The Inn Around the Corner

Hi, I'm Holly and I'm Haley. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries, Tales from Appalachia. Well hello. Welcome back.

Hi. Haley, I'm glad to see you back. I am here. I am on Prena's own.

Yeah, she's drugged up. I'm drugged up pretty aggressively. Now I went to visit my doctor because I was dying and he listened to my lungs and he's like, I mean they don't sound great. So apparently I have inflammation in my lungs.

Wonderful. Could be from any reason. Toxic air that is currently breathing. All the stuff that I've been through in distribution sites and things like that.

And I didn't help tonight when she came. We had a fire pit going to the campfire moment. It was great, but I am dying. Yes, sorry about that.

Okay, I have taken some seed fed. I have some Prena's own and a inhaler. So we've kind of done it all. I'm loaded up on drugs.

I'm trying not to kill Haley. Yeah, it's been a real gift from the doctor. She actually texted me earlier and this is one of my favorite texts I think. She did not comment on it, but I thought it was funny.

I think I was driving. Probably why I did it. I thought it was funny. Yeah.

So she says, let's see, I'm close, you know, how to get a pap smear. I'm going to go to Goodwill and then I'll hedge her way. I'll text you when I leave there. And I said, oh, that's a good time.

I mean, Goodwill, not the pap smear. Unless that's your thing, then yay. Yeah. So yeah, in the middle of all of this, I had an appointment scheduled with my OB-GYN to do all the annual check-in under the hood and all of that stuff.

So I went to get that done today. It's always very invasive because you're like mid conversation with somebody and then all of a sudden there's a speculum involved. There's a spanking. There is cranking.

There is swabbing. There's kind of mashing around to make sure all the bits are, you know, where they're supposed to be and feel correctly. You know, mashing on the boobies. Just all the things.

Lots of pressing on your pelvis. Yeah. Overies. You know, so that was.

Inside and out. Yeah. At the same time. At the same time.

It's a bizarre feeling. If you remain. Yeah, I don't know. I'm just kidding.

Right. I'm not too. But I also have not sure what you would compare that to. Maybe a proctology exam.

Maybe. But I still feel like proctology exams are probably better. Yeah, I don't feel like they're as invasive. They're not.

No, no, no. It's a lot. Do they? This is gross.

Do they check your rectum too? No. Like, okay. No.

The gers? Yes. Interesting. Yeah.

No. No. Mine doesn't do that. It's not my worst Friday.

Or at least she did it this time. Maybe next time I'll get lucky. And that'll be part of it. That's a good time.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you take care of the other bits and you feel around and then just right there. Right there.

Feel that bit as well. Yeah. It was, um, it was truly, truly an experience. If you have not had your annual exam, this is your friendly PSA.

I got a good mammogram. Oh, say I want to have those yet. Yes. So I, I am 40.

So I have to have my regular mammograms. Yeah. So did you have to have an early one you had one before? I had one at 36 because they found something.

So I had to have it at 36. I will probably do a base. I think they said they'll do a baseline on me. Probably 35 ish.

Just because I have family history. I think on both sides of breast cancer. So, um, but I've always been of the, like of the camp that if I do get diagnosed with breast cancer or they find something, you know, growing inside one of my babies, I'm just going to chop them off. Okay.

I'm going to go and mistake to me. Gotcha. Wow. Wow.

Both of them. Powerful. Yeah. On your own or?

I mean, if it was, save me some money, maybe. I could do it here. Okay. In the garage.

Cause I don't want to make a mess in my house. Right. Right. It is concrete up there.

Right. Yeah. So it's easier to hose off. Yeah.

But yeah. I'll move the car out. Okay. If you want that.

Yeah. I mean, I feel like for the safety of your tires, I don't want blood on my or my car. It's hard to get off your pain. Right.

Well, we'll, we'll, I could do like a gurney of some sort. Oh, just do you have like a big, like white folding tables? Yeah. That worked.

Okay. Okay. Yeah. Let's do that.

