Asheville, North Carolina is unexpected.  Asheville is… different.

I recently returned from a week in the Blue Ridge Mountains of my adopted home state.  I’d been to Asheville before, but usually as a waystation to or from somewhere else.  This time, I got to probe deeper into the heart and soul of the area.

How different is Asheville from the remainder of western North Carolina?  I remember seeing a map of the state after the 2008 general elections, showing results for each of the state’s one hundred counties.  Buncombe County, Asheville’s home, was an island of Democratic blue in an otherwise almost uninterrupted sea of Republican red.

(Incidentally, Buncombe County is the source of the old expression “bunkum,” now shortened to “bunk” to denote a claim or statement that is empty or rhetorical.  Congressman Felix Walker, who represented the county in 1820, insisted on giving a long-winded speech during the debate on the Missouri Compromise “for Buncombe.”)

Asheville was founded in 1784, after the colonies had won their independence from Great Britain.  It was originally called Morristown, but was renamed in 1797 in honor of the governor, Samuel Ashe.   The town kept to itself, growing modestly and languishing in obscurity until the early years of the last century.  It was discovered as a place of mild climate and great natural beauty by wealthy men such as George Washington Vanderbilt, who ordered the construction of the Biltmore Estate, the nation’s largest privately-owned home, on the edge of the city.

The Depression hit Asheville particularly hard, and the city’s economy foundered for half the twentieth century, only picking up steam in the decade of the Eighties.  The area has flourished since, to the point that it was included in the nation’s top 25 for business and career development by Forbes magazine.

Asheville has an unusual vibe for a mountain city of around 80,000 people.  It is completely unlike Roanoke, Virginia, for example, a city of similar size located some 250 miles north in the Appalachian chain.  This city rocks.

Downtown Asheville houses thirty art galleries, four independent book stores (by my count), and over sixty restaurants and outdoor cafes catering to all kinds of cuisine appetites from the BarleyTaproom to Zambra’s tapas restaurant.  The architecture of the downtown neighborhood is a delightful mélange of Art Deco, Beaux Arts, and Neoclassical styles, a fortuitous result of a near-bankrupt city not having the money for the urban renewal projects so popular elsewhere in post-World War II America

But the charm, the essence of the place isn’t found just in the appealing downtown section, or Biltmore Village, or the Grove Park Inn, one of the top spa and hotel complexes in the world.  It goes to the people and the lifestyle that is so pervasive there.

According to Wikipedia, Modern Maturity magazine cited Asheville as one of the fifty most alive places to be.  Self magazine cited it as the Happiest City for Women; AARP listed it as one of the best places in the nation to reinvent one’s life.   It’s a New Age mecca, vegetarian and vegan friendly, and has been cited in several publications as one of the happiest places to live in America.

Now that I’ve whetted your appetite for this jewel of the Blue Ridge Mountains, I’m going to ask you to forget all about it.  I don’t want to have any part in spoiling the place by having it overrun with tourists!

A home in the historic Montford district

A building in the Grove Park Inn complex

 Asheville's Flat Iron Building

Asheville's art deco style City Hall, at center.  Designed by architect Douglas D. Ellington, whose work is scattered liberally throughout the city.  The building was completed in 1928.

A storefront in downtown Asheville.  The central business district is alive and well from all indications I saw.

Buskers playing in a downtown plaza-- they sounded great, by the way!  The live music scene in Asheville is dynamic and thriving.  I missed out on the Friday evening Drum Circle, but will be sure to catch it next time here.

The Malaprop Book Store in downtown Asheville, one of the more prominent indy book shops in the city.  On a Friday midafternoon, the store and adjoining cafe were doing a brisk business.  Refreshing to see in the current book retailing climate!

The Roman Catholic Basilica of St. Lawrence, located near the Asheville Civic Center.  It was designed and built in the Spanish Renaissance style in 1905 by the Spanish architect Rafael Guastavino and American architect R. S. Smith.  The church is the active hub of the Catholic community in Asheville.

A touch of local foliage color.  Sadly, I arrived a little past the peak color in the area, and the gloomy, rainy weather didn't help.  But I've been in the area before in mid-late October, and the colors are every bit as spectacular as advertised.

I can't wait for my next trip to this fascinating and progressive city.