Enka is an unincorporated community in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. [1] It lies on U.S. Routes 19, 23, and 74 Business near the interchange of Interstates 26, 40, and 240. It has a post office with the ZIP code 28728. [2]
Enka is an unincorporated community in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. [1] It lies on U.S. Routes 19, 23, and 74 Business near the interchange of Interstates 26, 40, and 240. It has a post office with the ZIP code 28728. [2]
The American Enka Company, incorporated in 1928, [3] built what became the nation's largest rayon-producing factory.[ citation needed ] The Dutch name of the rayon company was Nederlandse Kunstzijdefabriek , and it is from the Dutch phonetic pronunciation of the initial letters N and K of the firm's name that "Enka" is derived. The alternative explanation that Enka stands for "Eerste Nederlandse Kunstzijdefabriek Arnhem" is incorrect. [4] The Dutch company considered many sites and decided on the Hominy Valley because of its supply of water and labor. [5] In 1929 the company began developing a community plan that included employee houses and became known as Enka Village. Enka Village is now a historic community and is part of the city of Asheville.[ citation needed ]
Fred Loring Seely, an Asheville businessman and son-in-law of Edwin Wiley Grove (see Grove Park Inn) met several influential Dutch businessmen during his time in the Dutch colony of Java in 1901. Seely and his wife, Evelyn Grove Seely, had been sent to Java by Mr. Grove to secure a source for quinine which was used in Grove's famous malarial Chill Tonic. When the Dutch rayon businessmen were searching for a site for an American-based factory in 1928 Mr. Seely served as a liaison to lure ENKA to build the rayon fiber factory in Buncombe County. He told the ENKA owners that his county could supply trees for fiber, water for processing, and reliable manpower. The thousands of jobs created in western North Carolina in 1929 were lifesavers for many families. American Enka sent Mr. Seely over $1 million to buy 2000 acres, and ENKA built a $10 million plant. Nineteen hundred people worked there during the Great Depression, and that number grew to 4,300 after World War II. At one point, as many as 7,000 people worked there. Amenities included a gym, a pool room, a bowling alley, two cafeterias, and a library. Enka Lake Club opened on a lake built to supply the plant with water. Buses delivered employees from the surrounding area. [5]
It was said that stricter environmental regulations led to a decline in rayon,[ citation needed ] and American Enka sold the plant to BASF in 1985. BASF sold the plant to Colbond Inc. in 2000, and as of 2007, rayon was no longer made. The northern section was sold to developers who tore down everything but the clock tower. Enka Lake is now part of the private Biltmore Lake HOA community; [5] [6] Three buildings became the Enka campus of Asheville–Buncombe Technical Community College. [5]
Portions of the plant still stand, including a campus of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College. The remainder of the area includes Offices, warehouses and industrial areas, open space, and a greenway follows along Hominy Creek. [7]
Though as of 2015 about 200 people worked for Bonar Inc. making fabric for commercial carpet backing and more space was leased to ten other companies, most of the former plant is gone. A school scheduled to open in 2016 will have 20,000 bricks from the plant, a clock tower recalling the one at the plant, and sloped roofs recalling the sawtooth design. [5]
Included in Enka Center will be a warehouse and distribution center to be built by Samet Corp., for which a proposal was considered by the Asheville city council in January 2021. [8] Plans for a 600,000 sq. ft. industrial development with manufacturing facilities and warehouses was approved in January 2023, on the condition that the historic clock tower is preserved. [9] Samet planned to have the first building finished by the end of 2024, and two more buildings would follow on either side of the clock tower, which would get repairs. [10]
Buncombe County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is classified within Western North Carolina. The 2020 census reported the population was 269,452, making it the 7th-most populous county in North Carolina. Its county seat is Asheville. Buncombe County is part of the Asheville, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Asheville is a city in and the county seat of Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the most populous city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most-populous city. According to the 2020 census, the city's population was 94,589, up from 83,393 in the 2010 census. It is the principal city in the three-county Asheville metropolitan area, which had an estimated population of 417,202 in 2023.
Rayon, also called viscose and commercialised in some countries as sabra silk or cactus silk, is a semi-synthetic fiber, made from natural sources of regenerated cellulose, such as wood and related agricultural products. It has the same molecular structure as cellulose. Many types and grades of viscose fibers and films exist. Some imitate the feel and texture of natural fibers such as silk, wool, cotton, and linen. The types that resemble silk are often called artificial silk. It can be woven or knit to make textiles for clothing and other purposes.
The University of North Carolina at Asheville is a public liberal arts university in Asheville, North Carolina, United States. UNC Asheville is the designated liberal arts institution in the University of North Carolina system. It is a member and the headquarters of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges.
The French Broad River is a river in the U.S. states of North Carolina and Tennessee. It flows 218 miles (351 km) from near the town of Rosman in Transylvania County, North Carolina, into Tennessee, where its confluence with the Holston River at Knoxville forms the beginning of the Tennessee River. The river flows through the counties of Transylvania, Buncombe, Henderson, and Madison in North Carolina, and Cocke, Jefferson, Sevier, and Knox in Tennessee. It drains large portions of the Pisgah National Forest and the Cherokee National Forest.
