Tuesday, May 6, 2008

History of the Building - Part One

Curious about the vault itself, I started doing some research on the original insurance company: Imperial Life Insurance Company. The building was built in 1925. Interestingly enough, one of the founders was the maternal grandfather of novelist and great patron of North Carolina arts and literature John Ehle. If you haven't read any of Ehle's novels about Western North Carolina, you are missing one of the greats. His novels clearly show he is a man who wrote ahead of his time.

But back to the building. It sits on the corner of College Street and Rankin Avenue, but back in the 1920s, College Street was actually called Government Street.

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