Arriving in Asheville in Sept.of 1981 to finally make it our home after many years of visiting from New Orleans we were once again struck by the skeletal like remains of downtown Asheville, a once vibrant city now barely connected to its illustrious past except for a mishmash of glorious but unkept 1920s architecture. Still, there were stirrings that would become great gasps of revitalization and reconstruction in the 90s. Asheville's downtown had two defining issues in the early 1980s. The first, according to the Chamber of Commerce, was that 65% of downtown Asheville's retail space was unused if not literally boarded up and the second was the refusal of voters to approve a bond referendum the city was hoping to pass that would have allowed an out of state developer to bulldoze a large swatch of downtown architecture into oblivion and develop a mall in its place. If that had happened much would have been lost, instead much has survived to become the Downtown Historic District, an Art Deco mecca.
Just down the street and recently separated from downtown in 1976 by the Great Wall of I-240 was the newly designated Montford Historic District(1980) a treasure trove of late 1800s and early 1900s houses, none of which had ever sold for more than 50 thousand dollars. The city's intrepid real estate agents shuddered at the thought of having to show property in an area of town that had a bad reputation, admittedly somewhat deserved, so they avoided it like the plague. This is where we were to spend the next year or so renovating a turn of the century home and trying to convince the powers that be to allow Asheville's first Bed and Breakfast, The Flint Street Inn, to open its doors to the visiting public.
Just down the street and recently separated from downtown in 1976 by the Great Wall of I-240 was the newly designated Montford Historic District(1980) a treasure trove of late 1800s and early 1900s houses, none of which had ever sold for more than 50 thousand dollars. The city's intrepid real estate agents shuddered at the thought of having to show property in an area of town that had a bad reputation, admittedly somewhat deserved, so they avoided it like the plague. This is where we were to spend the next year or so renovating a turn of the century home and trying to convince the powers that be to allow Asheville's first Bed and Breakfast, The Flint Street Inn, to open its doors to the visiting public.
In the early years of the Inn, guests would ask us sometimes diplomatically sometimes not, "Is this area on its way up or down?" The problems confronting us were mostly due to the fact that the city had no idea what a B&B was much less how to go about licensing it to do business. After much prodding and a major decision by the city Fire Chief who grew up in Montford it was decided to allow the Inn to be licensed as a "Tourist Home" the closest thing to a B&B that the city could identify.
Over the next decade this decision actually lead to the explosion of dozens of additional Bed & Breakfasts throughout Montford and other areas of the city. The Flint Street Inns being the first in 1982, followed closely by the Old Reynolds Mansion on Reynold's Mountain and CedarCrest on Biltmore Avenue and then many, many more.
For B&B guests and other visitors to Asheville what made up the downtown scene along Haywood Street in 1980s was a multitude of shoe stores, Jarred's French restaurant, O.Henry's a popular gay bar and Asheville institution still going strong down the street from its old location and Emoke B'racz's great bookstore and downtown gem, Malaprop's.
For B&B guests and other visitors to Asheville what made up the downtown scene along Haywood Street in 1980s was a multitude of shoe stores, Jarred's French restaurant, O.Henry's a popular gay bar and Asheville institution still going strong down the street from its old location and Emoke B'racz's great bookstore and downtown gem, Malaprop's.
Welcome to Asheville of the early 80s a period when restaurant development in the downtown area would play an important role in bolstering the emergence of downtown as a place to dine, shop and enjoy. The beginning of the popular Bele Chere festival in 1979 and the passage of a referendum to allow mixed drinks the same year undoubtetly added to the stirrings of social activity in the downtown area.
Fine dining on Biltmore Ave...how about the The Hotdog King? Still to come the trio of restaurants that anchored the corner of Biltmore and College Streets, La Caterina Trattoria, Cafe on the Square and Bistro 1896. S&W was still a cafeteria, Stone Soup, one of Asheville's early popular eaterys, was still on Charlotte St. in the old Manor Inn but soon to move downtown and into Shandler's Pickle Barrel location, now home to Mellow Mushroom Pizza. The Market Place then on Market Street, where Vincenzo's now resides, was a fine choice in 1980 and still is at its Wall Street location where Mark Rosenstein, Asheville's uber chef did award winning cuisine before selling.
Fine dining on Biltmore Ave...how about the The Hotdog King? Still to come the trio of restaurants that anchored the corner of Biltmore and College Streets, La Caterina Trattoria, Cafe on the Square and Bistro 1896. S&W was still a cafeteria, Stone Soup, one of Asheville's early popular eaterys, was still on Charlotte St. in the old Manor Inn but soon to move downtown and into Shandler's Pickle Barrel location, now home to Mellow Mushroom Pizza. The Market Place then on Market Street, where Vincenzo's now resides, was a fine choice in 1980 and still is at its Wall Street location where Mark Rosenstein, Asheville's uber chef did award winning cuisine before selling.
23 Page Restaurant, now defunct, on Page Ave was another excellent early choice. Another popular eating spot early in the 80s was Sonny Sparacino's Italian Bistro on Lexington Avenue, later taken over by the now defunct Vincent's Ear Music Bar. Three Brothers and The Mediterranean were early restaurants in the 1980s apparently having been at their present locations since the founding of Asheville in the late 1700's. Asheville was named Morristown until 1797 when the name was changed to honor Gov. Samuel Ashe.
Of all the early problems faced by innkeepers one of the most vexing was where to send guests to eat on holidays. Because the city closed down in those early years the only choices were basically the restaurants at the Inn on the Plaza, now the Renaissance, or the Grove Park Inn which was seasonally operated, closed from after Thanksgiving until spring so it was not an option in the winter.
