Where Asheville Began
Downtown Asheville is more than a busy collection of shops, restaurants, galleries, and offices. It is the place where the city’s story is easiest to read. Follow the curve of Patton Avenue, stand beneath the trees at Pack Square Park, or look up at the old buildings along Wall Street, and you can see Asheville growing from a small mountain settlement into one of Western North Carolina’s most distinctive cities.
The community first developed around what is now Pack Square. Before Asheville had its current name, the settlement was sometimes known as Morristown. In 1797, the North Carolina legislature formally incorporated the town and renamed it Asheville in honor of Samuel Ashe, a former governor of the state. The name “Asheville” therefore reflects the town’s early connection to North Carolina’s political history.
From the beginning, the central square served as a natural gathering place. Roads converged there, local government took shape there, and farmers and traders used the area as a marketplace. Downtown Asheville grew outward from this civic center along streets such as Biltmore Avenue, Broadway, College Street, Patton Avenue, and Haywood Street.
From Frontier Crossroads to Commercial Center
For much of its early history, Asheville was relatively isolated by the surrounding mountains. That changed with the completion of the Buncombe Turnpike in 1828. The road connected Asheville with Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, and Kentucky, bringing livestock, wagons, travelers, and commerce through the center of town.
Pack Square became a particularly lively place during this period. Drovers moved pigs, cattle, and other animals through the square on their way to market. Inns, saloons, shops, and stables followed, giving the area a rough-and-ready reputation. The city’s central district was practical before it was picturesque: a place to conduct business, exchange news, attend court, and meet travelers passing through the mountains.
The arrival of the railroad in 1880 marked another turning point. Asheville was suddenly easier to reach, and visitors began arriving for the area’s cool climate and reputation as a health resort. Hotels, boardinghouses, shops, and professional offices appeared throughout downtown. In 1889, Asheville introduced an electric streetcar system, with lines radiating from the central square. The system was among the earliest of its kind in the South and helped make downtown the city’s commercial and social heart.
How Court Square Became Pack Square
The square was originally called Court Square because Buncombe County courthouses stood there for generations. Its identity changed through the influence of George Willis Pack and his wife, Frances “Phoebe” Farnam Pack.
The Packs moved to Asheville in the late nineteenth century and became important benefactors of the growing city. Their support reached schools, hospitals, libraries, and public parks. George Pack also helped fund the monument to Zebulon Vance, the Buncombe County native and former North Carolina governor whose memorial once stood prominently in the square.
In 1900, Pack purchased land on College Street and donated it to Buncombe County on the condition that the courthouse be moved away from the square. When the new courthouse opened in 1903, Court Square was renamed Pack Square in recognition of the family’s contributions. The space was intended to remain a public park and gathering place.
That civic purpose continues today. Pack Square Park and City-County Plaza host concerts, festivals, rallies, holiday celebrations, outdoor performances, and everyday moments of downtown life. The park’s modern design includes fountains, terraces, green space, an amphitheater, public art, and the Bascom Lamar Lunsford Stage.
Buildings That Tell Asheville’s Story
Downtown Asheville’s architecture is one of its great inheritances. The city’s building boom in the 1920s produced an unusually rich collection of Art Deco, Beaux-Arts, Gothic Revival, and Neo-Classical structures.
Several landmarks stand near Pack Square. The Buncombe County Courthouse and Asheville City Hall face one another across City-County Plaza. City Hall, completed in 1928, is a celebrated example of Art Deco design by architect Douglas Ellington. Nearby, the Jackson Building rises above the square. Completed in 1924, it was one of the South’s early skyscrapers and remains one of the most recognizable silhouettes in downtown Asheville.
Other notable landmarks include:
- The Flat Iron Building on Battery Park Avenue, an eight-story, wedge-shaped office building completed in the 1920s.
- The S&W Cafeteria Building on Patton Avenue, known for its elegant Art Deco detailing.
- The former Bon Marché and Kress buildings, reminders of downtown’s department-store era.
- The Basilica of Saint Lawrence, completed in 1909 and famous for its remarkable tile dome.
- The Grove Arcade, a grand indoor marketplace designed by architect Charles Parker for E.W. Grove.
The Grove Arcade opened in 1929 with shops, offices, and public gathering spaces. During World War II, the federal government took over the building, and it later became associated with the National Climatic Data Center. After years of advocacy and rehabilitation, the Grove Arcade reopened in 2002 as a lively mixed-use destination with shops, restaurants, galleries, and residences. Its revival became an important symbol of downtown Asheville’s preservation movement.
The Block and Downtown’s African American Heritage
Downtown’s history also includes The Block, the historically Black business district just east of Pack Square. Centered around Eagle Street and Market Street, The Block became a thriving commercial and cultural community after the Civil War. Black-owned businesses, churches, newspapers, professional offices, restaurants, and social organizations helped make it an essential part of Asheville’s civic life.
The YMI Cultural Center, commissioned in 1892, is one of the district’s most important landmarks. Originally created as a Young Men’s Institute, it served as a gathering place, educational center, and business hub. Today, The Block remains a vital reminder that downtown Asheville’s heritage was shaped by many communities and traditions, including the work of Black entrepreneurs, educators, craftsmen, and civic leaders.
Preservation, Change, and a Living Downtown
Asheville faced serious financial challenges during the Great Depression, but those difficulties helped preserve much of its historic architecture. The city carried a heavy debt burden and could not easily replace older buildings with new ones. Over time, what might once have seemed outdated came to be recognized as a remarkable architectural inheritance.
Beginning in the 1970s and 1980s, preservationists, business owners, artists, and residents worked to protect downtown buildings and bring them back into use. The Asheville Urban Trail, a walking route marked by sculptures and plaques, now connects many of these stories along the sidewalks. It is sometimes described as a museum without walls, linking Pack Square with Wall Street, Haywood Street, the Grove Arcade, and other historic corners.
Downtown has continued to evolve. Former department stores have become galleries and studios. Historic office buildings now hold restaurants, boutiques, hotels, and apartments. The Thomas Wolfe Memorial preserves the childhood home of one of Asheville’s most famous writers, while independent bookstores, music venues, breweries, and art spaces give the district a contemporary energy.
The removal of the remaining Vance Monument structure in 2023 also reflected Asheville’s ongoing conversation about memory, public space, and whose stories are honored. The change did not erase the past; instead, it became part of the city’s continuing effort to interpret its history more honestly and inclusively.
That is what makes Downtown Asheville special. Its history is not sealed behind museum glass. It is underfoot on the brick sidewalks, above you in the terra-cotta cornices, and alive in the people who gather at Pack Square, walk along Patton Avenue, browse the Grove Arcade, or pause outside the YMI. Downtown Asheville has changed many times, but it has never stopped being the place where the city comes together.