The Historic Saluda Committee (HSC) has released the oral history audio documentary, “Saluda, NC: Voices from the First 100 Years” in CD format.

More than 30 years ago when Anne Osborne and Charlene Pace were working on the book, Saluda, NC: 100 Years 1881-1981, they conducted interviews with some of Saluda’s oldest residents. Several were born in Saluda in the late 1800s or had been coming for the summer since the early 1900s. These interviews were captured on cassette tapes from 1980 to 1983. In 2010, shortly after the HSC was formed, Marty Payton, a friend of Anne Osborne who is now deceased, donated the tapes to the HSC’s Oral History Committee. With funding from a grant from the Polk County Community Foundation’s Saluda Community Fund, the tapes have been restored and re-mastered. Clips from these re-mastered recordings have been used to create this audio documentary, which have been put into a CD format. Some of the clips featured are:

• Boo and Eunice Pace in a lively back-and-forth about Saluda’s early days and the downtown businesses c.1915

• Bertha Bishop recalling her time as a student at Saluda Seminary

• Lillian Sterneau painting a vivid picture of the classy dinners held at Melrose Inn

• Uncle Joe Pace, who was born in 1878, talking about trading eggs for coffee at Daddy Hart’s store

• Mary Dell Johnson remembering Dr. Goelet and living at the Charlton-Leland Hotel