. Despite the barriers of racial segregation that affected community members until the 1960s, Junaluska’s black residents nevertheless worked in many homes and businesses in downtown Boone throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and owned several businesses within the community. The Chocolate Bar property has been used by the funeral home since 1987 in varying capacities, although it has never been returned to a social use.Boone Mennonite Brethren Church: Built about 1918, the Boone Mennonite Church was the center of the Junaluska community by the 1940s. The church hosts educational and religious outreach programs for the community. Sunday school teachers also worked as educational instructors due to the lack of funds within the Junaluska community. The church saw a rise in membership and popularity during the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II. During the war, missionary work became vital to the community. One of the functions of the congregation was to provide gifts to the wives of soldiers. Even after the war, the Mennonite Brethren Church still played a major role in the community; the Church’s rich history laid the groundwork to establish itself as one of the places to serve, foster, and preserve the Junaluska community in the High Country.
Watauga County Library
While the current library building was built in 1997, libraries in Boone date back to the end of the nineteenth century. In 1889 an editorial in the Watauga Democrat urged the creation of a circulating library for the use of the county’s residents. The “public library at Boone” appears to have been bolstered, if not started, in 1903 when the Reverend William Rutherford Savage donated 122 volumes for that cause. The Watauga County Library was officially opened in 1938 in the former Watauga Democrat building, which now houses a local restaurant. Other locations have included the Qualls Library Building on King Street and the Watauga County Office Building on North Water Street.
Farmer's Hardware/ Watauga County Bank Building
Designed by Clarence B. Kearfott of Bristol, Tennessee, and completed in 1923 (despite its 1922 cartouche), this building with its prominent neoclassical elements, once housed the Watauga County Bank. The night deposit box is still visible to the left of what used to be the main entrance. The long, commercial block building to the west was also built as part of this project and included a hardware store immediately adjacent to the bank and other stores to the west. Farmers Hardware, which occupied the hardware store space of the commercial block in 1931, was a quintessential part of downtown Boone since its original opening as a hardware retailer in 1924. Farmers Hardware expanded into the building in the early 1980s.
Ransom/Rivers Printing
The Rivers Printing Company building, built in 1937 with a nod to the Georgian Revival style, originally housed the offices and print shop of the Watauga Democrat, a local newspaper that had operated on or near the site since 1888. R.C. “Bob” Rivers ran the newspaper from 1889 until his death in 1933. Rivers’ advocacy of civic improvement projects such as highways, electricity, and schools helped transform Boone from a remote hamlet into a bustling town. His son, Rob Rivers, Jr., ran the paper following his father’s death and his daughter, Rachel Rivers-Coffey, succeeded her father as editor after his death in 1975. Rachel and her husband Paul Armfield Coffey sold the paper in October 1994. Today the building is home to a local restaurant, Ransom, and a nonprofit, Wine to Water.
Ginseng Marker
American ginseng, which grows wild in North Carolina’s Appalachian Mountains, is a highly prized root in Asia. The root of the ginseng plant was valuable in China for its medicinal uses that it was harvested in Asia almost to extinction. When American ginseng was discovered, the ginseng trade between Appalachia and China began. Watauga County had many citizens who were ginseng hunters in the nineteenth century. In 1900 Grant Wilcox opened Wilcox Drug Company in Boone. He acted as a middleman in the ginseng trade until he opened his shop in Boone. Then he began to buy from families and country stores in Watauga and surrounding counties, often trading merchandise for the herbs and roots. By 1976, Wilcox Drug was the largest purchaser of botanical goods in the United States. Wilcox Drug merged with a similar company and became Wilcox Natural Products, which closed in 1982. While ginseng is still immensely popular, it has diminished in the wild due to over-collection. Its popularity is especially great in Asia, where buyers can spend close to $1,000 for a pound. The North Carolina mountains remain a significant source for the root, but its collection is strictly regulated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Daniel Boone Trail Marker
This marker was originally placed at the 1905 Courthouse by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1935 to mark the alleged 1769 route of the Daniel Boone Trail from Statesville, NC to Kentucky, a distance of 400 miles.This trail marker is one of fifty placed by the DAR. An additional monument and statue dedicated to Daniel Boone are positioned along Rivers Street.
Watauga County Courthouse
The current courthouse is the fourth courthouse building for Watauga County. Completed in 1968, the building was originally set back from the street, but the front addition was completed in 1982. The original courthouse, which burned down in 1873, was located at the site where the Linney House is now located. The second courthouse was constructed in 1875 at the northwest corner of King and Water Streets, roughly where the parking lot for the Administration Building is. The third courthouse was constructed in 1905 at the site of the current courthouse. It was demolished and replaced with the current courthouse. The current courthouse complex also includes a WPA-funded building as part of its annex. The WPA building was completed in 1939 and housed the Watauga County Library from 1946 through 1997.
