Eagle Street traditionally has been the commercial, cultural, and professional center of the African-American community. The YMI Cultural Center, commissioned by George W. Vanderbilt in 1892 as the Young Men's Institute, was renovated in the 1980s. . . . — — Map (db m98367) HM
Gen. Davis Tillson raised 1,700-man 1st U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery in Tennessee and North Carolina in 1864. The unit encamped nearby while garrisoned in Asheville in 1865. Assigned to Tillson's 2nd brigade, the men participated in operations in . . . — — Map (db m55571) HM
Since 1902, when the first city auditorium
was built here, this area has been a center
for entertainment and the preservation of
Southern Appalachian culture. Acclaim has
gone to composer Boscom Lamar Lunsford
and playwright Hubert Hayes for . . . — — Map (db m36176) HM
Dedicated to the memory of
Samuel Ashe
1725 - 1813
Distinguished North Carolinian
Governor, Statesman and Jurist
in whose honor
the City of Asheville was named
— — Map (db m30120) HM
When the war began, more than 15 percent of Buncombe County’s residents were enslaved people. James Patton housed slaves behind his Eagle Hotel (straight ahead), where they worked as waiter, maids, grooms, cooks, and trail guides. Three blocks to . . . — — Map (db m75507) HM
Near the end of the Civil War in 1865, Confederate Battery Porter was positioned uphill to your right on Stony Hill, at that time the highest point in Asheville. The battery included four 12-pounder field pieces known as Napoleons, a model 1857 . . . — — Map (db m75505) HM
On April 3, 1865, Union Col. Isaac M. Kirby left Tennessee with 900 men including his own 101st Ohio Infantry for “a scout in the direction of Asheville.” Three days later, local resident Nicholas Woodfin spotted the Federals on the . . . — — Map (db m75534) HM
On April 3, 1865, Union Col. Isaac M. Kirby left East Tenn. with 1100 men on a raid against Asheville. On April 6, Kirby's force was defeated by local militia under Col. G. W. Clayton. Earthworks remain 100 yds. N. — — Map (db m55543) HM
The original Biltmore Dairy Bar began as an extension of the estate's dairy operations, established in 1897 as part of George Vanderbilt's vision of Biltmore as a self-sustaining farm.
Thanks to the prized herd of Jersey cows, the dairy . . . — — Map (db m179297) HM
George W. Vanderbilt, following the recommendation of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, was the first American landowner to implement scientific forestry, the management and conservation of forest lands, on a large scale. He hired Gifford . . . — — Map (db m58507) HM
James Vester Miller was chief brickmason for the 1925 Municipal Building. The cornucopias over the side doorway mark the entrance to the City Market, located there from 1926 to 1932. Of slave parentage, Miller achieved renown as a craftsman, . . . — — Map (db m98368) HM
1927
Buncombe
County Court House
Erected by the People of
Buncombe County
Board of County Commissioners
Hon.E.M.Lyda
Chairman
Hon.W.E.Johnson~Hon.W.E.McLean
Burgin Pernnell
County Attorney
L.E.Jarrett
County . . . — — Map (db m18694) HM
Opened up western N.C. Built, 1824-28; the 75-mi. long route from S.C. line to Tenn. line, used by settlers & livestock drovers, passed nearby. — — Map (db m55544) HM
Caney [Canie] Brown, an Asheville native, founded the successful Swannanoa Laundry on Church Street in 1902. He also served as president of the Asheville Chamber of Commerce, a charter member and president of the Asheville Rotary Club, and . . . — — Map (db m187805) HM
Asheville's central square has long served the
needs of government and commerce. From
1892 to 1926 a massive city hall with a bell
tower dominated the east end. The building
housed police and fire departments in addition
to municipal offices. . . . — — Map (db m17062) HM
Native American trails guided settlers to this site, where in 1793 the Buncombe County Court placed the first courthouse, prison, and stocks. With the opening of the Buncombe Turnpike in 1827, this public square became a crossroads for stagecoach . . . — — Map (db m97553) HM
Dr. Blackwell was the first woman awarded a medical degree in the United States.
