Smoky Mountain News

Michael Beadle and Peter Yurko have published a new photographic history of Waynesville in honor of the town’s bicentennial this year. Their first book signing will be held 3 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 28, at Blue Ridge Books in downtown Waynesville.

The 128-page book, Waynesville, is from Arcadia’s “Images of America” series and includes nearly 200 black-and-white photographs of prominent Waynesville landmarks, including homes, churches, schools, hotels and boardinghouses.

Over a six-month period, Beadle and Yurko spent countless hours sorting through thousands of photographs from local museums, businesses, private collections, and newspapers, then writing and editing captions to go with each selected photo. The images represent various time periods from the late 1800s to the late 1900s and have been organized thematically into seven chapters highlighting local businesses, schools and churches, prominent citizens, and Waynesville’s industrial neighbor, Hazelwood, which merged with Waynesville in 1995.

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