Sylva, North Carolina Sylva, North Carolina Website Town of Sylva, NC Sylva ("New Orleans of the Carolinas") is an incorporated town positioned in central Jackson County, in the Plott Balsam Mountains of Western North Carolina, United States of America.
Sylva is positioned at 35 22 27 N 83 13 04 W. The town's altitude above sea level is 2,051 feet (625 m).
Sylva was not Danish, and it is likely that his surname was not Sylva.
The town became the governmental center of county in 1913 after the county voted to move the seat from Webster to Sylva, which attained a barns station.
The majestic Jackson County Courthouse was constructed in 1914 and is sited dramatically on a hill at the end of Main Street in downtown Sylva.
(The building no longer serves as the official courthouse; the Justice Center was constructed in 1994, a several blocks away.) Since 2011, the Jackson County Courthouse has been the site of the Jackson County Public Library.
The town has the chief county high school, Smoky Mountain High School; the county library, county hospital, Justice Center, and two K-8 elementary schools: Scotts Creek east of town, and Fairview positioned behind the high school.
Sylva once boasted Dills Falls, which gave it the distinct ion of being the only town in the United States with a waterfall inside its incorporated limits.
The Downtown Sylva Historic District, Dr.
This region was once the ground for Sylva Elementary and High Schools and, before that, the county fairgrounds.
It has two vacant and abandoned older buildings, a large contemporary two-story structure assembled in 1938 as an agricultural/vocational shops building for Sylva High School, and a metal garage building that once homed the Jackson County Rescue Squad.
The Sylva region has many defined and titled neighborhoods.
Downtown Sylva, corner of Main Street and Spring Street in 2005.
Downtown: The historical center of Sylva was at one time home to many businesses, homes, citizens , the central High School, depot, some industry, and many churches.
Today it is a historic and picturesque region defined by Main Street and Mill Street, which run as BUS 23 through the middle of the downtown area, as well as by Cowan Street, on the lower part of Kings Mountain, and Municipal Drive, at the base of College Hill, both of which define the southern and northern borders of the central downtown area.
Mark Watson Park and US 23 Business/West Main Street west of downtown are also considered part of downtown, as the high school and many industries were once positioned in the area.
The region is also defined by a several buildings and parks, prominently the Sylva First Baptist Church (1965), the C.J.
Harris Building (1902), First Citizens Bank (1928), Sylva Fire Department (1980), all on Main Street, Roscoe Poteet Public Pool (1969) on Municipal Drive, the Hooper House (1906), the last remaining historic home on Main Street, and the Sylva First United Methodist Church (1917) on Jackson Street.
Downtown Sylva from the old Jackson County Courthouse Court House Hill: Named for the 1913 Jackson County Courthouse which sits at the end of Main Street, Court House Hill was once home to many working and middle-class families, and was inside walking distance to the old Central High and elementary schools at what is now Mark Watson Park.
It is defined by the historic Jackson County Courthouse (1913), the new Jackson County Public Library (opening in May 2011, on the back of the historic court home), Sylva's Bicentennial Park (1976), and the old C.J.
Many older homes survive alongside newer ones, and there are many inexpensive rental units like the continuing Court House Hill Inn Apartments that was in the old Sylva Hospital and was reportedly haunted .
Sunrise Park: Located athwart Cope Creek from the US 23 Business/NC 107 intersection, Sunrise Park is a large neighborhood that is barely visible until entered.
The neighborhood is defined by Cherry Street and Sunrise Park Road, which both allow access to the neighborhood, as well as Wilkesdale Baptist Church, which is the most prominent and easily viewed building in the neighborhood from the outside.
Dills Cove: Once the locale of Dills Falls, the neighborhood and falls were cut in half by the assembly of the Sylva Bypass, which is also known as the Great Smoky Mountains Expressway and US 74/23, in 1973.
Mary's Catholic Church (1953), the Jackson County Justice Center (1994), and Jackson Plaza (1978) all define the neighborhood.
It is also the locale of the Sylva Post Office and the chief entrance to downtown from US 74/23.
