UPDATE AS OF SEPTEMBER 29, 2024 | EFFECTS OF HURRICANE HELENE

The Applewood Manor is closing permanently effective immediately due to the effects of hurricane Helene.

The Applewood Manor main house and guest cottage managed by some miracle to avoid significant damage from falling trees during hurricane Helene. But, the grounds of the property have sustained quite a bit of damage indeed. The yard is completely covered by very large downed trees and many other large trees are compromised and partially down. Our electric access has been completely destroyed so even if Asheville restores power, we’ll have to wait more time for repairs to our residence. We remain concerned that additional large trees may come down putting the house, guest house and vehicles at further risk.

More generally, Asheville is in bad shape. We have no power and no water consistent with much of the city and area. Cell coverage is very limited and perhaps not even available at all for the time being. Many major roads into Asheville are closed due to collapse and blockages from landslides. Repair and restoration of power and water is hindered by limited access to the city and so recovery will take a long time. Most critically, the City of Asheville is indicating restoration of safe water service is likely to take weeks.

Consequently, we have decided that it is not possible for us to continue operating the bed and breakfast until our planned closing date of November 4, 2024.

Many thanks to our past guests, friends, neighbors and partners who all made operating The Applewood Manor such a wonderful experience for us!

Our prayers and best wishes to all our neighbors and friends in Asheville and everyone affected by hurricane Helene. We now turn our efforts to restoring our home and property to a private residence and the cleanup effort from the recent disaster. And, we’ll be working to help recovery efforts for our Asheville neighbors and the community at large.

Stephen & Robin Collins and our French Bulldogs Pearl, Cleopatra and Ziggy Stardust

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On November 4, 2024 The Applewood Manor will close permanently and then return to its original purpose as a private residence.

Applewood Manor’s journey as a bed and breakfast is coming to a close Halloween weekend 2024, and what a ride it has been! After October, The Applewood Manor will return to its original purpose as a private residence for us and our three French Bulldogs Pearl, Cleopatra and Ziggy Stardust. Thanks to all our wonderful guests for making our four year run as innkeepers of The Applewood Manor such a wonderful experience! Farewell.

Stephen & Robin Collins, Owners

And for your enjoyment, here is a history of the house written by our late storyteller Tom Collins….

The Applewood Manor was one of the longest continuously operating bed and breakfasts in Asheville having transitioned from a private residence in the mid1980’s. In September of 2020, current owners Stephen and Robin Collins purchased the house and began an ambitious restoration of the house and grounds to create a boutique hotel-like luxury guest experience. During the Collins’ stewardship of the bed and breakfast business, guests enjoyed the extensive art collection on display throughout the house, a series of immersive Michelin star guest chef experiences, lots of fantastic bike rides, and quite a few weddings and honeymoons. Many of Robin’s infamous homemade chocolate chip “crack” cookies were consumed along the way.

In 2024, the Collins decided that it was right and proper that The Applewood Manor should return to its original purpose as a private residence, and that they would make the house their home for the long-term. Thus, The Applewood Manor Bed & Breakfast hosted its last guests over Halloween weekend of 2024 for a farewell celebration. As a tribute to a very special place for all the guests of the B&B over almost 40 years, the Collins decided to keep the name of the house marked by the beautiful sign at the entrance gifted so graciously by friends at Ion Art in Austin, Texas.

Now, back to the beginning.

In 1908, Army Captain John Adams Perry purchased the large acreage site on Cumberland Circle located on the northern edge of what is now the Montford Historic District adjacent to downtown Asheville. Applewood manor was completed in 1912 and served as home for Captain Perry, along with his wife Charlotte Wiggin Perry and their daughter, Anne Loder Perry. Captain Perry’s deed restriction stated that his new home must cost at least $2,500 to build, records indicate that he spent $8,000.

At the time, the cleared knoll overlooked the rolling agricultural lands stretching north along the old Buncombe Turnpike and offered a wonderful view and site for Perry’s new home. Captain Perry hired the versatile Asheville architect William Henry Lord to design the residence. Many of the original century-old architectural house plans with changes and notations in pencil are on display in the house. In the entry vestibule, hang two pictures (circa 1912), one showing the newly completed house and the second is a panoramic picture from the northern second floor balcony looking over the vast farmland and mountains from the north to the east, even displaying a sign advertising Cumberland Circle lots for sale.

The New England Style Colonial Revival two-story structure is frame construction with a stone masonry foundation, cedar shake siding featuring a pediment entrance supported on Doric columns and flanking porches. The main level of the house consists of a large entry hall from front to back, parlor, living room, formal dining room, butler’s pantry, half bath, kitchen and basement stairs. Sometime after completion, a “captain’s walk “to the west roof ridge was added and could be reached through a skylight so Captain Perry could watch the weather and survey Montford from high atop the knoll on which the house sits. The original skylight was updated in 2021 and two additional skylights were added.

There are fireplaces in the parlor, living room and dining room. The second level consists of a large hallway, built-in linen storage cabinets, stairs to the third level, and originally four bedrooms three of which have fireplaces. The third level consists of another bedroom and bathroom that runs the full length of the 6,000 square foot house. During Applewood’s bed and breakfast era, the bedrooms carried names of apple varieties including The York Imperial, The Granny Smith, The Northern Spy, The McIntosh, The Winesap and a separate room The Cortland Cottage. In 2025, the York Imperial and Northern Spy were integrated into a single master suite.

