Letter: Destroying monument would be shortsighted

Posted on by Letters
Graphic by Lori Deaton

2020 being the year of bigger preoccupations, I think most people thought sound judgment would come from the City Council and, instead of removing the Vance Monument, it would simply have the name taken off. The uh-oh moment came when the appointed commission, conspicuously lacking local architects or representatives from historic preservation, came back with an 11-1 suggestion of removal. Obviously, this group was picked with a predetermined outcome in mind.

Growing up in North Carolina, I had a vague idea of Vance as the first governor from the western part of the state, but not being a likeness of him, never equated the obelisk with the person. I doubt the drummers who danced around “the vortex” in the early ’90s did, either. It is just a cool piece of art with roots in antiquity.

Unlike the smooth finish of Washington’s obelisk, ours is rough hewn of local granite designed by Richard Sharp Smith, and now, with the art museum sphere, pays a local tongue-in-cheek homage to the 1939 New York World’s Fair. It would be a shortsighted to destroy it.

Councilwoman Sandra Kilgore’s excellent opinion piece in the Mountain Xpress [“Full Circle: Can Repurposing the Vance Monument Help Heal the Divide in Asheville?” Jan. 27] should be a must-read for anyone deciding the obelisk’s fate.

— Steve Woolum
Asheville

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4 thoughts on “Letter: Destroying monument would be shortsighted”

  1. bsummers

    Obviously, this group was picked with a predetermined outcome in mind.

    Pretty strong accusation. Other than the fact that you disagree with what they decided, what evidence do you have to support this statement?

  2. James

    If we took the name off the Statue of Liberty or called it by another name would it change what you call it or what it stands for?

  3. theDon

    I’ve got an idea. Since Asheville is a town populated with more than its fair share of posers… why not posit the obelisk as posing to the political correctness of the moment, always… i.e. in perpetuity. I mean, who would really know? or care?

  4. Stan Hawkins

    Here’s an idea; the city leadership could organize a fund raiser over in the “historic district” to help finance the removal of the “historic monument “.

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