June 2, 2026
The Transylvania Tannery smokestack has been a fixture of the Silversteen community since it was erected in 1916. City of Brevard
By Jonathan Rich
BrevardBeagle.com
Monday night Brevard City Council voted to remove the 125-foot tall decaying brick smokestack that still stands as a reminder of the Transylvania Tanning Company from what is now city-owned property, but when that happens later this year some of the bricks from that part of the county’s industrial history will be retained for possible reuse.
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 in the Rosenwald community adjacent to downtown Brevard.
For the past year, Brevard city staff has researched the physical conditions 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.
Monday night, Brevard City Council decided to have one contractor demolish and remove both the contaminated vault and the smokestack, but retain some of the bricks from that structure for reuse, possibly as a memorial to the industry that was once there.
“The fact that we are dealing with this now was brought about in part by the idea of actually using that property instead of keeping it a brownfield that would be unusable for decades to come,” explained Mayor Pro Tempore Aaron Baker.
“The vault is contaminated and we found out that yes, the bricks from the smokestack have a little bit of coal ash at the bottom of the stack that is contaminated,” added City Manager Wilson Hooper during the council’s discussion. “It’s presence continues to contaminate that soil and if folks are going to be walking near it, that poses a hazzard of its own, but if the stack was in perfect condition we would still remove the vault.”
Assistant City Manager David Todd reiterated to city leaders that the aging smokestack is decaying on its own in a wooden area and poses a potential danger of collapsing or possibly having bricks dislodged by the elements and is currently in such a state that sunlight can be seen peaking through cracks in the bricks at certain angles.
That resonated with many members of the council.
“In Brevard we do a lot of celebrating of our industrial past, with this property and with Ecusta as well,” Baker said referencing the closed industrial paper plant in Pisgah Forest which also has some brownfield issues but is currently being reconsidered for possible redevelopment. “I think it’s important to acknowledge the cost of that industrial past as well. Some of those extractive industries left us with a mess to deal with. In this case, the cost of that is sometimes very hard to pin down. Here, we have a very real cost.”
There was some discussion regarding leaving up to 20 feet of brick from the smokestack standing as a monument to the Transylvania tannery, but Todd and Hooper stressed that is where the majority of the contaminated ash has settled within the smokestack and while reusing bricks from the structure is possible, that could be a possibility to explore with the demolition company that gets the contract for the removal and disposal work.
Councilman Dean Lytle made the motion to get rid of the contaminated vault while retaining some of the bricks from the aging smokestack.
“I’d like to salvage as much brick as possible for a future use,” Lytle said before the issue was supported by Councilman Lauren Wise and passed by unanimous vote of the entire council.
For $288,750, 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. 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.