Captain John Adams Perry was the great nephew of brothers Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry and Commodore Matthew Galbraith Perry. The former relation defeated the British Navy on Lake Erie in the War of 1812, and the latter relation opened free trade with Japan in 1853. He was born on August 10, 1859, in Leavenworth, Kansas and died in Asheville in 1939. His father, Alexander James Perry, thirty at the time of John Adams birth, rose in rank to U.S. Army Brigadier General. The General graduated from West Point in 1851, 13th in a class of 42, and was commissioned in the Artillery. He served in the Seminole Indian War in Florida, fought Indians in the West before serving at Fort Pickens during the Civil War, and in 1861 was placed in charge of the Bureau of Clothing and Equipage in the Quartermaster General’s Office in Washington for the remainder of the war. John Perry’s brother, Captain Alexander Wallace Perry, also served in the US army. John Adams’ grandfather, Nathaniel Hazard Perry, and great grandfather, Christopher Raymond Perry, were U.S. naval officers and Captain Perry was also the great nephew of brothers Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, the Naval hero who defeated the British Navy on Lake Erie in the War of 1812, and Commodore Matthew Galbraith Perry who opened free trade with Japan.

Applewood Manor’s Captain Perry enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1883. His first duty assignment after being commissioned into the Army was at Fort Mackinac, Michigan with the 10th infantry. Fort Mackinac is now a Michigan historic site featuring several original buildings including Perry’s quarters. After a year at Fort Mackinac, he graduated from the Army’s Infantry and Cavalry School in 1895. It appears that as a lieutenant he served in Cuba with the 8th Cavalry infantry during the Spanish American War. He was promoted to Captain in 1898 and in 1899 was reassigned to the 13th infantry. The military became involved in several fronts around that time—the Middle East, the Boxer Rebellion, Panama, and the Philippines, among others. Captain Perry’s 13th infantry regiment was deployed to the Philippines in what became known as the Philippine-American War. While the war ended in 1902, the 13th remained until 1905 for counter-insurgent operations against Filipino rebels and bandits. Apparently, he was disabled in the line of duty while serving in the Philippines in 1903.

Captain Perry retired September 3, 1903, at age 44 after 20 years of service. Since Army records referred to “disability” rather than “wounded”, it is likely related to an illness, such as malaria or TB, and thus the selection of Asheville for his retirement home. Captain Perry has been characterized as a charming man who was amused by the children in the Montford neighborhood. He was said to have delighted them by making kites and whittling windmills out of red cedar. The house served as his home until his death in 1939 at eighty. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. His wife, Charlotte preceded him in death in 1926 at age 65. Their daughter, Anne, married in 1930 and passed away in 1962.

No definitive details are available as to the owner of the house between Perry’s death in 1939 and 1951, but it is presumed that his daughter Anne was the owner if not the resident during this period. The first non-Perry owners, E. Lyndon Mckee, Jr. and wife, Ernestine, purchased the home in 1951 and lived there until 1958. Mr. McKee, nicknamed Red, was Vice-President of Wachovia Bank and Trust and an active civic leader.

The second owners after the Perrys, were Rufus H. and Helen M. Page. Mr. Page was with the Forestry Service. The had several children. The family occupied the house throughout the sixties.

The third were Michael D. and Peggy S. Smith who lived there from 1970 to 1986. Mike, as he was called, was Vice President of R & W, Inc., an Asheville air-conditioning contractor.

The fourth owners were A. James and Linda N. LoPresti. It was the LoPrestis who in 1987 converted the property to a Bed & Breakfast Inn and christened it as the Applewood Manor—presumably because of the abundant apple trees on the property and perhaps in favor of the house’s apple red siding. They added two bathrooms to the second floor to have a private bath for each guestroom. The unattached garage was converted to a private cottage, and three balconies were restored to their original state. Each of the guestrooms were named after apple varieties—Granny Smith, Northern Spy, York Imperial and MacIntosh on the second floor, Winesap Suite on the third floor and the converted garage became the pet friendly Cortland Cottage.

The fifth owners were Maryanne Young and Susan Poole who acquired the Manor on June 24th, 1991. They had been working at the Pathology Department of the Centre community Hospital in State College Pennsylvania as cytotechnologists dealing primarily with cancer. They owned and operated Applewood from 1991 to September 21, 1995, when it was sold to the Verheij family.

The sixth owners were the Verheij family. Johan Verheij and wife, Jacoba, lived in the Manor from 1995 to 2006 and most of that time operated Applewood as Innkeepers. At least for some of the time, it appears that the Inn was managed by relatives of theirs, Johan and Coby Verheij. Johan Verheij, who passed away on July 4, 2007, had been active in Asheville’s local theater.

Next in line, the seventh after Perry, were Larry and Nancy Merrill. Nancy managed the Manor from 2006. to 2016. According to her, a LoPresti son visited Applewood and told how he restored all the wooden floors. He told Nancy that he had lived in the basement and at that time there was a brass tube that ran into the kitchen to communicate. In 2016, the Merrills sold it to AJ Grein.

The eighth and final owner prior to the Collins was Dr. AJ Grein—a pediatrician at Rutherford Regional Health System in Rutherfordton, North Carolina, who purchased the Manor in 2016. However, the onsite operator of the Inn was Chase McWhorter who called himself the Horticulturist, Head Chef, Master Grower, and Innkeeper of Applewood Manor.

And last but not least, Stephen and Robin Collins acquired the property in September of 2020 and operated the B&B until converting the house back to a private residence in November of 2024.

Over the years, the house has remained remarkably intact with little change to the layout of the house from the time of its completion. Applewood Manor is a happy house. No ghosts or ill-tempered spirits of any sort have been observed. Black bears do enjoy using the property as an easement to wherever they’re headed, and they also like to relax under our apple tree from time to time. The Collins’ three French Bulldogs would like everyone to know that they love their home at the Applewood Manor and while they very much liked meeting all the bed and breakfast guests, they are happiest when they have the entire house to themselves.

If you pass by the house, you’ll still see our exceptionally well-crafted welcome sign generously gifted to us by our artisan friends at Ion Art based in Austin, Texas.