Stoneman's Raid Marker
On a raid through western North Carolina in late March 1865, General George Stoneman’s forces successfully fought a skirmish against the Home Guard in Boone near the site of the present Boone Post Office. Col. George W. Kirk’s trailing forces then occupied Boone and Watauga County through mid-April 1865. Coinciding with the historic raids of General Sherman, the overall purpose of this march was to hasten the close of the Civil War.
Proper/Former Jail
The Watauga County Jail was designed by William Stephens of Kentucky and constructed in 1889 using locally kilned brick at a cost of $5,000, and it served as a jail until 1927. It is the oldest surviving governmental building in Watauga County. While the jail cage and most of the interior jail infrastructure were sent to Blowing Rock for use in their jail in 1927, a few architectural relics of the jail remain in the interior, including a steel-case doorframe and graffiti carved into the interior brick walls by prisoners held at the jail. The county sold the jail property, and various owners used the building as a boarding house in the 1920s and 1930s. Niley and Maud Cook in turn sold the old jail in 1937 to Louis Wyke, who converted it with David Wyke into a residence. The building later served as a fraternity house well into the 1980s, after which it was converted into a restaurant. It was placed on the National Register Study List in 1984, but has not yet been added to the Register itself.
Daniel Boone Monument (at Rivers Park)
The Town of Boone is named for Daniel Boone, and the original version of this monument was erected in October 1912 with funds raised by Mayor W.L. Bryan. It was built to mark the location of a cabin where it was thought that Boone stayed during his hunting expeditions in the area. This monument was originally erected just west of Rivers Street and Stadium Drive. It was moved from its original location in 1969 to the east side of this intersection when Rivers Street was widened, then disassembled in 1994 when the University expanded. The engraved tablets were saved by a local dentist, Dr. Gene Reese, and after much deliberation, it was redesigned and rebuilt in 2005 at Rivers Park.
Rivers House Property
John L. Hickerson, a local stonemason, completed the stonework for this two-story, stone house in 1933 for RL Clay. In 1945 Robert Campbell Rivers, Jr., publisher of the Watauga Democrat, purchased the property. His daughter, Rachel Rivers-Coffey, and her husband, Paul Armfield Coffey, continued to publish the newspaper until 1994 when they sold it. The family donated the 13-acre property to the Town of Boone in 1998 with the stipulation that it be used for recreational space, green space, installation of underground utility provided they have minimal impact on the natural environment, flood mitigation, a wildlife sanctuary or historical purposes. Behind the house, a trail leads up the hill to “Baby,” a sugar maple that is a North Carolina Champion Tree and thought to be the largest in the state.
Linville River Train Station
The Linville River Railroad ran from Boone to Cranberry, where it hooked up with the rest of the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad, affectionately known as “Tweetsie.” Rail service in Boone lasted from 1918 through 1940. The tracks ran along what is now Rivers Street and out to present-day NC 105, eventually leading to Shulls Mill, a large lumber town seven miles southwest of Boone. The depot was completed in 1919 and stood closer to the intersection with Depot Street and in the middle of the present roadway. Following the closure of the rail line after the devastating August 1940 flood, the depot building was eventually cut in half and moved to the rear of the nearby bus station. Demolition of its last surviving vestiges commenced in 1976.
Beasley Media Complex - Former Bus Station
Built partially on the site of the 1946 Boone Bus Station, this new building is now home to Appalachian State University’s George G. Beasley Media Complex. The original bus station stood at the northwest corner of Depot Street and present-day Rivers Street. It held a radio station as well as a roller rink on the second floor. ASU purchased the bus station in 2000 and demolished the building in 2011. The stone façade of the courtyard is designed to replicate the 1945 building, and its window and door piercings are representations of the building’s original appearance.
Jimmy Smith Park
Dedicated in 2005, Jimmy Smith Park honors the work and legacy of Boone Town Council member and Appalachian State University professor Jimmy Smith. He was well known in the community and across the state for his work in higher education. As a Town Council member, Jimmy was an integral part of creating the Town of Boone’s state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant, formerly known as the Jimmy Smith Wastewater Treatment Plant, which has won engineering excellence awards from the American Council of Engineering Companies of North Carolina.
1940 Flood Marker
On August 13, 1940, as much as 14 inches of rain fell in Watauga County, triggering more than 2,000 landslides in the county and heavy flooding in downtown Boone. Throughout the area, massive flooding washed out large portions of the Linville River Railway tracks. The railroad had been losing money for years by that point, and the company decided that it was not economically feasible to rebuild the railroad.
Boone Creek (Kraut Creek)
Boone Creek, also known as Kraut Creek, is a designated trout stream that flows through downtown Boone and into the South Fork of the New River. Opened in 1923 by H. Neal Blair as the Watauga Kraut Factory and operated from 1926 by the North State Canning Company under the direction of Dr. H.B. Perry and W.F. Miller, Boone’s canning facility was the leading producer of sauerkraut in the state from the 1920s through the 1980s, but also canned other produce, including green beans and blackberries. Operations there, including draining sauerkraut waste directly into Boone Creek, led locals to informally rename the stream as Kraut Creek, on account of the persistent smell from the factory runoff. Since 1995, Appalachian State University and the community have pioneered stream restoration practices.
