Note:  This is Part Two of the story of the Stepp Walker Building in East Flat Rock. Link here to read the first part of the story detailing the history of the building from 1908 to 2020.

In the spring of 2020, the Stepp Walker building in East Flat Rock was slowly falling into decay. The venerable two-story brick structure had dominated the community’s landscape for well over 100 years. Now, however, time and neglect were exacting a toll that threatened to push the iconic structure beyond the point of rescue.

Over 2000 miles away in Pasadena, CA, Daniel Hopkins was taking a break from work project he was finishing on his computer. He opened LoopNet.com - a site like Zillow but for commercial property. He entered parameters for a specific type of building within a specified price range and pressed the search button.  In a few moments, there appeared a striking two-story brick building at the top of the listings for available properties in the Asheville area.

“My jaw just dropped,” Daniel recalls. “I grabbed the laptop and ran downstairs to show Melanie.”

The Road to East Flat Rock

Daniel was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee. Melanie Petech was born in Mississippi and moved to Memphis when she was just 11 years old. Although they never met as children, Daniel and Melanie lived only a couple of streets apart. That they never met was not surprising given that Melanie is a few years older. “When I was learning to drive, he was still riding on his big wheel,” Melanie says with a laugh.

Their first encounter, many years later, was something straight out of the movies. Literally.

Melanie, who was working part-time at the local PBS TV station, was assisting with a movie project in Memphis. It was a low-budget project and flyers were put up around town looking for crew members to assist with the filming. They were old-school flyers with the tear-off tabs at the bottom that listed a number to call if interested.  Daniel, who had just graduated from high school, called, arranged an interview, and was hired on the spot to be the set photographer.

On the first day of the shoot, Daniel was the first person on the set and volunteered to fill in when the boom operator failed to show up. Melanie recalls that Daniel was quiet, quick to learn, and stayed until the last person left. She took notice. “He was a young kid. I didn't take that much note of him personally, but as an employee he was fabulous,” says Melanie.

As the project continued, however, Melanie began to appreciate that she and Daniel had a similar work ethic and drive. “Get it done. Work until it is finished and put everything you have into it.” These were qualities she would appreciate even more three decades later when it came time to renovate an old brick building in North Carolina.

Originally scheduled for three weeks, the film project stretched into three months. Those three months proved to be enough time for a relationship to develop in a way reminiscent of your favorite rom-com meet cute.  “Daniel would drive me around in a golf cart. The first day he sat up front and I sat all the way in the back. Every day after that, I would sit just a little bit closer,” Melanie says with a smile.

Daniel was paying attention. One day he showed up on set with a cappuccino for Melanie that he and his father had made that morning. “I loved cappuccinos, but I was too stingy to buy my own,” says Melanie. Clearly, Daniel’s gesture made an impression. “That’s when I knew I loved him.”

Later in the shoot, when Melanie had to borrow some oversized long pants to film in an area overgrown with poison ivy, Daniel wordlessly removed his grandfather’s belt and handed it to Melanie. “I was thinking this doesn't make sense. He's not my type. But my heart was sure. When he gave me his belt, that's what I knew I'd spend the rest of my life with him.”

To this day, Daniel Hopkins is a quiet man of few words. But he is keenly observant and he vividly remembers the first time he met Melanie. “She was wearing combat boots and a red paisley flowery sundress,” he says with a wry smile.  What seemed an unlikely match at the start, bloomed like the flowers on Melanie’s dress, into a full-blown romance.

As for the movie? The director abandoned the project and it never saw the light of day. “I was bitter for a while,” Melanie admits now. “But,” she continues with a glance over at Daniel. “I got the best thing out of it.” 

Daniel returns her smile and says, “So did I.”

Go West, Young Couple

Following the movie project, Daniel found a job working with a Memphis photographer and Melanie continued her work with WKNO. Three years later, Daniel decided he wanted to move to Los Angeles to take his career to the next level. Melanie went with him to help set up his new apartment and while she was there visited the local PBS station, KCET. They were hiring and gave her an offer on the spot – although it was not her original intent to stay in L.A.

An unexpected job offer was the first surprise of her visit to California. Her second surprise was their decision to go ahead and get engaged. Although Daniel was concerned that he didn’t have a steady source of income yet, Melanie was not worried. “I told him, ‘I’m not looking for anything but for us to be together.’” Melanie and Daniel were married in 1998.

As fate would have it, Daniel found a job working with a photographer in L.A. from another flyer that had strips on the bottom with a number to call. This time it was a flyer that Daniel put up in a camera store and a local product photographer called. Daniel ended up working with Jeff Li Photography the entire time he lived in California. Daniel’s career ultimately focused on commercial photography for auto brands such as Toyota, Acura, and Honda.

