Folks who travel Brevard Road are familiar with the panda house, the West Asheville home near the corner of Brevard and Haywood roads that used to have dozens of stuffed panda bears perched around the yard. There were pandas on the porch, in the petunias, pandas parading through the lawn. Here are some flickr photos of what the house used to look like with all the little bears.
The pandas disappeared some time ago. Now there’s a Craigslist ad asking for folks to pick up any stuffed panda they can find and re-decorate this residential landscape.
we have a plan to have people just pick up pandas at thrift stores when we see them & place them back on her lawn… just have them randomly appear back where they belong… in the panda lady’s yard on Brevard Rd.
So, anyone know where to find some puffy pandas?
11 Comments
I drove by a couple of days ago, and saw the pristine lawn, and no Pandas. I missed seeing them in the yard. I wondered about them getting wet and drying out. And wondered how that would effect the Pandas. I would suggest appropriate sized umbrellas for all the Pandas, when they return to the lawn.
i thought she had passed away as well! i lived on brevard rd for several years and the stench of the wet/dry/wet/dry pandas was unpleasant.
i still live on the west side now. i went past the house the other day to see the pandas, i guess they had grown on me. i was bummed to see they weren't there!
it looks like she doesn't need anymore though… maybe we'll wait it out until she resolves with the family member.
just for the record… the panda lady isnt some crazy panda hoarder… i met her once abt a year ago and she was "all there" and working the front register at kerr drug. that is so depressing that one of her family members doesnt like the pandas and made her take them down… those of us that live in and walk the neighborhood daily miss those pandas!
I know she had generously given a neighbor child one of her pandas to take home with her in the recent past…maybe last year. Very sweet (but filthy) gesture.
I went by her house on Friday and she still has the Pandas, they are in her basement. Once she gets things resolved with this family member, she told me the Pandas will be back! I think "patience" is needed in this situation!
Once I drove by the cageless Panda Pen only to view a devastating and appalling site. Someone had beat the stuffing out of one of the larger bears and left its lifeless body sprawled across the lawn. Sad sight to see. However, that beautiful Panda Bear was soon replaced by a BIGGER, softer bear and all was good. Until one day soon thereafter, someone beat the stuffing outta that one too…
Wow,I thought she had moved away or died. But after watching a recent episode of Hoarders where the woman collected thousands upon thousands of baby dolls, I wonder if this was a similar situation. Maybe the removal of all the pandas was part of therapy and it would actually be a bad thing to start dropping off new ones. I doubt the daughter just took them all away because she worried about what people would think. There must have been a much larger problem . I'm just speculating of course but it might cause some serious family strife to interfere…
You might want include the entire post before you advocate group, repeated trespass and possible destruction of property:
Can't remember who I was talking to recently about this… but, I wanna spread the word! So, word is that the uptight daughter of the panda lady came & threw all her pandas away, because she worried what people must have thought about her aging mother (who obviously loves pandas) Anyhow, we have a plan to have people just pick up pandas at thrift stores when we see them & place them back on her lawn… just have them randomly appear back where they belong… in the panda lady's yard on Brevard Rd.
In other words, the motivation is based on, at best, heresay and speculation. Lovely. Nice work Ash.
Location: West Asheville (Brevard Rd.)
I drove by the other day and saw a vacant looking, Panda-less yard and was immediately depressed. I figured the Panda lady had moved on to greener pastures. Thank you, AshVegas, for covering this story. 😉 Please keep us posted.
Very sweet backstory on the pandas from a 2006 Mountain X article http://www.mountainx.com/news/2006/1220news.php
Uh, maybe the homeowner doesn't want pandas in their yard anymore?