Biltmore Estate is a historic house museum and tourist attraction in Asheville, North Carolina. Biltmore House, the main residence, is a Châteauesque-style mansion built for George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895 and is the largest privately owned house in the United States, at 178,926 sq ft (16,622.8 m2) of floor space and 135,280 sq ft (12,568 m2) of living area. Still owned by George Vanderbilt's descendants, it remains one of the most prominent examples of Gilded Age mansions.
Ingles Markets, Inc. is an American supermarket chain based in Black Mountain, North Carolina. As of September 2021, the company operates 198 supermarkets in the Appalachian region of the Southeastern United States. The company is listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol IMKTA and is part of the Global Select Market tier of trading.
Mission Health, based in Asheville, North Carolina, is the state's sixth-largest health system, serving much of western North Carolina. A sale to HCA Healthcare became final on February 1, 2019, in which it was sold as a nonprofit to a for-profit company. The proceeds went to a nonprofit foundation, the Dogwood Health Trust, which plans to distribute annual grants focused on healthcare.
Founded in 1897 by George Washington Vanderbilt II, Biltmore Farms has evolved from one of the Southeast's largest independent dairy producer to a community development firm. Son of William Henry Vanderbilt and grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, George W. Vanderbilt pioneered sustainable land-use practices when he moved from New York to the Southern Appalachian Mountains near Asheville, North Carolina, where he built his famed Biltmore Estate, America's largest residence.
The Omni Grove Park is a historical resort hotel on the western-facing slope of Sunset Mountain within the Blue Ridge Mountains, in Asheville, North Carolina. This hotel was visited by various Presidents of the United States mentioned below.
Fred Loring Seely was an American newspaperman, chemist, inventor and philanthropist.
The Orange Peel is a music venue located in downtown Asheville, North Carolina. It has a capacity of 1,050 people.
Richard Sharp Smith was an English-born American architect, noted for his association with George W. Vanderbilt's Biltmore Estate and Asheville, North Carolina. Smith worked for some of America's important architectural firms of the late 19th century—Richard Morris Hunt, Bradford Lee Gilbert, and Reid & Reid—before establishing his practice in Asheville. His most significant body of work is in Asheville and Western North Carolina, including dozens of buildings that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places or are contributing structures to National Register Historic Districts.
The American Enka Company was an American company that was the nation's largest rayon fiber manufacturer. Founded in 1928, its research division developed such things as Tyrex, improved rayon and nylon, and by-products for detergent makers and paper mills. It helped bolster the economies of Western North Carolina, West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, Eastern Tennessee, Northern Georgia and Northern Alabama during the Great Depression and thereafter; its founding in 1928 by Dutch capital led the way for German, Swiss, and British investments in the American South, and it was one of the companies on the original Fortune 500 list.
Biltmore Industries, Inc., also known as Biltmore Homespun Shops, is a historic industrial complex located adjacent to the Omni Grove Park Inn in Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina, now known as Grovewood Village. Biltmore Industries was started by Eleanor Vance and Charlotte Yale, missionaries who moved to Asheville, NC in 1901. The complex of seven buildings were built about 1917 by Fred Loring Seely, and are constructed of hollow ceramic tile with stuccoed exterior wall surfaces. The buildings are The Eleanor Vance Building (1917), Charlotte Yale Building (1917), Carding and Spinning Building (1917), (Former) Weavers' Building (1923), Boiler House (1917), Gatehouse, and Guardhouse (1917). The complex produced high-quality crafts and fine hand-woven wool cloth. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Vereinigte Glanzstoff-Fabriken was a German manufacturer of artificial fiber founded in 1899 that became one of the leading European producers of rayon.
Albemarle Park is an historic district in Asheville, North Carolina. Originally a mountain resort, it is now primarily a residential area of homes and apartments with retail and office spaces. Much of its significance is due to the founder, railroad magnate William Greene Raoul, and his selection of three New York City-based men to design his resort. Architect Bradford Lee Gilbert designed the core buildings, including The Manor Inn, the Lodge Gate, and several cottages. Landscape architect and author Samuel Parsons, Jr. planned the roads and romantic, naturalistic landscape. Parsons had been the head landscape architect for the city of New York after working with Frederick Law Olmsted on Central Park. A drainage and sewage plan was done by leading engineer George E. Waring Jr.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Asheville, North Carolina, USA.
The River Arts District in Asheville, North Carolina is an area of former industrial buildings located near the French Broad River, along Riverside Drive east of Interstate 240. Numerous artists have moved into the area and produce and display their works. It is the result of RiverLink's design to redevelop the urban riverfront corridor, built and expanded from the 1989 Asheville Riverfront Plan, which won the American Planning Association Award and represents the consolidation of over 20 years of community planning.
Edward Walton Pearson, Sr. was an African-American entrepreneur, Buffalo Soldier and Spanish–American War veteran, civil rights leader and pioneering sports enthusiast. He moved to Asheville, North Carolina, in 1906, where he became known as the "Black Mayor of West Asheville" because of his influence in African-American neighborhood development and community life.
De naam ENKA is de fonetische uitspraak van de 'N' en de 'K', de afkorting van de volledige fabrieksnaam. De verklaring dat 'ENKA' zou staan voor de 'Eerste Nederlandse ENKA-fabriek [ca. 1926] Kunstzijdefabriek Arnhem' is niet correct. Vervolgens heeft deze firma meerdere naamsveranderingen ondergaan.
35°32′59″N82°39′00″W / 35.5498322°N 82.6501279°W
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