Melanie spent eight years at KCET and then decided to pursue her dream of being an artist. She took several art classes including a collage class that she particularly loved. She showed in some local arts festivals and continued to hone her craft until, in 2019, she was accepted to the “One of a Kind” show and sale in Chicago which invites artists from around the country to show and sell their art at the The Mart – the world’s largest commercial building and design centers. “When I got accepted, I thought, ‘I can call myself an artist now.’” The year was 2019. The show was scheduled for the Spring of 2020.

A worldwide pandemic, however, would cancel the show and help send Melanie and Daniel in a new direction.

The Road to East Flat Rock

On the day they first saw internet pictures of a brick building in a place they’d never heard of, Melanie and Daniel Hopkins had been living in the Los Angeles area for over 20 years. During their time in California they lived in Glendale, downtown L .A., Burbank, Culver City, and finally in a 480 sq. ft. apartment in Pasadena.  The building in East Flat Rock that caught their attention was 10,000 sq. ft.

Daniel was intially captivated by the building’s appearance. “There wasn't much about it as far as the history or anything. It was listed as commercial or residential.” The listing included a few photos of the lower level and none of the upstairs space. When Daniel showed the listing to Melanie, she saw a familiar look in his eyes.  “As soon as he showed me, I knew he was going to buy it. I just didn't know how.” 

Daniel found the listing on a weekend. On Monday morning he began making calls. The first call was to check to see if high-speed internet was available so that he could continue to do his online work. The next question concerned zoning and he was told that the options for the space were very open – residential, business, and restaurant were all on the table.

With basic questions answered, the couple hired an inspector to create a report on the structural status of the building.  They received an 80-page report that detailed many of the potential issues, but none of them seemed to be deal-breakers. The next step was an in-person visit to East Flat Rock. The only problem?  The pandemic had thrown the country into uncertainty and chaos. They decided to drive and made the 2200-mile trek from Pasadena to North Carolina in about 36 hours. Once they arrived in Henderson County, they slept in their car during the visit.

Their brother-in-law who is an architect came from Chicago as did Daniel’s father. The realty agent met all of them at the building and Daniel and Melanie got their first look at the inside of the building.  It was a memorable visit.  “The smell! You could be knocked over by it. Fortunately, we were all wearing masks anyway,” Melanie says with a laugh.  Daniel adds, “There were birds flying around.“

The only access to the upstairs was an outside staircase covered in vines with a door at the top of the landing that had been kicked in. They had to step over a dead possum on the way. On the second level they found ivy growing into the building but, ironically, because so many windows had been broken out, the air was circulating and the smell was not nearly as over-powering. “There was a bathroom that looked like it had not been touched since the building was built. It was like you stepped back to 1915,” Melanie remembers.

Their brother-in-law crawled into the attic with a flashlight to check out the structural integrity of the building. When he came back down, he had positive news. “Good bones,” he pronounced.

The couple’s first impression could perhaps be summed up as “not as bad as it might have been.”  “We were a bit overwhelmed by the size. You couldn’t tell by the photos we’d seen,” said Daniel.  They were also pleased that the upstairs was in better shape than they expected. “We thought perhaps they were hiding something because there were no photos,” says Melanie. “When we saw the upstairs, we thought, ‘This is doable.’”

Their first visit helped solidify the dream – even if the scope of the project seemed daunting. “I had faith in Daniel. I knew we could wrangle it together.”  Then Melanie adds, “I knew he was going to do this and  I was going to be along for the ride. I was excited about the project.”

Renovation and Repair

The purchase was finalized July 3rd, 2020 and the couple arrived in Henderson County the following month. For their first 11 months in North Carolina, they lived at The Cottages at Flat Rock just minutes from the building.  Their initial efforts focused on creating a residence on a portion of the second floor. The first hurdle was the fact that there were no interior stairs to the second level –  the original stairs had been removed sometime during the building’s long history.   

Following the construction of the stairs, they next proceeded to focus on creating a 1200 sq. ft. residence in a part of the building that previously had a rudimentary kitchen and several small rooms. The existing walls were removed and an open floor plan was created with a new kitchen, dining area, living room, bath, and bedroom.  Perhaps the biggest challenge was replacing the ceiling. The original ceiling of warped and rotting beadboard was removed so that Daniel and Melanie could meticulously place over 600 leveling blocks to which they would attach a new sheetrock ceiling. “The ceiling was definitely the most challenging part of the project,” says Daniel.

At the same time, Melanie was slowly chipping away plaster to reveal the underlying brick walls in the space – over 100 feet of walls. “It took me three months. I won’t do that again,” she says with a laugh.

The couple had taken a lot of measurements during their initial visit and when they moved to North Carolina they came with a floor plan in hand for their new residence.  “I do 3D rendering for my job, so I was able to make a scale model of everything, and it actually looks fairly similar to what we had designed,” says Daniel.