College Hill: Named for the former Sylva Collegiate Institute, a private Baptist boarding school, which once occupied a ground on the very top of the hill in the middle of the neighborhood from 1910 until 1932.
The hill is home to a large, 50-foot-tall (15 m) water fortress with a lighted star on top, a landmark for those entering Sylva on NC 107/US 23 Business from the south.
Smoky Mountain High School and Fairview Elementary are positioned here, and it is one of the most southerly positioned neighborhoods to downtown.
Hall Heights: Located along US 23 Business and NC 107, the neighborhood has two separate residentiary areas and lots of businesses positioned along the highways.
The neighborhood's residentiary areas are an region on a hill known as Hall Heights, and a trailer park near Scotts Creek known as the Bridge Street Trailer Park.
Cope Creek: Located along Cope Creek Road and between NC 107 and US 74/23, Cope Creek neighborhood is mostly residentiary, with a several commercial areas near the highways, including a several gas stations, strip malls, fast food restaurants, and banks.
Major landmarks include Cody's Hot Spot Gas Station (1998) on the corner of NC 107 and Cope Creek Road (a gas station under the name of Cody's has been positioned there since the 1950s), the Old Field Church and Cemetery (1830, the church later became Scotts Creek Baptist Church in Beta), and an historic Victorian home that serves as a bed & breakfast.
The East Sylva Baptist Church is the dominant building of the neighborhood, with a tall spire and three floors, assembled in the mid-1950s and replacing an earlier contemporary church nearby.
Tannery Flats: Located east of downtown Sylva, Tannery Flats is titled for the Harris-Rees Tannery, which directed on the locale until 1953.
The neighborhood extends along Chipper Curve Road and Skyland Drive (both old US 19/23), and is where Bryson Park is positioned as well.
Several industries were once positioned in Beta, and a several homes are positioned in the area, along with Scotts Creek Elementary School (1951), in an region that lies inside both Beta and neighboring Addie.
Beta is home to Scotts Creek Church and is full of both lower-class, working-class, and middle-class homes, with a several upper-class homes positioned in the region as well.
Locust Creek: Located the farthest south in Sylva, Locust Creek is right below Fairview and is accessed via Old Cullowhee Road and Locust Creek Road.
East Sylva: Located east of downtown Sylva, East Sylva encompasses an region along US 23 Business and the beginning of Skyland Drive (Old US 19-23).
It is home to many shopping centers, strip malls, two supermarkets, the town's movie theater, known as Quinn Theaters (1980), gas stations, and fast food restaurants, playing off its close adjacency to the US 23 Business exit off US 74/23 in Sylva.
A several homes are in the area, but East Sylva is largely commercial development.
Sylva is home to the Jackson Campus of Southwestern Community College and is the closest town of size to close-by Western Carolina University (6 miles (9.7 km) away), one of the seventeen schools of the University of North Carolina system.
Woody Harrelson outside Dixie Mae Vintage Market on Main Street Sylva, NC Several movies have been filmed in Sylva, including the 1993 blockbuster The Fugitive (at Harris Regional Hospital, a scene where the town is seen from Sylvan Heights right after the train wreck, and along Scotts Creek where it crosses West Main St.) and the 1972 movie Deliverance (along Mill Street).
Sylva's downtown has turn into a hot spot for breweries and Antique Markets which has seemingly started a revitalization of downtown and Main Street.
National Register of Historic Places listings in Jackson County, North Carolina Jackson County Courthouse (Sylva, North Carolina) "Race, Hispanic or Latino, Age, and Housing Occupancy: 2010 Enumeration Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171) Summary File (QT-PL), Sylva town, North Carolina".
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sylva, North Carolina.
Downtown Sylva Webcam, Courtesy of The Sylva Herald Municipalities and communities of Jackson County, North Carolina, United States County seat: Sylva
Categories:
Communities of the Great Smoky Mountains - Populated places established in 1889 - Towns in Jackson County, North Carolina - Towns in North Carolina - County seats in North Carolina - 1889 establishments in North Carolina
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