Um, so I just want you to know I'm not like super skilled. That's okay. All right. Well, I have a chainsaw.

I think we may need to go like kitchen knife. Really? That feels like that's a lot of shredding. Faster though than the kitchen knife.

I mean, probably. I don't know. I just, just so do you want to be awake or? No.

No. No. Okay. No.

The more I think about this, the more I think I might go hospital. I might go hospital. I don't understand that we were going to be saving you a, but I wouldn't have charged you actually. So I mean, now you put up a good point and I would have let you stay at my home after the procedure and I would have brought you soup.

Okay. And not charged you. I just think the hospital would charge you 10 grand for the soup at least and it wouldn't have been as good. No, that's true.

You're probably right. I would make you beef stew. Oh, yeah. All right.

So that's fine. All right. Not to make light of anyone to have a mistake to me. Get the chainsaw.

That would be my, that would be my personal choice. I believe that's what to do though. The whole powerful. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I'd get like some perky little implants or something afterwards. But I think I feel more comfortable. Would you go big chested or like small?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm just not very attached to my boobs. Like I don't think like, I know for some women that's like a major part of their identity and like I may feel different if I'm in that situation. But I think wackin' them off is would be the way to go for me. All right.

Well, are you, are you a wack off or a? Um, try to keep them. Keep them. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. Respect that. Yeah.

Keep them. Yeah. No. First hand of something.

Oh my God. Even though the sound, yeah, it sounds scary. They're like this is stage zero. I'm like great.

Take them off. Wow. That's intense. Remove immediately.

They've always been annoying to me. They have been. I will not. They will shed no tears.

Exactly. For them to exit. Now I would, I did, if I ever have children, my plan is to breastfeed. So I would be a little bummed about that.

Yeah. But you formula is a thing and it works just as well. And let me tell you something. Formula is ridiculously exciting.

That's also one of the reasons I wanted to breastfeed. Exactly. Because formula is crazy expensive. Yeah.

So, you know, when my son was on the formula, it was like $40 a can. That's crazy. Yeah. And he at his height, he was drinking like 10 of those cans a month.

So that would be $400 a month. Like it's crazy. Crazy. Maybe I'll keep one for that.

I'll just whack off the infected ones. Yeah. Just keep the good one and you'll be super lopsided. But at least you can, you know, say 400 bucks a month.

Yeah. Yeah. That's just liquid gold too. Yeah.

So, you know, if you can like continue to pump, you could save some, you know, for a reason. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Last about six months. That's crazy. Yeah. So, just saying.

Wild. Sell your breast milk. It's pretty lucrative. Just call it one titty.

Yeah. I'm calling my halo the tit right now. Yeah. Puff it off the tit.

Anywho. Well, let's get it. This is a bad. Yeah.

Well, you know, I didn't really want to go into any kind of like really hardcore murder after the month we've had. Yeah. So, I did want to pay homage to an area that has been really devastated in our region. That's the Black Mountain community.

Very much. In Buncombe County. They really, I mean, there was lots and lots of slides. There many lives lost.

Many people missing as of recording this from that area. So, wanted to kind of do a story from out that general direction. So, we're going to talk about the in around the corner in Black Mountain. That's what was called the in around the corner.

I couldn't find any information on if it's still there. Like, if it was still called that or if it was renamed something and then destroyed in this hurricane, a lot of places were destroyed. You're like Tomahawk. I couldn't figure out an exact location as I was doing my research.

And honestly, the internet service in that area still hasn't been restored. That's right. So, who knows if it's still standing? I hope that it is.

But let's talk about it. So, it was built between 1912 and 1915 by retired school teachers, Luna Williams and a Stella Walker, who used it as a boarding house. It was a large Victorian house and it changed hands pretty frequently until the year 1962. So, fun fact to my grandmother actually grew up in a boarding house.

Everybody said that. Her and her sister lived in the boarding house that their mother ran. Not this one. One in Gastonia.