Daniel ran new electrical lines, windows were repaired, the ceiling was installed, the floor was refinished, new bathroom fixtures installed, and a new kitchen was built. “It was seven days a week, 10 hours a day for 11 months,” says Daniel.  The grueling schedule and hard work occasionally took its toll on Melanie. “I never thought it was a mistake, but I certainly cried. I cried because the fumes were getting to me, or I was vacuuming the floor inch by inch, or there was no electricity. But I could see the potential from the get-go. I knew it would be good when we were done.”

After months of almost non-stop renovations, the couple got their certificate of occupancy. Melanie and Daniel were officially residents of East Flat Rock. They christened their new home, Studio 116 – located at 116 West Blue Ridge Road.

Today, there’s still work to be done but the loft-style living space is warm and inviting.  Melanie still wants to paint and make art for the walls, but she is pleased with her new home. “It’s a really nice, comfortable, easy open space.”

After months of intense effort, they had renovated approximately 1,500 sq.ft. of their building There was still another 8,500 sq. ft. to consider.

Adjacent to their living space upstairs, Melanie and Daniel also created a guest bedroom with a private bath to accommodate future visitors – and possibly an artist in residence. “My dream is to support an artist who needs room to spread out to experiment with their art,” says Melanie. “They could live and work here. We would take care of them, and they could just make art.”

The remainder of the upstairs space is comprised of what used to be private rooms for boarders – including prior owners in the first half of the 20th century, sisters Nellie and Edith Hart who were well-known teachers in East Flat Rock. Today, there are 5 rooms of about 250 sq. ft. each that Melanie hopes to eventually convert into art studios for rent by local artists. The rooms have high ceilings with large windows that provide plenty of natural light, ideal for animating the creative process.

On the first floor, Melanie and Daniel have significantly cleaned up the area, remediated the mold and mildew issues, added the stairs to the second floor and started to subdivide the space to suit their needs. The 5000 sq. ft. space has a partition wall that extends down the middle for almost the entire length of the building. On one side of the partition wall is Melanie’s studio and the other side currently serves as Daniel’s workshop as the remodeling project continues to unfold. Adjacent to Melanie’s studio is a “chameleon” space that, based on the need, could be a gallery, a small concert space, or a meeting space. The rear section of the building is primarily storage space.

The first floor is still largely unfinished with plywood floors and only space heaters to keep Melanie warm in her studio. But after that first frenetic year of remodeling upstairs, the couple have slowed the pace of renovations and are now allowing the space to organically emerge as they settle into their new home and Melanie’s art career continues to grow. She is currently a featured artist at The Gallery at Flat Rock.

“I’m not in a hurry,” explains Melanie. “I think the space will evolve into a gallery once we have artists working upstairs.” And, with so much room, there are options for many creative possibilities. “I can see the space as a place for art installations or a venue for nonprofits to hold events. It’s a space that's unique and fun to be in. There are just endless opportunities here.”

For his part, Daniel is happy to help Melanie realize her dreams. “I'm following what she wants to do with this place.” Fortunately, he enjoys the challenges of renovation. “Everything is old and nothing is square. But I love problem-solving.” In that regard, the structure is the perfect match between Daniel’s personality and the needs of an old building that had fallen on hard times.

Melanie believes they arrived just in time. “I don’t think the building would have lasted another decade.”

The Future of Studio 116

When your home has 10,000 sq ft. of space, the options for how to use that space are expansive. For now, Melanie dreams of promoting art and artists and, just as importantly, building community – starting with her new neighbors in East Flat Rock. “A lot of neighbors came by when we were working outside. They all loved the building and had stories to tell us about it,” says Melanie. “I think they were starting to lose hope.”

The couple are starting to see other promising signs in East Flat Rock “It could be a coincidence, but there's growth happening here now. People are investing across the street. There’s a new business nearby. You can hear the hammers and saws as buildings are being restored. They're coming here and they're saying, ‘All right, we're going to give it a shot.’”

Ultimately, Daniel and Melanie love both their building and their new community. “We did our due diligence on the building, but not on the community,” says Melanie. “And boy did we luck out. We love living here.”

This summer will mark four years since Melanie and Daniel closed the deal to buy an old building in East Flat Rock. Four years – and thousands of hours of work, sweat, and occasional tears later - the enterprising couple who dreamed of someday owning a loft-style home with space to pursue their passions have seen that dream come to fruition. “If we’ve been gone for a few days and we come home, I’m so happy to see it,” says Melanie with a sparkle in her eyes. “I love it so much.”

Melanie’s words are the perfect final scene for a real-life rom-com featuring the unlikely love story of a couple with a Quixotic dream … and an old building in East Flat Rock that was saved by that dream.