George Roberts on the Flood of 1916
Dublin Core
Title
George Roberts on the Flood of 1916
Description
This is an excerpt of an oral history interview with George Marion Roberts, Sr. (1911-2011). He was interviewed by Zoe Rhine at his home on April 20, 2004. George Roberts grew up in the West End at 21 Girdwood Street. He briefly remembers watching Smith's Bridge washed away by the French Broad River, and mentions the Lake Toxaway dam failure in Transylvania County that took place around the same time.
This is a 2-minute selection of an 80-minute interview (MS081.002B) held by Buncombe County Special Collections.
Additional information is available from BCSC.
Listen to the full recording on the Internet Archive.
This is a 2-minute selection of an 80-minute interview (MS081.002B) held by Buncombe County Special Collections.
Additional information is available from BCSC.
Listen to the full recording on the Internet Archive.
Creator
Source
Buncombe County Special Collections
Date
Format
Language
English
Identifier
MS081.002B
Oral History Item Type Metadata
Original Format
Audiocassette recording
Duration
00:01:58
Transcription
George Roberts: In 1916 we had a big flood in Asheville. We were living on Girdwood Street at that time.
Zoe Rhine: So you saw it all from right there.
GR: And my mother took my two brothers, Lee and Roy, and myself and I believe four boys, course she had a baby in her arms, and we stood in front of Westmoreland’s store [Benjamin Westmorland], on West Haywood Street, and watched the French Broad River take the Smith Bridge away.
ZR: You saw that!
GR: I saw that thing go to hell. Now the railroad trestle withstood all the flood—it never washed away. And the railroad trestle was not too old. By the way, my father ran the first locomotive across that trestle. My uncle was the conductor. Charlie Robinson was the conductor, as I’m told, was the conductor on that. But we moved out there in that section. . .
ZR: So you watched houses and everything going down that river.
GR: Oh yea, the river took everything. The water was five or six feet deep around the depot section.
ZR: We have photographs of it, but it would be hard to imagine otherwise, as the damage was so great.
GR: Well, interesting thing, people say well, Lake Toxaway, south of here in Transylvania County. The damn washed away. Everybody said, “if it hadn’t been for that dam washing away and that water coming down the French Broad River, we never would have had this flood.” But the water doesn’t flow this way from Lake Toxaway—it flows south. Into South Carolina. So it wouldn’t have had anything to do with it.
ZR: So that dam broke before it got here?
GR: During the '16. Yea, it was district wide.
Zoe Rhine: So you saw it all from right there.
GR: And my mother took my two brothers, Lee and Roy, and myself and I believe four boys, course she had a baby in her arms, and we stood in front of Westmoreland’s store [Benjamin Westmorland], on West Haywood Street, and watched the French Broad River take the Smith Bridge away.
ZR: You saw that!
GR: I saw that thing go to hell. Now the railroad trestle withstood all the flood—it never washed away. And the railroad trestle was not too old. By the way, my father ran the first locomotive across that trestle. My uncle was the conductor. Charlie Robinson was the conductor, as I’m told, was the conductor on that. But we moved out there in that section. . .
ZR: So you watched houses and everything going down that river.
GR: Oh yea, the river took everything. The water was five or six feet deep around the depot section.
ZR: We have photographs of it, but it would be hard to imagine otherwise, as the damage was so great.
GR: Well, interesting thing, people say well, Lake Toxaway, south of here in Transylvania County. The damn washed away. Everybody said, “if it hadn’t been for that dam washing away and that water coming down the French Broad River, we never would have had this flood.” But the water doesn’t flow this way from Lake Toxaway—it flows south. Into South Carolina. So it wouldn’t have had anything to do with it.
ZR: So that dam broke before it got here?
GR: During the '16. Yea, it was district wide.
Tags
Citation
George M. Roberts, “George Roberts on the Flood of 1916,” Come Hell or High Water Community Memory Project, accessed January 12, 2026, https://helenehistory.omeka.net/items/show/893.