Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (20) View all

A. L. and Laura Ensley home

  • wcu_picturing-5167.jpg
  • This 1920s image showing the home on Cope Creek where A. L. Ensley (1865-1948) and Laura Ensley (1869-1943) reared their family, taken after they moved to their home on the hill, is part of the Sherrill Studio Collection. George Dexter Sherrill (1879–1931) opened the first photography studio in Haywood County on Depot Street in downtown Waynesville in 1902. In 1906 his studio became the first Eastman Kodak franchise west of Asheville and the third in North Carolina. Sherrill’s photography roots began in Jackson County where he learned the art from his brother-in-law, A. L. Ensley. Beulah Eloise Ashe Ensley (1899-1991) apprenticed with Sherrill in 1917 and worked in the studio with her husband, Sherrill’s nephew, Ralph Ensley (1894-1975) until Ralph’s death. The Ensley’s demolished the original studio in 1943, dug the site to street level, and built an International style building.