The Asheville Black Cultural Heritage Trail
Dignity, Humanity, and Agency
Did you know that Black people helped create this region's first non-Indigenous households? Did you know that Black people helped build Asheville and connected . . . — — Map (db m282881) HM
Prior to integration, Black entrepreneurs and civic leaders created social and economic opportunities for Black communities. Spanish-American War veteran Edward Walton "E.W." Pearson and his wife Annis Bradshaw Pearson established a legacy of Black . . . — — Map (db m282909) HM
Jim Crow laws legalized racial segregation throughout the South from the 1870s through the 1970s. For example, Black people were only allowed to use entrances and bathrooms marked "Colored" in White-majority areas. Blacks in Asheville invested in . . . — — Map (db m282853) HM
During the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt passed the National Housing Act of 1934 as part of the New Deal. The Housing Act created low-cost home buying, farm buying, home improvement, and farm improvement loans for White people. . . . — — Map (db m282914) HM
"Completed in 1827 from Saluda Gap to Buncombe County Court House and along the French Broad River by way of Barnard's and Warm Springs to Tennessee line. Served as the major trade route through mountains of western North Carolina until 1882." — — Map (db m23690) HM
Buncombe County was named for Edward Buncombe (1742-1778), a North Carolina plantation owner who served in the Revolutionary War and died of injuries sustained in the Battle of Germantown.
The county was formed in 1792 from vast tracts of . . . — — Map (db m229427) HM
Lynching in America
Between 1865 and 1950, thousands of African Americans were victims of mob violence and racial terror lynching across the United States. Following the Civil War, white Southerners fiercely resisted equal rights for African . . . — — Map (db m246650) HM
The U.S. Supreme Court Decision, Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), legalized segregation in public facilities. Asheville began providing schools for Black students in 1888. From 1923 to 1965, Asheville's Stephens-Lee High School was nationally . . . — — Map (db m282512) 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
In 1926 Asheville and Buncombe County officials considered erecting matching government buildings on Court Plaza. The city chose Douglas Ellington's Beaux-Art design with its Art Deco embellishments. The county, however, rejected Ellington's plan . . . — — Map (db m224090) HM
The Asheville Black Cultural Heritage Trail
Dignity, Humanity, and Agency
Did you know that Black people helped create this region's first non-indigenous households? Did you know that Black people helped build Asheville and connected . . . — — Map (db m282511) HM
For nearly 100 years following emancipation, Jim Crow laws ensured that Black women would only be offered physically demanding jobs. In Asheville, most of those jobs required washing and ironing clothes, and cooking and cleaning in White households . . . — — Map (db m282912) HM
City Center
Historically, the intersection before you was an important crossroads for the exchange of goods and livestock. The Buncombe Turnpike, completed in 1828, followed the original trading path created by Native Americans, stretching . . . — — Map (db m283133) 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
City Center
The intersection before you was an important crossroads long before Asheville came to be. indigenous people traveled the path of this road that would later become a popular route with drovers bringing their livestock to market. . . . — — Map (db m283132) HM
(panel 1)
The Asheville Black Cultural Trail
Dignity, Humanity, and Agency
Did you know that Black people helped create this region's first non-Indigenous households? Did you know that Black people helped build Asheville and . . . — — Map (db m282513) HM
(panel 1)
The Asheville Black Cultural Trail
Dignity, Humanity, and Agency
Did you know that Black people helped create this region's first non-Indigenous households? Did you know that Black people helped build Asheville and . . . — — Map (db m282514) HM
February 10, 1937, in Black Mountain, NC
Roberta Flack is a Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, and pianist renowned for her smooth, "velvety" voice. Born in Black Mountain in Buncombe County on February 10, 1937, she was one of four . . . — — Map (db m250913) 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 m225431) HM
James Anderson and his wife, Elizabeth Caroline Barnard, natives of Buncombe County, North Carolina, married there in 1821 The couple had 15 children. Anderson was a farmer and in 1835 migrated to Missouri. He joined the Mercer Colony and migrated . . . — — Map (db m203268) HM
Building the Block
Gateway to Community
As you turn down Eagle Street, you'll find yourself in The Block. This revitalizing district was crucial to the culture, economy and history of Asheville's African American community for more . . . — — Map (db m283144) HM
Lynching in America
Thousands of Black people were the victims of racial terror lynching in the United States between 1865 and 1950. After the Civil War, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution ended slavery and extended . . . — — Map (db m205149) HM
The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery, yet it created involuntary servitude as a punishment for even petty crimes such as being unemployed. The railroad industry used prisoners for labor throughout the U.S.
Black men and . . . — — Map (db m282531) HM
Lynching in America
Between 1865 and 1950, white mobs lynched thousands of African Americans across the U.S. Following the Civil War, white Southerners fiercely resisted equal rights for African Americans and sought to uphold an ideology of . . . — — Map (db m204979) 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
Two notable Buncombe County brothers are buried here. Zebulon B. Vance (1830-1894) was North Carolina's Civil War governor and served as a U.S. senator from 1879 to 1894. His elder brother, Robert B. Vince (1828-1899), led the 29th North Carolina . . . — — Map (db m209950) 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
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 U.S. Supreme Court Decision Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 provided legal justification for segregation in public facilities including theaters, schools, trains, and buses. Black citizens organized during the Civil Rights Movement from the . . . — — Map (db m282844) HM
This was the home of William Deaver and his wife, Margaret Patton Deaver. It was the scene of a tragic shooting in February 1865, a consequence of the tumult that the Civil War created among North Carolinians.
When the war began, a few . . . — — Map (db m75478) HM
Making Way for Change
At the turn of the 20th century, this city block was the site of Battery Porter Hill, a ridge measuring seven stories high topped by the original Battery Park Hotel. With its Queen Anne elegance, the resort's 500 . . . — — Map (db m209937) HM
Tectonic events beginning over 1 billion years ago influenced the
type and structure of rock that formed, guiding where mountains,
valleys, streams, and rivers developed. Take a look at the first rock in
our garden, which was mined right here in . . . — — Map (db m209886) HM
Evolved from private school opened c. 1853 by R.L. Abernethy. Operated 1900-1933 by Methodist Church. Closed 1935. The original site 1.3 mi N. — — Map (db m20391) HM
Evolved from private school opened c. 1853 by R.L. Adernethy. Operated 1900-1933 by Methodist Church. Closed 1935. The original site 8/10 mi N. — — Map (db m20393) HM
Historical Note
The Battle of Shultz’ Mill took place 900 yards south of this marker toward Gatlinburg. The battle took place in the field across from Shultz’ Mill on the right hand or western bank of Cosby Creek on the afternoon of January . . . — — Map (db m261706) HM
What began as a small show in a city festival resulted in two of the most
important cultural events in the region. In 1928, the Asheville Chamber of
Commerce asked musician and folk historian Bascom Lamar Lunsford to
arrange a folk song and dance . . . — — Map (db m229414) HM
You Have Arrived
The Swannanoa River Valley was known as "Grey Eagle" in the time when the Cherokee and Catawba people lived here. By the late 1800s, surveyors had deemed the neighboring Black Mountains range the highest in the Eastern . . . — — Map (db m209919) 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
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
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
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
Thin black lines indicate changes in relevance. Between each pair of lines entries are ordered geographically but all have the same relevance.
* Inflectional forms of words are their plurals, singulars, and possessives as well as gramatical tenses and similar variations.
