EDITOR’S NOTE: Everyone has a story — some more well-known than others. Across Western North Carolina, so much history is buried below the surface. Six feet under. With this series, we introduce you to some of the people who have left marks big and small on this special place we call home.
The Jackson Building in Pack Square is named for its developer Lynwood Baldwin Jackson, Sr. (1896 -1974). With his fingers in construction projects all over Asheville, including the Grove Arcade and Flatiron Building, Jackson’s legacy remains strong more than 100 years since his first building went up.
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Bustling business
Born in 1896, L.B. Jackson immigrated to Western North Carolina with his family as a teenager. The Jackson’s left behind Cuthbert, Georgia in 1914, hoping to partake in the wealth flowing into Asheville at that time.
Inspired by his father’s success with developing properties in the Land of the Sky, Jackson resolved to do likewise. Having made a fortune off the back of two patents, one for a bottle taster, the other for a lottery machine, Jackson had the money to finance construction sites by 1920.
His first project was a home at 63 Macon Avenue which remains standing today. Over a century later, it lives on as a testament to Jackson’s thorough planning. Throughout his career, he would construct some 400 homes in the Great Asheville area.
A familiar sign once greeted travelers and merchants alike in Pack Square. Above one of the taller buildings, it read, “See L.B., All Branches of Real Estate.” According to the Asheville Citizen-Times, the billboard existed for “promoting the business of Lynwood Baldwin Jackson, a premier developer in Asheville starting in the mid-1920s.”
A frequent collaborator with E.W. Grove, Jackson assisted in the creation of two other Asheville landmarks, the Grove Arcade and Flatiron Building, according to the Asheville Citizen-Times.
Jackson’s crowning achievement is the tower that continues to bear his name. In 1924, seeking to leave a permanent mark on Asheville, he erected the Jackson Building, considered to be Asheville’s first skyscraper.
Bankrupt builder
The Jackson Building was intended to be a beacon, signaling to the rest of the country that Asheville belongs on the important cities list. But economic hard times stunted the Land of the Sky’s ability to build upward. It would take more than 40 years for a new tallest building to be erected. The dreams of Asheville becoming the Chicago of the South were dead, never to be revived again.
In 1935, after years of battling the effects of the Great Depression, Jackson declared bankruptcy. According to the Asheville Citizen-Times, he lost “at least $10 million during the era.” In today’s money, that would translate to a mindboggling loss of a quarter of a billion dollars.
Building back
Never one to avoid a challenge, Jackson was back on his feet by 1937, building facilities for the National Linen Services. Continuing to work with that company for the rest of his life, Jackson constructed some 65 edifices. “Mr. Jackson’s firm established a chain of laundries in Tennessee, Florida and the Carolinas,” explains his obituary in the Asheville Citizen-Times on Feb. 23, 1974.
Off the back of the laundry services deal, Jackson made for himself a modest house in the Grace neighborhood of North Asheville at 31 Lorriane Avenue. That home also remains standing.
In the latter years of his life, Jackson lived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, enjoying the company of his family. According to his aforementioned obituary, Jackson “died unexpectedly on Friday [Feb. 22, 1974] at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He was 77.”
After their deaths, the bodies of Jackson and his wife, Marguerite G. Jackson, were returned to Asheville for burial in Lewis Memorial Park. Their tombstones are identical to thousands of others in the cemetery.
Jackson’s grandson, Ken Jackson, continues his grandfather and father’s legacies as a realtor in Western North Carolina, now based out of Arden.
Do you know of someone buried in Western North Carolina with an intriguing or uplifting story? Let us know by sending us an email.
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