Boone's Auto Empire (Footsloggers/Magic Cycles Corner)
Footsloggers: The building originally located on this site was constructed in 1940 as the Cook-Nichols Motor Company Building and housed auto dealerships for more than 45 years. The curved building was a 1950 addition to the complex. The complex housed Ram’s Rack Thrift Shop in the late 1980s and the Depot Street Musical Hall in the early 1990s. A large fire razed a Mexican restaurant in the central building in the 1980s, where the climbing wall courtyard is now located. The original north and south walls of the Cook-Nichols building stand as the outer walls of the buildings flanking the courtyard.Magic Cycles: This building, completed in 1920, was originally the Watauga Motor Company Building, a Ford dealership owned by Ed Shipley. Construction began in December 1918 using bricks brought in on one of the first freight shipments for the Linville River Railway. From about 1935 through 1967 it functioned as the Town of Boone’s Town Hall. Cecil Greene, of Farmer’s Hardware, purchased the building for $18,000 at auction in 1967. In 1976 Farmer’s Ski Shop moved into the building and has remained on the second floor until 2018.
Downtown business block
This block of buildings has held a number of important Boone businessesover the years. At the corner of King and Depot, the site of the Boone Mini-Mall, was the Crest five and dime store. Prior to this building’s construction in 1940, this was the site of the Shell Café and Filling Station, and the outline of that gas station can be seen along the west side of this building, as it was built around the gas station. The Antique Mall building was the site of Belk’s department store. The building to the east of Belk’s was built in 1935 and originally held an A&P grocery store on the ground floor and the offices of Dr. Hagaman above. The FARM café and Boone Belles building was the site of Boone Drug Company, which moved there after outgrowing the east portion of the Mast General Store building. Prior to Boone Drug, it held the A&P before it moved. The Horton Hotel building was constructed in 1919 by H.W. Horton. The narrow building to the east of the Horton was the McGuire’s Beauty Salon,also built in 1919, and originally held a dress shop owned by Louise Hodges. The block to the east of this, the Qualls Block, is named for Lee Qualls, the owner of the Carolina Hotel, built in 1920.
Ned P. Austin Star Marker
Ned Payne Austin (April 29, 1925 - February 10, 2007) was an American film actor and native of Watauga County, North Carolina. From 1952-1954 he portrayed Daniel Boone in the Horn in the West production. His acting credits include appearances on the television show Movin' On and roles in the movies The Happy Ending, Hot Summer in Barefoot County, and Annie Hall. In Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive, Austin first uttered the now-popular phrase, "Can't you see we've got a situation here?" Later in life, Austin returned to Boone where he continued to produce films and act in local theatre productions.
Watauga Veterans Memorial
Entitled "Time and Honor,” and completed in 2018, the Watauga County Veterans Memorial was the dream of the High Country Chapter of Military Officers Association. The monument honors local veterans of all eras, from the Revolutionary War up to present-day conflicts. In the dedication ceremony on July 4, 2018, Boone Mayor Rennie Brantz stated, "This monument honors all those in our community who served and sacrificed in the defense of our country and its freedoms, and we need to honor them with this and keep this as a permanent reminder. As we visit Boone each day, we need to think of those that sacrificed and served this country.”
Appalachian Theatre
Built in 1938, the Appalachian Theatre was Boone’s only example of Art Deco architecture and the High Country’s cultural hub. The theatre showed movies and hosted live performances such as the Foggy Mountain Boys, Minnie Pearl, and Doc Watson. A massive fire started by a popcorn machine severely damaged the building in 1950. By the 2000s, the theatre had fallen into disrepair and closed in 2007. The theatre was abandoned until 2011 when it was purchased by the Town of Boone who then sold the building to the Appalachian Theatre of the High Country, a nonprofit organization that has restored the theater to its former glory. The theater reopened in 2019.
Daniel Boone Hotel
Located on the original site of town found Jordan Councill Jr.’s home, the Daniel Boone Hotel was a popular destination for tourists and locals who attended the Sunday night dinners. In the early 1920s, a group of local leaders saw the need for a hotel to accommodate tourists and visitors to downtown and Appalachian Normal School. Soon after, the Daniel Boone Hotel Company was incorporated, selling shares to fund construction. Completed and opened in 1925, the hotel boasted a grand entry with a sprawling staircase and large fireplaces on either side. Though it struggled through the Depression era and changed hands during that time, the war-time economy gave the hotel new life in the 1940s when the hotel began hosting extravagant Sunday dinners. After years of declining patronage, the hotel ultimately closed in the late 1970s. The Daniel Boone Hotel was used briefly by Appalachian State University as dormitory space, but was deemed too expensive to maintain even for the university, which only hastened its demise. Only two years after it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Daniel Boone Hotel was demolished in 1984 for construction of the condominium complex that now stands here. Many locals consider the demolition of the hotel one of the greatest losses in Boone’s architectural history.