Perhaps our most fondly remembered restaurant was the original Windmill European Grill, across from the Civic Center. Owned and operated by Vasil and Cynthia Hristov. It was Vasil the Bulgarian owner/chef who delighted his clientele with great ethnic food served with a side of cabaret. Cynthia tended the dining room while Vasil, with his ever present cup of red wine, manned the kitchen which was part and parcel of the dining space. He was known to startle otherwise charmed guests by occasionally bombarding them with fresh baked rolls airmailed across the room from the chef station.
Of all the early problems faced by innkeepers one of the most vexing was where to send guests to eat on holidays. Because the city closed down in those early years the only choices were basically the restaurants at the Inn on the Plaza, now the Renaissance, or the Grove Park Inn which was seasonally operated, closed from after Thanksgiving until spring so it was not an option in the winter.
Perhaps our most fondly remembered restaurant was the original Windmill European Grill, across from the Civic Center. Owned and operated by Vasil and Cynthia Hristov. It was Vasil the Bulgarian owner/chef who delighted his clientele with great ethnic food served with a side of cabaret. Cynthia tended the dining room while Vasil, with his ever present cup of red wine, manned the kitchen which was part and parcel of the dining space. He was known to startle otherwise charmed guests by occasionally bombarding them with fresh baked rolls airmailed across the room from the chef station.
Sometime in the 80s the Shastri family took over the location and it eventually morphed into another fine downtown dining experience, The Flying Frog, now in the Battery Park Hotel. Vijay Shastri the little boy who could be found in the kitchen helping his parents Cathy and Jay in the early years of the Flying Frog is now a fine chef and with his father still operates one of Asheville's premier restaurants.
In the early 80s most of the historic buildings lining Haywood St. still had the decorative pressed aluminium "modern" fronts attached to disguise the original turn of the century architecture. Who would have guessed that the building that was to later become Malaprop's second location had a balcony in it's early period as a downtown hotel. After opening in 1982 Malaprop's bookstore then a few doors north of its current spot was busy trying to convince the city fathers that serving food on the street was not a risk to the health and well being of its patrons. Interestingly enough the Grove Park Inn had for some time been serving food outdoors on its Sunset Terrace with no apparent loss of life. About 1984 the city finally relented and now outdoor dining is ubiquitous around downtown Asheville.
Another curious fact about Asheville in the early years of the 80s was the lack of street signs. There weren't any of the now easy to read green reflective signs. What was at each intersection was a small four sided concrete pylon painted white (think three foot tall versions of the Vance Monument) that had the street name stenciled in black lettering on each of its four flat surfaces, most of which had weathered into unreadability. Since most folks downtown were locals it didn't matter much except to the B&B owners like ourselves who were left giving directions based on counting streets until the next turn. That was not too difficult since there was no real traffic problems A really bad traffic jam of the early 80s meant finding yourself stuck behind 6 or 8 cars waiting for the light to change. No such thing as morning or 5 o'clock traffic yet.
Life was good...except when a water main burst under some downtown street flooding the immediate area and in the winter turning city streets into an ice rink. This was a regular occurance in the 80s because the city was making do with an infrastructure that dated from pre-depression days. Asheville had struggled to pay off its depression era debt well into the 1970s and in fact was one of the few American cities, if not the only one, to totally retire its financial obligations of that period. Spending for new infrastructure, water, roads and bridges, sewerage and storm runoff was very hard to fund due to the hair shirt mentality that remained in the psyche of the city fathers and voters.
In the early 80s most of the historic buildings lining Haywood St. still had the decorative pressed aluminium "modern" fronts attached to disguise the original turn of the century architecture. Who would have guessed that the building that was to later become Malaprop's second location had a balcony in it's early period as a downtown hotel. After opening in 1982 Malaprop's bookstore then a few doors north of its current spot was busy trying to convince the city fathers that serving food on the street was not a risk to the health and well being of its patrons. Interestingly enough the Grove Park Inn had for some time been serving food outdoors on its Sunset Terrace with no apparent loss of life. About 1984 the city finally relented and now outdoor dining is ubiquitous around downtown Asheville.
Another curious fact about Asheville in the early years of the 80s was the lack of street signs. There weren't any of the now easy to read green reflective signs. What was at each intersection was a small four sided concrete pylon painted white (think three foot tall versions of the Vance Monument) that had the street name stenciled in black lettering on each of its four flat surfaces, most of which had weathered into unreadability. Since most folks downtown were locals it didn't matter much except to the B&B owners like ourselves who were left giving directions based on counting streets until the next turn. That was not too difficult since there was no real traffic problems A really bad traffic jam of the early 80s meant finding yourself stuck behind 6 or 8 cars waiting for the light to change. No such thing as morning or 5 o'clock traffic yet.
Life was good...except when a water main burst under some downtown street flooding the immediate area and in the winter turning city streets into an ice rink. This was a regular occurance in the 80s because the city was making do with an infrastructure that dated from pre-depression days. Asheville had struggled to pay off its depression era debt well into the 1970s and in fact was one of the few American cities, if not the only one, to totally retire its financial obligations of that period. Spending for new infrastructure, water, roads and bridges, sewerage and storm runoff was very hard to fund due to the hair shirt mentality that remained in the psyche of the city fathers and voters.
In the early 80s the city's population was virtually the same as it had been at the beginning of the depression, about 40,000. The city leaders were of the mind that if the citizens of Asheville could survive on what the city had to offer in 1929 they could do it in 1980. Obviously this was not a good mindset to take into the period that was soon to be the beginning of Asheville's resurgence. But by fits and starts resurge it did and after the 1980s it became a rare occurance for a guest of the Inn to inquire if any part of Asheville was on the way up or on the way down.
First published MountainXpress 2008
First published MountainXpress 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment