{"nrhp_refnum":"86002876","name":"Ottari Sanitarium","other_names":["Coburn Apartments"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"491 Kimberly Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Asheville","county":"Buncombe County","state":"NC","lat":35.62926028800007,"lon":-82.54733371899994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-10-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Health/Medicine","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story cream stucco-over-brick building at 491 Kimberly Avenue in north Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina, built in 1912 as an osteopathic sanitarium and enlarged in 1923. It has since been converted to apartments and is known as the Coburn Apartments.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that the building reflects Asheville's long history as a health resort. It was built by Dr. William Banks Meacham, a national figure in osteopathy who served as president of the National Osteopathic Association in 1916 and 1917. It was also one of the earliest hospitals built solely for osteopathic practice and reflected the state of the art of that medical philosophy.","narrative":"Set on a knoll at the base of Kimberly Mountain in north Asheville, this three-story stuccoed brick building began in 1912 as the Ottari Sanitarium, built and run by Dr. William Banks Meacham as a model osteopathic hospital. The original block held eighteen rooms and suites, each with a private porch. In 1923 a fourteen-bay western addition and a connecting block raised the total to forty bedrooms, thirty-five baths and thirty porches, and added flat roofs with stepped parapets showing faint Spanish detailing. Meacham, who led the National Osteopathic Association in 1916 and 1917, lost the property in the financial collapse of 1930. The city and county later held it and converted it to apartments in 1937. Harry Cutler Coburn bought it in 1940 and renamed it the Coburn Apartments. The building is recognized for its link to Asheville's reputation as a health resort, its association with Meacham, and its role as an early hospital devoted solely to osteopathy.","period_of_significance":"1900- (specific dates 1912, 1923)","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Utilitarian sanitarium building with slight Spanish detailing (mission parapets) added in 1923","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"Occupied and in use as apartments (thirty one-bedroom and three two-bedroom units); condition listed as good and altered, with the exterior essentially as it was in 1923.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:50.736732-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/34/7192/47719234/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/86002876.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86002876/9796661dcf-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86002876/9796661dcf-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Bill Fitzpatrick","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ottari_Sanatarium.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Bill Fitzpatrick</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:Ottari_Sanatarium.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47719234","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottari_Sanitarium","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18155521"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/buncombe-county/ottari-sanitarium-86002876/"}