Asheville’s master builder, Rafael Guastavino y Moreno (1842-1908), was born in Valencia, Spain, and immigrated to the United States in 1881 settling initially in New York City. He left Spain already acclaimed for his signature elements: grand arches, domes, and vaults crafted with interlocking stone or terra cotta tiles. Guastavino had developed a special method of the building by reviving and improving on ancient forms of masonry construction. His methods became known as Guastavino Construction. Skilled artisans used layers of flat clay tiles embedded in mortar to build horizontal parts of buildings in the form of vaults or domes to carry floors, roofs, ceilings, and staircases. Aside from their desired artistic qualities, his structures were strong, lightweight, fireproof, and economical eliminating the need for steel and wood.
Soon the Guastavino Construction method was being deployed in the homes of the rich and famous as well as important public and business buildings, including the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., New York City’s Grand Central Station, the Boston Public Library, Carnegie Hall, and hundreds of other landmarks. In1894, his reputation brought him to North Carolina to work on the Biltmore house. He fell in love with the area and began to buy land south of Black Mountain eventually accumulating about a thousand acres. He built a large house, the Rhododendron Estate, planted grapevines and apple trees, created ponds, and built workshops and kilns where he experimented with making the tiles he needed for his construction.
It is also in Asheville that Guastavino designed and built what he considered his greatest work, St. Lawrence Catholic Church (now a Basilica). What stands out singularly for this Guastavino site is its dome. It has a span of 58 by 82 feet and is reputed to be the largest, freestanding, elliptical dome in North America. And the mighty vault was built over nothing! The entire dome is made of thin, flat terra cotta tiles, 6 x 12 inches, and an inch thick. The tiles were laid as if shingling an imaginary dome in space, using only cement. Author Peter Austin described the process,
“Beginning at the bottom course, the first six or seven thicknesses of tile were laid one over the other braking joints, in a special cement of plaster of Paris. The next course, laid in Portland cement, was held in place by overlapping the tile below. The process was repeated until the great dome was finished without the aid of girdlers [sic] or supporting scaffolds.”
Rafael Guastavino died at age 65 in 1908 after an abrupt onset of lung congestion and kidney complications. A high requiem mass was held for him in the nearly completed building which was completed by his son. And according to his dying wish, the great builder was interred within the walls of his greatest masterpiece. His wife, Francesca, was shattered by her husband’s passing. At the time of his death, she is reported to have had the big clock in the tower of their Rhododendron Estate stopped to never run again. Ironically, Guastavino, known for fireproof structures, built his Rhododendron home, nicknamed the Spanish Castle, out of wood. A fire eventually destroyed it and Francesca was badly burned. She died in 1946 spending her final three years in an Asheville rest home.
