State historical marker for Rafael Guastavino unveiled in Black Mountain

Pioneering architect retired to ‘Spanish Castle’ while working on Biltmore Estate

Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
September 14, 2021

Representatives from the Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center, WNC Historical Association, Guastavino Alliance and the N.C. Highway Historical Marker program gather, Sept. 13, for the unveiling of a marker recognizing pioneering architect Rafael Guastavino, who retired to Black Mountain in the late 19th century. Photo by Fred McCormick

Evidence of Rafael Guastavino’s influence on modern architecture can still be found in more than 600 buildings, spanning 30 states and six countries. His patented tile arch system is prominently featured in the Boston Public Library, New York’s Grand Central Terminal and the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington D.C.

The Spanish-born architect brought his self-supporting arches and vaulted ceilings to Western North Carolina, where he was commissioned to work on the Biltmore Estate before designing and building the Basilica of St. Lawrence in Asheville. 

Guastavino would remain in the mountains until his death in 1908, living out his final years in a sprawling estate in Black Mountain known to locals as “the Spanish Castle.” The site, now home to the Christmount Assembly, sits a little more than a mile from where a crowd gathered, Sept. 13, for the unveiling of a new N.C. Highway Historical Marker recognizing Guastavino. 

Traffic whizzed by along N.C. 9 as representatives of the WNC Historical Association, Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center and Guastavino Alliance gathered for the first dedication of a state highway historical marker in two years. 

“Historical marker applications come from the public,” said Ansley Herring Wegner, administrator for the N.C. Highway Historical Marker Program. “Those applications then go before a committee of 10 history professors, and they decide if the proposal is of statewide historical significance.” 

The historical marker program, which features over 1,600 handmade silver and black signs highlighting facts about the state’s past, is operated jointly by the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and N.C. Department of Transportation. The markers, typically installed in well-trafficked areas along state-maintained routes, are intended to provide objective facts about N.C. history.

“These are not for the purpose of honoring people or events,” Wegner said. “They simply recognize that something important happened nearby.”

WNC Historical Association Executive Director Anne Chesky Smith, who previously held the same position with the Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center until 2020, applied for a marker recognizing Guastavino in 2017. 

WNC Historical Association Executive Director Anne Chesky Smith talks about the historical significance of Rafael Guastavino, Sept. 13, during the dedication of a historical marker in Black Mountain. Photo by Fred McCormick

“When we applied for this marker, I was still with the Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center, and we were hosting the wonderful ‘Palaces for the People’ exhibit,” Chesky Smith said. “That exhibit is about the Guastavinos, and their role in creating this wonderful tile and dome work all over the world.”

The traveling exhibit, organized by structural engineer and professor of civil and environmental engineering and architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, John Ochsendorf, will be on display at Berry College through Oct. 23. The northwest Georgia college is one of the hundreds of sites across the country featuring work by the Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company, which Rafael operated with his son, Rafael, Jr. 

Through her involvement with the exhibit, Chesky Smith joined the board of the Guastavino Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to maximizing public interest in the history and preservation of the architect’s work. She spoke about the significance of Guastavino, specifically in WNC, during the dedication.

A “tumultuous personal life” was a factor in Guastavino’s move to the U.S. in 1881, according to Chesky Smith. Using a cohesive construction technique based on the centuries-old Catalan vault system, he was quickly contracted to design the Boston Public Library, the first free public library in the country.

“From there, his popularity increased,” Chesky Smith said. “He did a lot of work in New York, and there are still at least 600 buildings that can be attributed to either Guastavino, Sr., or Guastavino, Jr., because the Guastavino company existed long after the death of Guastavino, Sr.”

His tile work is prominent in the pool and gymnasium inside the Biltmore House, which was completed in 1895. While working on the project, Guastavino and his second wife, Francesca, settled into an estate they named Rhododendron Farms in Black Mountain in 1894. Situated on more than 1,000 acres, the estate included a goat dairy and produced wine. It also housed a lumber mill and brick and tile factory. 

A wine cellar is among several features of what was once Rhododendron Farms, the estate of pioneering architect Rafael Guastavino. The site, listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, has been owned and operated by Christmount Assembly since the late 1940s. Photo by Fred McCormick

“Interestingly enough, he’s known for these vaulted, fireproof domes, but he built his estate out of wood,” Chesky Smith said of the timber frame structure that caught fire multiple times in its history. 

Guastavino continued working throughout his retirement, focusing much of his attention on the Basilica of St. Lawrence. 

“It was the only building that he designed and built from the ground up,” Chesky Smith said. “It’s a beautiful example of his work, and once you see his tile domes there, you will start to notice it everywhere.”

Guastavino was interred in the basilica upon his death in 1908.

“The stories here in Black Mountain are that his wife Francesca was so devastated by his death that she stopped the clock in the clock tower and wore black for the rest of her life.”

His son continued their work after Guastavino’s death, while his widow lived a reclusive life on the property until 1945. The estate was purchased by an investment group, which razed the crumbling wooden structure. The approximately 600-acre property was transferred to the Southeastern Christian Assembly, now Christmount, in 1948, and many original features can still be found on the site, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The massive wooden estate house of Rafael Guastavino, who lived in Black Mountain until his death in 1908, was known by locals as “the Spanish Castle,” until it was razed in the 1940s. Much of the foundation still stands in present-day Christmount Assembly off of N.C. 9. Photo by Fred McCormick

Many who attended the dedication of the historical marker participated in a walking tour at Christmount Assembly later that morning. The site contains examples of the bricks that were once made there, bottles from the winery and dairy and a number of other artifacts. Additional historical pieces related to Guastavino can be viewed on the second floor of the Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center. 

The historical marker provides a brief description of Guastavino’s significance in his field, and notes that he once lived one mile southeast of the site. 

“We erect these markers so that each of us might have a better understanding of ourselves, our neighbors, our community and the state in which we live,” Wegner said. “After all, if you don’t know somebody else’s story, you don’t really know a person. If you don’t know the story of a place, you don’t really understand that place. You have to know a place to really care about that place, and you have to care about a place to try to make it better.”