A third generation builder, Tom Lasley has home building in his blood. The story of his firm, Lasley Construction Company, Inc., dates back to the early 1920s. It was then that Tom’s grandfather, Carl, Sr., arrived in Charlottesville to attend the University of Virginia Medical School. His first priority was to build a house to live in while attending classes, but before he could move in, he sold it to a man who had been admiring Carl’s building skills and the quality of his craftsmanship. As Carl put it, “he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.” After two more identical experiences, Carl abandoned medical school and founded Lasley Construction Company in 1924. Carl’s building skills, integrity, belief in the value of quality craftsmanship and eventually the business itself, were passed along first to his son Carl, Jr., and then to his grandson, Tom.

Over the years, their uncompromising devotion to quality construction and customer satisfaction earned Lasley Construction Company a reputation as one of the Charlottesville area’s premier builders. Charlottesville Daily Progress wrote an article about the company in 1975, stating, “We might expect that some of the people who visit our city this year will return one day — to stay. Should they decide to build a home, they may well turn to Lasley Construction Company to build it. After all, if you were to drive through almost any residential district in this area, chances are pretty good that you’d find a Lasley built house among them. "The chances are excellent that the house built by Lasley is the best built residence in the area.”

After successfully running the family business by himself during the ten years following his father’s retirement, Tom dismantled the company and left Charlottesville in order to pursue other interests, including traditional wooden boat building and Jungian psychology, only to find himself eventually recreating Lasley Construction Company in much the same fashion his grandfather had originally created it 80 years earlier. Tom used his building skills to support himself while getting his degree at UNC Asheville. While contemplating his acceptance into graduate school, Tom realized that his true passion was for building. Realizing that, Lasley Construction Company was reborn in Asheville in 1996.

Tom’s integrity, knowledge of building, and uncompromising commitment to quality, instilled in him by his father and grandfather, continue an 80 year tradition of excellence. Now that his son, Colin, has chosen to enter the family business, these traits are entering the fourth generation of C. T. Lasley’s.

Today it can be said in Asheville, Buncombe and Haywood counties, as it was said in Charlottesville, “The chances are excellent that the house built by Lasley is the best built residence in the area.”

Lasley Construction Company, Inc.
78A Hansel Avenue
Asheville, NC 28806