Downtown Asheville Historic District

Downtown Asheville's historic district covers roughly thirty blocks at the center of the city's business, government and institutional life. Its buildings date mostly from the end of the nineteenth century to World War II and range from one-story shops to modest skyscrapers. Styles include Romanesque Revival, eclectic Victorian, Neo-Gothic, Neo-Georgian, Art Deco and Commercial Classical. Three public spaces are included: Pack Square, City-County Plaza and Pritchard Park. Key buildings include the 1928 seventeen-story Buncombe County Courthouse, the Art Deco City Hall by Douglas Ellington, the 1923-1924 Jackson Building, called the first skyscraper in Western North Carolina, and the Thomas Wolfe House, the author's childhood home. Work by Richard Sharp Smith, Ronald Greene and other architects appears throughout. The nomination ties the district to Asheville's growth as a resort and commercial town, its early twentieth-century expansion, and the turbulent 1920s land boom. Some later buildings and altered storefronts are classed as linking or intrusive.