She began privately her medical studies in Asheville in 1845 under Dr. John Dickson, for whom she taught music at Dickson private school for girls. The school was . . . — — Map (db m31663) HM
In 1926 Asheville and Buncombe County officials considered erecting matching government buildings on Court Plaze. The city chose Douglas Ellington's Beaux-Art design with its Art Deco embellishments. The county, however, rejected Ellington's plan . . . — — Map (db m98371) HM
Asheville's Flat Iron Building, completed in 1926, boats triangular proportions and rich ornamentation like its predecessor in New York City. Albert C. Wirth designed this structure to house professional offices and shops. Typical of rapid . . . — — Map (db m187804) HM
Devastated western N.C. and western Piedmont; destroyed homes, crops, mills, bridges. Four lives lost, July 16, near main gate of Biltmore Estate. — — Map (db m97531) HM
Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
1784-1816, often visited and preached at the
home of Daniel Killian which was one mile east. — — Map (db m31456) HM
As work progressed on Biltmore Estate, his last and largest private project, Frederick Law Olmsted observed, "It is a great work of peace we are engaged in and one of these days we shall all be proud of our parts in it." It was Olmsted who suggested . . . — — Map (db m175856) HM
Colonel Frank Coxe opened the first Battery Park Hotel in 1886. The rambling structure on a hill top became internationally prominent, catering to famous guests. In the early 1920s Edwin W. Groves purchased the property. He built a brand new Battery . . . — — Map (db m30224) HM
An ornamental eagle perched high in front of
the Eagle Hotel one block south. Irish
immigrant James Patton opened the hostelry in
1814. Almost opposite the Eagle, the
Swannanoa Hotel began operation in 1878,
making South Main Street - now . . . — — Map (db m57588) HM
Reminiscent of Asheville's Victorian past, the Drhumor Building across Church Street was built in 1895 by William J. Cocke and family. Fred Miles, Biltmore Hourse sculptor, carved the limestone frieze. Immortalized in stone is on the east side is . . . — — Map (db m97545) HM
Markus Reich was a Holocaust escapee from Poland who made his way to Asheville with his wife, Maria, after the war and opened the successful American Tool and Mold business here. The University of North Carolina at Asheville Center for Jewish . . . — — Map (db m187806) HM
United States Senator, 1895-1903.
Republican leader, newspaperman, federal judge. His home is 3/10 mile east; grave is 1.3 mi. west. — — Map (db m12708) HM
Territorial Governor of Oregon, 1848-50,
Vice-Presidential candidate, 1860, U.S.
Senator, major general in Mexican War.
Born 3 miles east. — — Map (db m31534) HM
World War I soldier, aviator. First pilot
of Escadrille Lafayette to shoot down
enemy plane. Killed in action, Sept. 23, 1916.
Home 200 yds. W. — — Map (db m31325) HM
Early in 1861, Buncombe County farmer William Riley Powers joined the Rough and Ready Guards (Co. F, 14th North Carolina Infantry). The regiment was assigned to southeastern Virginia. There, Confederate Gen. Benjamin Huger discharged Pvts. Powers . . . — — Map (db m75532) HM
English-born Richard Sharp Smith came to Asheville in 1890 as supervising architect of the Biltmore House. Buildings and residences he later designed gave the city much of its architectural flair. On this block on what was once the Buncombe . . . — — Map (db m187803) HM
W.O. Wolfe's tombstone shop, fondly recalled by his son, Thomas in Look Homeward Angel, once stood on this corner. During the boom of the 1920s, real estate developer L.B. Jackson purchased the property from Julia Westall Wolfe and built . . . — — Map (db m97548) HM
Established before 1793 as Union Hill Academy. Named for George Newton. Later site of a public school. Building stood 200 feet east. — — Map (db m2277) HM
William Sydney Porter, whose pen name was O. Henry, rented an office nearby in 1909-1910. Popular for his short stories, especially "The Gift of the Magi," he was inspired to write "Let Me Feel Your Pulse" by a visit to an Asheville physician. . . . — — Map (db m97533) HM
Writer of fiction and poetry. "Fielding Burke," her pen name. Author of Call Home the Heart and Highland Annals. Home, 1925-68, was 1/4 mile N. — — Map (db m57222) HM
Until electricity was introduced in the late 1880s, gas and kerosene lamps provided lighting in Public Square—now Pack Square. Horse-head fountains, fed from a reservoir on Beaucatcher Mountain, were affixed to lampposts at the east and west . . . — — Map (db m98364) HM
George Avery, a 19-year-old enslaved blacksmith, joined Co. D, 40th United States Colored Troops, in Greeneville, Tennessee, in 1865. According to local tradition, his master, Confederate Maj. William W. McDowell, sent Avery to enlist for a post-war . . . — — Map (db m75527) HM
Congressman, 1895-1901; U.S. Minister to Persia, 1902-1907, and to Greece and Montenegro, 1907-09. His home, “Richmond Hill,” was ½ mile N.W. — — Map (db m71110) HM
Graves of Thomas Wolfe & "O. Henry," authors; Zebulon B. Vance, governor; Thomas L. Clingman and Robert R. Reynolds, U.S. senators. One-half mile W. — — Map (db m97532) HM
Erected and Dedicated by the
United Daughters of the Confederacy
and Friends
In loving memory of
Robert E. Lee
and to mark the route of the
Dixie Highway
“The shaft memorial and highway straight
attest his worth — he . . . — — Map (db m31578) HM
The expedition led by Gen. Griffith Rutherford against the Cherokee, September, 1776, passed nearby on the banks of the Swannanoa River. — — Map (db m2279) HM
After John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859, new militia companies were formed in the South. Businessman William W. McDowell, whose wife acquired this house from her father’s and brother’s estates, raised a company called the . . . — — Map (db m75524) HM
The Religious of Christian Education, an
order of nuns originally from France,
established Hillside Convent School on
January 6, 1908. In 1910, the school was
moved to this site and renamed St.