North Carolina. So, in 1962, an artist from Florida bought the house to use as a private residence. His name was Charles Zydell. So, his family came to the United States from Austria before August 29, 1905, which is when he was born and settled in New York City.

So, he was born in Austria or was born in New York City, but his family is from Austria. Yeah. So, here's a quote from him about kind of how he got into, because history is pretty interesting too. So, he said, when I was in the first grade, the teacher asked us to draw a cat.

He said in a 1990 interview for an article that would appear in the local newspaper East Neighbors, he said, well, I hated cats, but I drew in anyway. When my teacher saw it, she told me to bring my mother to school the next day. When I told my mother, she asked me what I had done wrong. Then the next day, the teacher told her I drew a better cat than she could and then I should continue in art.

At first, I was worried. I was too. Did he try to decapitate the cat? Like, why are we calling mom?

So, I think she recognized his talent and just really wanted to foster that, which is like, yes, it's called school teachers. I get that because I have drawn some pretty amazing stick figures and I'm saying, I just some art folks who have taken notes with my skillset. Oh, my gosh. Well, Cydell began studying at an industrial art school in Philadelphia at the age of 12.

Yeah, so pretty much an after-old. Yeah, so pretty much an after-old is 13. Well, during the summers, he worked at the Roman Bronze Works on Long Island, learning to mold metal and plaster, which is pretty cool. In 1925, at 20 years old, he moved to Florida to work with one of America's best-known architects at the time, Addison McSener.

The architect was kind of an eccentric guy who was extremely large, like very tall, they described as a giant, who really left an impression across South Florida. So, if you're in South Florida, you'll recognize some of the architecture. Cydell helped McSener produce a signature antique look in new buildings by producing reproductions of antique fireplace basings as well as gothic windows and doors. So, when you see that kind of thing in that area, that's a sign of Addison McSener.

So, one reason why he was seen as pretty eccentric is Cydell said that he used to see him walking around all the time with a monkey on his shoulder. Well, there you are. And no organ to be had. No.

I've heard the phrase monkey on your back. Now he had on his shoulder. Monkey on your shoulder. Yeah.

So, Cydell, though, was pretty uncomfortable with his role, overseeing people twice or three times his age. So, he just kind of really didn't like the managerial side of things, which I get. I don't like being in charge of people either. So, he returned to Philadelphia, where he helps produce some massive statutory pieces of commission for the city's 150th anniversary.

He continued to make his living as a sculptor in the early 1930s, John D. Rockefeller actually commissioned him to create a tile fireplace and a bird bath at Rockefeller's Ormond Beach, Florida estate. So, here's a quinver quote from him about Rockefeller. So, he said Rockefeller was a real cheapskate.

He said, after the work was complete, Rockefeller took the bill and wrote in a smaller amount. I asked him what he was doing, and he said it was his usual discount, that he got the same kind of markdown from everyone he did business with from his butcher on down. But I told him, I don't give discounts. So, he made him pay full price, which is pretty cool.

How do you get to be rich? That's smart. Yeah. So, he also worked on all kinds of different places that have really unique architecture.

So, different museums in New York. There's a statue of explorer, Leaf Erickson in Iceland, which was actually gifted from the United States. And it's now one of the best known landmarks in Reykjavik. Wow.

So, he's pretty impressive. Yeah. He ends up in Black Mountain. It's crazy.

So, Cydal said that that statue, somebody else was originally commissioned to do it, but he was too sick to do it. So, he got to it instead, which is pretty cool. It was done in 1931. He said, I never got to see it once.

It was set up, but I've got some pictures of it, which is kind of cool. In 1940, Cydal married June Tul, who he met in Tampa, Tampa, Florida and had a daughter, Melise, in Manhattan, where he continued to work as a sculptor by the age of, or by the end of 1945, a couple relocated to Florida and had a son, Charles Seidel Jr. In 1962, Seidel moved by himself to Black Mountain and purchased 109 Church Street, the house that would eventually become the end around the corner. He decorated the home with some of his work, including several wildlife-type sculptures, which are made in fiberglass, and he just kind of did those for fun.

