{"nrhp_refnum":"77000993","name":"S And W Cafeteria","other_names":["Dale's Cafeteria","See Also:79001676"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Patton Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Asheville","county":"Buncombe County","state":"NC","lat":35.59487802000007,"lon":-82.55244137999995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-03-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Dale's Cafeteria, formerly the S & W Cafeteria, is a three-story Art Deco building in Asheville's central business district, on Patton Avenue, Buncombe County, North Carolina. It was erected in 1929 as a purpose-built cafeteria.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is one of the finest Art Deco structures in North Carolina, with an unusually rich and imaginative facade of polychrome ornament, and that it is one of the state's earliest cafeterias. It housed the S & W cafeteria chain's Asheville location for about forty-five years and is described as virtually unaltered.","narrative":"Built in 1929 on Patton Avenue in Asheville, this three-story Art Deco building was designed by Douglas D. Ellington as a cafeteria from the start. Its main facade is faced with grey ashlar and framed by pilaster strips, with round-arched windows rising through the second floor, chevron bands in blue and grey, and a chrome canopy over the entrance. The interior has a principal dining room with a mezzanine on compound piers faced with checkered marble and a diamond-patterned plaster ceiling. The S & W chain opened its first Asheville cafeteria in 1922 in a leased building, then moved into this purpose-built home. The building is regarded as one of the finest Art Deco structures in North Carolina and one of the state's earliest cafeterias. It housed the S & W facility for nearly forty-five years, and in the 1940s it was said to serve over 5,000 people a day.","period_of_significance":"1929-1930","architect_builder":"Douglas D. Ellington (architect)","architectural_style":"Art Deco","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Presently occupied by Dale's Cafeteria, a locally owned facility unconnected with the S & W chain; the building remains owned by the S & W Company of Charlotte.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:40.751327-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/73/7191/47719173/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/77000993.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000993/1fd01fe6e6-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000993/1fd01fe6e6-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Warren LeMay from Cincinnati, OH, United States","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:S%26W_Cafeteria_Building,_Asheville,_NC_(45827769765).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Warren LeMay from Cincinnati, OH, United States</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:S%26W_Cafeteria_Building,_Asheville,_NC_(45827769765).jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"79001676","name":"Downtown Asheville Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/north-carolina/downtown-asheville-historic-district-79001676/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47719173","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S_%26_W_Cafeteria_(Asheville,_North_Carolina)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18157629"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/buncombe-county/s-and-w-cafeteria-77000993/"}