{"nrhp_refnum":"79001674","name":"Buncombe County Courthouse","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"College and Davidson Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Asheville","county":"Buncombe County","state":"NC","lat":35.59606990800006,"lon":-82.54834905199993,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-05-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Politics/Government","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A seventeen-story courthouse building in Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina, rising above Pack Square. It was completed in 1928 as the county's seat of courts and offices.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is one of the most sumptuously finished public buildings in North Carolina and the last courthouse designed by Frank P. Milburn. Its lobby is described as one of the most well preserved and elegant Neo-Classical interiors in the state. Its height and setbacks are presented as an unusual solution to early highrise design, set against conservative courthouse designs of the 1920s.","narrative":"Completed in 1928 on Pack Square in Asheville, the Buncombe County Courthouse is a seventeen-story steel-frame building faced in brick and ashlar. It was designed by Milburn and Heister and Company of Washington, D.C., and was Frank P. Milburn's last North Carolina courthouse, finished a year after his death. The building cost about $1,000,000 and was erected on a lot bought in 1924 for $215,000. Its tiers are set back and decorated with Ionic pilasters, Corinthian half-columns, and a Doric pavilion at the entrance. The interior lobby features a marble stair, bronze and glass screens, a coffered ceiling with polychrome plaster, and a mosaic tile floor. The building is regarded as one of the most individual courthouses of the 1920s, when most courthouses used simple massing and conservative classical ornament. It is valued for its craftsmanship and its early highrise design.","period_of_significance":"1928","architect_builder":"Frank P. Milburn (architect); Milburn and Heister and Company of Washington, D.C. (architects)","architectural_style":"Neo-Classical Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"The document states the courthouse is in need of repair.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:42.072569-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/34/7173/47717334/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/79001674.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79001674/29ac641dd0-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79001674/29ac641dd0-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Teemu08","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Buncombe_County_Courthouse.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Teemu08</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Buncombe_County_Courthouse.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/47717334","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buncombe_County_Courthouse","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q17986157"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/buncombe-county/buncombe-county-courthouse-79001674/"}