So, interestingly though, there's only one image of Mr. Seidel in the museum's collection, and it's believed to have been taken in 1930 on the steps of the boarding house at 109 Church Street on Thanksgiving Day. Cydal is on the first row on the left, and traveled frequently from the northeast and Florida for work. So, what happened to the Seidel family between 1945 and 1962, when Charles Seidel arrived in Black Mountain by himself is a little murky.

So, there's no real known reason why he came up here by himself. The inn's proprietor, about 25 years up to 25 years ago, sorry, Nancy, shnep, shnep. So, she had a guest check-in into the inn one night. This kind of gets us into some of the boogie happening, so I needed you to know the story of Mr.

Seidel before we kind of got into this. So, she checks into the inn one night. The next morning of her breakfast, she asks Nancy, are you aware you have a spirit at this inn? Surprised Nancy answered, you know, in a pretty negative way, like, you know, what are you talking about?

Like, no, we don't. The woman told her not to worry, but that the spirit was a very happy one. Nothing more came of the happy spirit in the room until a few years later, when a woman who had spent the night asked if the inn was haunted. She told Nancy that out of the corner of her eye, she had seen a tall slender man, and later she had felt a cold cloth brush across her face.

So, this room was kind of nicknamed grandma's room. Nope, I don't really know why, but that's kind of why they nicknamed it that. So, soon some other guest of grandma's room began reporting unexplained occurrences. Three sisters saw a book fly off a shelf, other guests heard string music, but could not pinpoint the source.

So, Nancy told the Black Mountain News in 2016 that she answered the door at, you know, the inn around the corner one Saturday morning in the 2000s. A woman stood on the porch and told Nancy that her father used to own the house, and she was hoping to take a look around. She told me her father was an artist in Florida who hung around with kind of avant garde artists and musicians down there, Nancy said. She said one night he just never came home.

That's when he went to Black Mountain, I guess. So, ditched his family? It's just family and went up there. Gosh.

The woman, Nancy, you know, said she couldn't remember her name, presumably was Milly's Cidal. She told Nancy that years after he left, he sent her a letter postmarked from Black Mountain apologizing for leaving. Wow. That's crazy.

But never came back. Never came back. Wow. That's crazy.

He invited Milly's and her brother to visit and stay with him. Milly's remember her father's bedroom is being the one known as grandma's room. And describing her father, Milly's. So, her name is spelled two different ways in two different articles.

It's Milly's and then Melissa. So, I went with the one I saw the most, which is Milly's, but it might also be Melissa. So, sorry. It'd be the Americanized version of it.

Maybe. She talked about him being Tallindon, which sparked Nancy's curiosity. She told Milly's about the spirit that guests had encountered in the room over the years and asked, by the chance did your father like string music? Because, you know, they heard the string music that they could describe or place anywhere.

Milly's responded, there wasn't a stringed instrument he couldn't play. He's happy. Yeah. Charles Vital died at Memorial Mission Hospital in Asheville on June 30th, 1993 at age 87 after a battle with cancer.

When Milly's left her father's house that day, Nancy remembered her turning to her and saying, quote, if anyone sees my father again, tell them to tell him that his daughter loves him. The guests at the end around the corner has not been heard from since that day. He needed that. Oh, he needed to see her.

That's the story of the end around the corner. I love that. In Black Mountain and Charles Vital, which yeah, I think, yeah, I think he just, he was hanging around and waiting for her. I love that.

By the way, I Googled it. Did you? I tried to Google. The end was for sale in 2021.

So there are pictures all inside the end. So you should take a look at it. It is still at 109 Church Street in Black Mountain, North Carolina. I don't know since the hurricane, what does it take?

What's all looks like? But it still exists. If you try to do a street view, there's a massive FedEx truck in your way. Yeah.

It's really funny. It was like, oh, all right. A FedEx truck. That's great.