Genevieve~of~the~Pines. For eight decades,
the . . . — — Map (db m57479) HM
The coming of the railroad and tuberculosis sanitariums in the 1880s prompted a population explosion in Asheville. On Patton Avenue the Grand Central Hotel opened circa 1880 and the Grand Opera House in 1890. Later, vaudeville and motion picture . . . — — Map (db m97550) HM
Near and West of this spot at Gum Spring The County of Buncombe
was organized on April 16, 1792
under act of the
General Assembly of North Carolina
Erected by The National Society of the Colonial Dames Of America
In the State of . . . — — Map (db m12831) HM
Buncombe County was carved out of a magnificent mountain landscape etched by indigenous trails and scattered settlements. The bill creating the county was ratified on January 14, 1792.
In 1793, the county's first official courthouse, a jail and . . . — — Map (db m98370) HM
This central garden pays homage to North Carolina's long history of quilting. The flowers and plants represent some of the most popular traditional block patterns used in Appalachian quilts. The garden uses a technique called tessellation . . . — — Map (db m169047) HM
Established 1927; became Asheville-Biltmore College 1936. Moved here in 1961. A campus of The University of North Carolina, 1969. — — Map (db m55545) HM
Author of "Look Homeward Angel" (1929)."Of Time and the River", and other works. Home stands 200 yards N., birthplace 500 yds. N.E. — — Map (db m12706) HM
Dixieland
Asheville native Thomas Wolfe achieved international fame with the publication of his first full-length novel, Look Homeward, Angel, in 1929. Many of the incidents in the book took place in his mother's boardinghouse, "Old . . . — — Map (db m12757) HM
James Alexander •
Zebulon Baird •
Willian Brittain •
Adam Cooper •
Samuel Davidson •
Willian Davidson •
Lot Harper •
Joseph Harrison •
William Moore •
John Patton •
Daniel Smith •
Valentine Thrash •
David Vance •
Robert Williamson . . . — — Map (db m37193) HM
Designed by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue
of
Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson, New York
Has been placed on the
National Register
Of Historic Places
By the United States
Department of the Interior — — Map (db m32324) HM
The Urban Trail, a self-guided walk through historic downtown, begins here at the heart of the city, the public square. Philanthropist George Willis Pack, for whom the square was named in 1903, gave generously to the entire community. So too, the . . . — — Map (db m98369) HM
This marker is erected
in loving memory of the
men of Buncombe County
who volunteered and served
in the War with Spain,
the insurrection in the
Philippines and the
China Relief Expedition,
1898 - 1902 — — Map (db m37194) HM
During the war, many large buildings such as schools, warehouses, and churches became temporary prisons in Southern cities. After Asheville's jail on Pack Square overflowed with Confederate draft evaders, deserters, Union prisoners of war, and . . . — — Map (db m59170) HM
[inscriptions, west center interior] "It is the Veteran:"
It is the Veteran who has given us and defended Freedom of Religion.
It is the Veteran who has given us and defended Freedom of Press.
