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Here at the Asheville Realty Team, our goal is to help you find your dream home or land in the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina. We will make this process easy for you. All you need to do is complete the client profile. This will give us the information we need to complete your search.

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History

Asheville has a long history marked by triumph and tragedy. A thriving community and popular mountain tourist destination afforded the city many modern luxuries, including the architecturally significant Grove Park Inn, Vanderbilt's Biltmore Estate, Battery Park, Kenilworth Inn, and the Jackson Building - the first skyscraper in the entire region. The city was especially hard hit in the post Depression era, and the fortunate survival of these landmark buildings is part of Asheville's cultural legacy.

Asheville, NC Historical links

Walking Tour of Historic Asheville
http://www.history-at-hand.com/ashevilletours.php

Mineral & Lapsidary Museum
http://www.minmuseum.org/eflp/museums/pid131777/D137099/C33089

Moving Sidewalk Tours
http://www.movingsidewalktours.com/

Asheville Art
http://www.ashevilleart.org/

History at Hand
http://www.history-at-hand.com/

Asheville Trolley Tours
http://www.ashevilletrolleytours.com/

Biltmore
http://www.biltmore.com/

Black Mountain College
http://www.blackmountaincollege.org/

National Park Service
http://www.nps.gov/carl

Colburn Museam
http://www.colburnmuseum.org/

Asheville Downtown
http://www.ashevilledowntown.org/

Grovewood
http://www.grovewood.com/

Grayline Asheville
http://www.graylineasheville.com/

The Great Smokey Mountain Railroad
http://www.gsmr.com/

Grove Arcade
http://www.grovearcade.com/

Cherokee
http://www.cherokee-nc.com/museum_intro.php

NC Literary Trails
http://www.ncliterarytrails.org/

Pack Place
http://www.packplace.org/

Asheville NC
http://www.ashevillenc.org/

Saradio Museum
http://www.saradiomuseum.org/

Craft Guild
http://www.craftguild.org/

Swannanoa Valley Museum
http://www.swannanoavalleymuseum.org/

The Heal Adventure
http://www.thehealthadventure.org/

Wolf Memorial
http://www.wolfememorial.com/

Wheels Through Time
http://www.wheelsthroughtime.com/

NC Historical Sites
http://www.nchistoricsites.org/vance/

Asheville During the Civil War

Asheville, with a population of approximately 2,500 by 1861, remained relatively untouched by the Civil War, but contributed a number of companies to the Confederate States Army, and a substantially smaller number of soldiers to the Union. For a time an Enfield rifle manufacturing facility was located in the town. The war came to Asheville almost as an afterthought, when the "Battle of Asheville" was fought in early April 1865 at the present-day site of the University of North Carolina at Asheville, with Union forces withdrawing to Tennessee after encountering resistance from a small group of Confederate senior and junior reserves and recuperating Confederate soldiers in prepared trench lines across the Buncombe Turnpike; orders had been given to the Union force to take Asheville only if this could be accomplished without significant losses.

An engagement was also fought later that month at Swannanoa Gap as part of the larger Stoneman's Raid, with Union forces retreating in the face of resistance from Brig. Gen. Martin, commander of Confederate troops in Western North Carolina, but returning to the area via Howard's Gap and Henderson County.In late April 1865 troops under the overall command of Union Gen. Stoneman captured Asheville. After a negotiated departure, the troops nevertheless subsequently returned and plundered and burned a number of Confederate supporters' homes in the town. The years following the War were a time of economic and social hardship in Buncombe County, as throughout most of the defeated South.

1900s to present

While Asheville prospered in the 1910s and 1920s, the Great Depression hit Asheville quite hard. Most of Asheville's banks closed. The 'per capita' debt held by the city (through municipal bonds) was the highest of any city in the nation. Rather than default, the city paid those debts over a period of 50 years. From the start of the Depression through the 1980s, economic growth in Asheville was slow. During this time of financial stagnation, most of the buildings in the downtown district remained unaltered. This resulted in one of the most impressive, comprehensive collections of Art Deco architecture in the United States.

The Ashevile area was subject to severe flooding from the remnants of a tropical storm on July 15-16, 1916, causing over $3 million in damage. Heavy rains from the remnants of Hurricane Frances and Hurricane Ivan caused major flooding in Asheville in September 2004, particularly at Biltmore Village.

In 2003, Centennial Olympic Park bomber Eric Robert Rudolph was transported to Asheville from Murphy, North Carolina for arraignment in federal court.

Asheville has adopted at least two nicknames over its history:

• The Land of the Sky, based on a book of the same name written by Frances Fisher Tieran (nom de plume Christian Reid).
• The Paris of the South (also used by New Orleans, Louisiana and Charleston, South Carolina).

Music

Live music is a significant element in the tourism-based economy of Asheville and the surrounding area. Seasonal festivals and numerous nightclubs offer opportunities for visitors and locals to attend a wide variety of live entertainment events.[25] Asheville is host to numerous clubs and performance venues. In particular, Asheville has a very strong street performer ("busking") community. Outdoor festivals, such as Bele Chere and the Lexington Avenue Arts & Fun Festival, feature local music. One of the most popular annual events is "Shindig on the Green," which happens Saturday nights during July and August on City/County Plaza. By tradition, the Shindig starts "along about sundown" and features local bluegrass bands and dance teams on stage, and informal jam sessions under the trees surrounding the County Courthouse.