So anyway, yeah, it's pretty cool. And what a cool story. Yeah. I just thought it was sweet.

That's very sweet. Yeah. And kind of a nice little light hearted ghost. The light hearted story.

Oh, yeah. The FedEx truck right in front of the place. Yeah. But yes, it still stands.

Yeah. But yeah, we just needed that after the month. I think so. The month is really hard.

And Haley's on drugs. I'm on drugs. So, you know, that's kind of where we're at. But, you know, if need be, I'm prepared to do surgery in my garage.

Yeah. So, yeah. I do have gloves, but I also have some really fantastic, like the gloves for like dishes. Oh, that really long ones.

Yeah. Yeah. So those will, I mean, those are pretty good. Yeah.

Yeah, they go up to like my elbows. So it could probably make that work. Yeah. I'll wear some old clothes, like things that I painted in before.

I think that'd be helpful. Oh, speaking of pain. So my, my boyfriend works at a middle school. He teaches art, which God bless him.

Yeah. I could not. But he came home one day and told me that he had to go home to change his pants. Because I was like, well, what happened to your pants?

Apparently, he was trying to help this kid paint something and was showing him how to do it. And then the kids like, and he's like, okay, so now you try it. And the kids like, well, where's my paint at? He's like, I don't have my paint has gone.

So he stands up and he has sat in the paint. So thankfully it was his last class of the day. So he didn't have to teach, you know, another 100 or so middle school children here, but with paint covered booty. So he had asked me today to do him a favor and because I stayed home from work sick today.

But he asked me to wash his uniform because he also works at the Chick-fil-A after school, like on occasion. So he had to go into work. And he last night at like 11 o'clock was like, crap, he's like, I didn't wash my uniform. I was like, I'll be laundry tomorrow.

I'll just throw it in. So I went to throw it in and I found the pants that had paint on them. And it is right in the crack. Blue and green on the pants.

I was like, well, I guess those are out of rotation probably for a while. Yeah, ever, probably, probably. Yeah, I don't know. You may be able to get it out.

I don't think so. I did wash and dry them. So I think they're set now. Probably.

Yeah. And that's something that with middle schoolers, like if they see that, they're not going to let that go. No, he's like, well, he's like, it literally was in my butt crack. So I could not ask like a friend to help me.

Yeah, he's like, I couldn't go in the bathroom and wash it out and be standing there pantless. And I was like, yeah, that's probably a great look. So you got to do what you got to do sometimes. So yeah, he taught the remainder of his class with the paint covered booty and then he had to put a towel down to dry them.

There was a time that is a little more gross, but my son was sick and I had to take him to the ER and he had a very high fever and it was very scary. But he vomited all over me. And I had an extra because I had a diaper bag. So I was like trying to clean him up and I changed his clothes.

But I just sat in that puke in that ER for like four hours. And never once did the men who were working with me say like, can I get you something, clean that up? Or would you like a hospital gown or something to wear? Right.

No, I just sat in it. Just sat in it covered in puke sat in it. I was like, thanks. Thanks so much.

And if you ever wonder what it's like to be a mom, just let that moment sink in. Yeah, this is not going well for me. One bad children. No, but your boyfriend has a paint booty.

Paint booty. Yeah. So if it does it for you, there you go. I guess.

He's got a pretty good booty. Yeah. Just covered in paint. Exactly.

Yeah. Well, if you want to send us an email, please do so. You can do so. You can do that by sending us an email actually Haley directly, mountainmysteries.appleachin at gmail.com.

You can find us on Facebook at MountainMysteries. Tails from Appalachia. You can find us on Instagram at mountainmysteries.appleachin and patreon. patreon.com slash mountainmysteries.

Do you have a shout out? Yeah, let's go Black Mountain North Carolina. Easy cop out, but I appreciate it. Yes.

Good job. Thanks. All right. Well, we will see you next time.

Yep. Next time if Haley's alive. I'm here. Bye.