It's Official: Masters Park is Haw Creek's New Park on Maple Drive

As of October 20, 2008, we have a new park! Many thanks to everyone who has helped make this dream a reality.

Why Name the Maple Drive Park in Honor of Rory and Hazel Masters?

By Pat Riviere-Seel

Rory and Hazel Masters literally saved the lives of many in the Haw Creek Valley community. Whether it was a copperhead that needed killing or a sick neighbor who needed comfort all night, Rory and Hazel were there. Modest, quiet, and devout, they didn’t need to be asked. If there was a need, they filled it. Now we have an opportunity to honor them and their service to the community by naming a 9-acre wooded tract of land on Maple Drive “The Rory and Hazel Masters Park.” They once owned the land and much of the surrounding property as well.

One of their lasting contributions is the Haw Creek Volunteer Fire Department. They not only donated the land for the fire department and paid all legal expenses to establish the department, but also spearheaded community fundraising efforts for the building and equipment. Rory served as the department’s fire chief for many years during the 1960s and Hazel headed the women’s auxiliary. Their daughter, Charlene Noblett, still lives in the Masters’ family home on Maple Drive and raises cattle. She and her son, Tom, recently recalled Rory and Hazel’s unselfish community service.

Tom spent summers with his grandparents on Maple Drive, and mowing lawns for neighbors who could not do the work was part of his summer chores.

“I didn’t get paid for that. It was just understood that it was the right thing to do,” Tom said recently as he talked about his grandparents.

He didn’t have a lot of fun. I think he got more satisfaction out of helping others,” Charlene agrees. “My mother was Dad’s backbone.” Hazel was the one who would sit all night with a sick or dying neighbor.

As head of the volunteer Buncombe County Sheriff’s Department Special Deputies, Rory secured the jail on weekends so that prisons could have visitors. He also enlisted Charlene’s help as a special deputy. Rory, born in 1905, lived his entire 93 years in Haw Creek Valley. Hazel was working at Kress’s in downtown Asheville when Rory came in to buy a pair of shoe laces. “She tied him up real good with them,” Charlene said with a laugh. The couple lived on the Sondley estate where they began their family. In 1933 Hazel gave birth to their son, Cecil. Five years later, Charlene was born. When Charlene was just two months old, Rory built a cabin for his family on Maple Drive and began the 10-year project of building the stone house where Charlene still lives. Rory did much of the work on the family home, including the plumbing and electrical work.

Cecil Masters developed emphysema and died at age 50. Hazel developed Alzheimer’s and died in 1993. Discouraged and saddened by the changes in the valley from a farming community to a more densely populated area, Rory made a pact with his neighbor that neither would sell their land to developers. Rory kept his end of the bargain, but his neighbor’s field is now Trapper’s Run.

“My father never sold an inch of land except what the parkway (Blue Ridge Parkway) took,” Charlene said. Rory wanted his land to remain in the family, so he left parcels to Charlene, Tom, Tom’s son, Rory (named for his great-grandfather), and Charlene’s two daughters, Rebecca (Becky) and Lisa.

Charlene said her father had hoped that Becky would build a home on her 9 acres on Maple Drive. But that did not happen. When Becky put the land up for sale, neighbors began discussing ways to preserve the land and provide a public access to the Blue Ridge Parkway and Mountains to the Sea Trail.

Although it was not possible to keep the land in the Masters family as Rory had desired, naming the park in honor of Rory and Hazel pays tribute to their many years of community service and fulfills Rory’s wish to keep the land from being sold to developers.

Letters From Our Community Members

Following are notes sent in from a few of our generous neighbors. Thank you to all who have donated to the Maple Drive Park Fund.

Please extend my heartfelt thanks to the Haw Creek Community Association Board and especially to Chris Pelly for all the hard work securing funding from the City and County toward the purchase of the Maple Dr. land. This is a tremendous service to the neighborhood and will be a long standing legacy. Thanks for representing us!

Enclosed is my donation, as promised. Hope to see the park established soon.

Thank you so much for your pursuit of the Maple Dr. property. We've talked about how wonderful it will be to have a neighborhood park border the Blue Ridge Parkway!

We're happy to contribute to the park!

Thank you for all you've done to get this park and walking trail in sight for all of us to enjoy. Wish I could send more.

I hope the enclosed check will help with your efforts to secure the land for the proposed park.

In the recent council election, the issue was one of my major criteria. Please accept my pledge of $200 to help out.

Enclosed please find a check for $1,000 for the new Haw Creek Community Park / Access to the MST. Thank you and the Association for your diligent endeavors on behalf of the community in this effort.

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For questions about the park project, please contact Chris Pelly orDick Meehan.

Sidewalks in Haw Creek