Nov. 1, 2026
By Jonathan Rich
BrevardBeagle.com
In November 2026, crews will begin the process of demolishing and removing the historic 125-foot-tall brick Tannery smokestack from its current location in the Rosenwald community of west of downtown Brevard.
In 2024, an engineer determined that the structure was in poor condition due to the dislodged and crumbling materials, a large through-wall crack, and the presence of coal ash at the stack’s base. Due to the fact that a number of properties and the future Tannery North greenway segment could be in the immediate area where bricks from the structure could fall, in July Brevard City Council staff recommended that the safest path forward would be the demolition of the smokestack and the removal of a separate contaminated vault nearby on the site on city-owned property.
Bricks from the historic tannery structure will be retained, possibly as a memorial to the industry that was once there.
In 1916 Russian immigrant Joseeph Silversteen established his second animal hide tanning company, the Transylvania Tanning Company, in Brevard and his family operated that business into the late 1950s when economic and industrial trends forced it to close.
The city received ownership of a 12.8-acre city-owned wooded parcel located between Cashiers Valley Road and Silversteen Drive known as Tannery North in 2014 and that property is scheduled to be part of the newest segment of the Estatoe Trail greenway later this year.
The physical and chemical impact of the tannery operations on the environment prevent the property from being used in certain ways and the only visual reminder of the tannery in that area is the brick smokestack which is visible from some homes in a residential area near what is now Silversteen Park.
For the past year and a half, Brevard city staff has researched the physical condition of the smokestack to determine its physical condition and if it was contaminated with the same chemical issues causing the ground where the rest of the tannery once stood to be labeled a protected brownfield by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.
A 2025 engineer’s report concluded the smokestack is in poor physical condition and the North Carolina League of Municipalities told Brevard officials that they will not insure the property if the risk from the stack is not mitigated.
In addition to the smokestack, the property has an underground vault filled with an unknown oily substance that needs to be removed with the smokestack as part of an environmental management plan filed with state environmental officials.
DH Griffin Wrecking Company has been approved to remove the contaminated vault and demolish the smokestack later this summer and attempt to retain any usable uncontaminated material from the site for reuse at the cost $288,750.
The current budget provides for the contract to be paid with $100,000 from the city’s multi-use path fund and $200,000 from the unrestricted fund balance with the remainder of the assigned funds to provide for any contingency expenses.