DJ music, as well as a small, but active, dance community are also components of the downtown musical landscape. The town is also home to the Asheville Symphony and the Asheville Lyric Opera and there are a number of bluegrass, country, and traditional mountain musicians in the Asheville area. A residency at local music establishment the Orange Peel by Smashing Pumpkins in 2007 brought national attention to Asheville.[26]

Performing Arts

Asheville has long held a tradition of live theatre, dance, and opera. The Asheville Community Theatre was founded in 1946, producing the first amateur production of the Appalachian drama, Dark of the Moon. Soon after, the young actors Charlton Heston and wife Lydia Clarke would take over the small theatre. The Mainstage Auditorium in the current home of the theatre is named for the couple, the Heston Auditorium.

The North Carolina Stage Company is currently the only resident professional theatre in the downtown area. Although there are several independent professional companies, none of them have a permanent venue.

The Diana Wortham Theatre is a neoclassical theatre. It serves as the home to, among other companies, the Asheville Lyric Opera, and the Terpsicorps dance company.

In 2004, the Asheville Arts Center opened. It is a theatre, dance, and music studio designed for arts education. The Grand Hall of the Arts Center also is a regular venue for local bands as well as the Asheville Movement Collective.

Film & TV

Although the area has had a long history with the entertainment industry, recent developments are cementing Asheville as a potential growth area for both film and TV. The Asheville Film Festival is now in its third year, and the city is an annual participant in the 48 Hour Film Project. The city's public access cable station URTV began airing programs in the spring of 2006. Films made at least partially in the area include A Breed Apart, Searching for Angela Shelton, Last of the Mohicans, Being There, My Fellow Americans, The Fugitive, All the Real Girls, Richie Rich, Hannibal, Songcatcher, Patch Adams, Nell, Forrest Gump, Mr. Destiny, Dirty Dancing, Bull Durham, The Private Eyes, The Swan, The Clearing, and 28 Days. Locally produced films include: Vance, The Devil's Courthouse, Inbred Rednecks, 78, Sinkhole, The Nudger, Golden Throats of the 20th Century, Talking Tall, Ether, Brother Cellophane, House Of Poets, For Catherine, and Anywhere, USA, which was a winning film at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Forthcoming projects include as Moon Europa and Golden Blade III: Return of the Monkey's Uncle. Local film production groups include Bonesteel Films, Tabula Rasa Studios, B-clip Productions, 207 Pictures, A Viewpoint Productions, Blue Ridge Motion Pictures, Blue Volcano Productions, Ironwood Media Group, Harrow Beauty, and Buried Pictures.

Asheville Facts

Asheville is a city in Buncombe County, North Carolina, and is its county seat. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 68,889. It is the largest city in western North Carolina, and continues to grow. As of 2006, the Census Bureau estimates that Asheville's population is 72,789 [1]. Asheville is a part of the four-county Asheville metropolitan statistical area, the population of which was estimated by the Census Bureau in 2006 to be 398,009

Before the arrival of Europeans, the land where Asheville now exists lay within the boundaries of Cherokee country.[4] In 1540, Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto came to the area, bringing the first European visitors[5] in addition to European diseases which seriously depleted the native population.[6] As the Cherokee were eventually dominated by European settlers, the area was used as an open hunting ground until the middle of the 19th century.[7]

The history of Asheville, as a town, begins in 1784. In that year Colonel Samuel Davidson and his family settled in the Swannanoa Valley, redeeming a soldier's land grant from the state of North Carolina. Soon after building a log cabin at the bank of Christian Creek, Davidson was lured into the woods by a band of Cherokee hunters and killed. Davidson's wife, child and female slave fled on foot to Davidson's Fort (named after Davidson's father General John Davidson) 16 miles away.

In response to the killing, Davidson's twin brother Major William Davidson and brother-in-law Colonel Daniel Smith formed an expedition to retrieve Samuel Davidson's body and avenge his murder. Months after the expedition, Major Davidson and other members of his extended family returned to the area and settled at the mouth of Bee Tree Creek.

The United States Census of 1790 counted 1,000 residents of the area, excluding the Cherokee. The county of Buncombe was officially formed in 1792. The county seat, named Morristown in 1793, was established on a plateau where two old Indian trails crossed. In 1797 Morristown was incorporated and renamed Asheville after North Carolina Governor Samuel Ashe.[8]

Asheville pops up on national rankings for a variety of things: Modern Maturity named it one of "The 50 Most Alive Places To Be,"[12] AmericanStyle magazine called it one of "America's Top 25 Arts Destinations,"[13] Self magazine labeled it the "Happiest City for Women,"[14] it is one of AARP Magazine's "Best Places to Reinvent Your Life,"[15] and was proclaimed the "New Freak Capital of the U.S." by Rolling Stone. Asheville has also been called "a New Age Mecca" by CBS News' Eye On America,[16] and named the "most vegetarian-friendly" small city in America by PETA.[17] In the 2008 book The Geography of Bliss, by Eric Weiner, Asheville was cited by the author to be the "happiest place in the United States."

In 2007, Asheville was named one of the top seven places to live in the U.S. by Frommer's Cities Ranked and Rated, #23 of 200 metro areas for business and careers by Forbes, and the best place to live in the country by Relocate-America. It was also named one of the world's top 12 must-see destinations for 2007 by Frommer's travel guides.

Asheville and the surrounding mountains are also popular in the autumn when fall foliage peaks in October. The scenic Blue Ridge Parkway runs through the Asheville area and near the Biltmore Estate.

Downtown Asheville is a major attraction for tourists in the area

Mayor Terry Bellamy (the city's first African-American female mayor) is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition[18], a bi-partisan group with a stated goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets." The Coalition is co-chaired by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. In 2005, Asheville signed the U.S. Conference of Mayors Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, and in 2007 signed an agreement with Warren Wilson College stating the intent of the city and college to work together toward climate partnership goals.

Compliments of Wikipedia