Museum – Swannanoa Valley Museum

Founded in 1989, the Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center is the primary museum of general local history in Buncombe County. They are a 501c3 non-profit organization governed by an 18-member board of directors and funded primarily by generous donations from their members and extensive special event program. They are located in the Town of Black Mountain’s 1921 fire house, which was designed by Richard Sharp Smith, supervising architect on the Biltmore Estate.

They mount at least one major temporary exhibition annually in their first floor gallery and continually enhance their second floor permanent exhibit exploring the general history of the Swannanoa Valley. They also maintain an active archive of original primary source materials – including photographs, oral histories, ledgers, and ephemera – as well as vertical files of research materials and a local history library.