It is the Veteran who has given us . . . — — Map (db m30268) HM
Est. 1892 as a center for social, moral, religious influence for blacks working at Biltmore. Businesses thrived in building 100 yards, S. — — Map (db m30151) HM
Leader in fight against tuberculosis in North Carolina, Superintendent of State Sanatorium
in Hoke County, 1914–24. His birthplace is 400 ft. W. — — Map (db m56701) HM
The French Broad River played a major role in this region’s early development. Initially called the “Broad River” by eighteenth-century French hunters and traders, it was later named the French Broad River. With headwaters on Pisgah . . . — — Map (db m58937) HM
At the height of rail travel, as many as 10 trains a day stopped at Black Mountain.
Horse-drawn buggies and, later, motor car taxis would line up to wait for disembarking passengers to take them to one of the many boarding houses, hotels, and . . . — — Map (db m179640) HM
"My father lived and breathed Southern Railways. He would take us to the Black Mountain Train Depot and the Swannanoa Tunnel to watch the trains go by. I remember him saying, "I've walked track through these tunnels many a day."
Leslie Allen . . . — — Map (db m176984) HM
Across the street from the depot, passengers could grab a last-minute souvenir or soda at the local drug store, dine at the New York Café, or rent a room above the Star Café, which advertised, "Locks on All Doors."
Train travel was the primary . . . — — Map (db m176971) HM
Black Mountain's original depot was rebuilt in 1898 and rebuilt again, for the final time in 1909.
This depot still stands here today and conformed to plans from the Southern Railway's Washington office, which mandated two waiting rooms, one . . . — — Map (db m176985) HM
In an effort to save money, the track to Black Mountain was laid by convicts leased from the state. It cost 30 cents per day to house an inmate, whereas a free laborer made about $1.00 a day.
More than 500 convicts at a time, primarily . . . — — Map (db m179638) HM
Prior to the coming of the railroad, Black Mountain was known as Grey Eagle, and its development centered around the stagecoach route through the valley (now State Street).
Once the railroad established a station in 1880 at this location, the . . . — — Map (db m179639) HM
Celebrating 25 Years of Service to the Community April 27, 1976 to April 27, 2001
Dedicated to the efforts of the original members of the Old Depot Association who were instrumental in saving The Old Depot from destruction. — — Map (db m176977) HM
Connecting Black Mountain to the growing network of railways across the nation proved to be a nearly impossible task.
Stalled by the Civil War, embezzlement, and -finally- by the extremely steep grade between Old Fort, at the foot of the Blue . . . — — Map (db m179637) HM
Here on land granted him in 1787.
He erected the first house of white
settlers west of the Blue Ridge.
Capt. Moore and his troops camped near
here when on the Rutherford Expedition
against the Cherokee in 1776.
Erected by Unaka . . . — — Map (db m56431) HM
Captain of militia force which marched against the Cherokee in Nov., 1776. A fort which he built stood near here. His home was 200 yds. E. — — Map (db m57152) HM
(preface)
On March 24, 1865, Union Gen. George Stoneman led 6,000 cavalrymen from Tennessee into southwestern Virginia and western North Carolina to disrupt the Confederate supply line by destroying sections of the Virginia and Tennessee . . . — — Map (db m75541) HM
Established in 1834 to serve travelers crossing Hickory Nut Gap. In continuous service until 1909. House stands 300 yards south. — — Map (db m57303) HM
Southern troops turned back Stoneman's U.S. cavalry, raiding through western North Carolina, at Swannanoa Gap, near here, April 20, 1865. — — Map (db m55830) HM
Used by Indians and pioneers in crossing Blue Ridge. General Rutherford's expedition against Cherokee passed here, September, 1776. — — Map (db m57036) HM
Stoneman's Raid
On March 24, 1865, Union Gen. George Stoneman led 6,000 cavalrymen from Tennessee into southwestern Virginia and western North Carolina to disrupt the Confederate supply line by destroying sections of the Virginia and Tennessee . . . — — Map (db m55971) HM
Longest (1,800 ft.) of 7 on railroad between Old Fort and Asheville. Constructed by convict labor, 1877-79. West entrance 300 yds. S.E. — — Map (db m56855) HM
Here were born two notable Buncombe County brothers, Zebulon Baird Vance (1830-1894) and Robert Brank Vance (1828-1899).
Zebulon Vance was a Whig and supporter of the Union who opposed secession until the last moment. At the outbreak of war in . . . — — Map (db m23138) HM
People have built vacation homes in the Southern Appalachians for centuries. The beautiful scenery, cool mountain breezes, and abundant wildlife make these mountains a favorite summer destination. Rattlesnake Lodge served as one of these early . . . — — Map (db m140151) HM
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