The Battery Park Hotel is the name given to two hotels in

Asheville, North Carolina Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous cit ...

. The one standing today is 14 stories tall and was built in 1924 by Edwin W. Grove, during a time of increased tourism in the North Carolina mountains. It replaced a Queen Anne style hotel which stood 125 feet tall. The name came from the fact that

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

forces used the site for batteries of artillery.

History

The original Battery Park Hotel was built in 1886 by Colonel Frank Coxe. It was designed by Philadelphia architect Edward Hazlehurst (1853-1915) in "spectacular" Queen Anne style. (includes historic postcard photo) It was the first hotel in the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

with an electric

elevator An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...

, and one of the first with electric lighting. Once the

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

reached Asheville in 1880, the mountain town attracted 20

passenger trains In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives (often know ...

a day from the nation's largest cities, and people found out what a wonderful place the community was to visit. One reason for visiting Asheville was the clean mountain air, which helped problems such as

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

. Fine hotels were built, and Coxe's Battery Park Hotel was the best of these. For one thing, its location on Asheville's tallest hill provided magnificent views. The

Rockefeller Rockefeller is a German surname, originally given to people from the village of Rockenfeld near Neuwied in the Rhineland and commonly referring to subjects associated with the Rockefeller family. It may refer to: People with the name Rockefeller f ...

and

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families were among those who stayed in the Battery Park. Another notable guest was George Vanderbilt, who from his window could see the land that would one day become

Biltmore Estate Biltmore Estate is a historic house museum and tourist attraction in Asheville, North Carolina. Biltmore House (or Biltmore Mansion), the main residence, is a Châteauesque-style mansion built for George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 a ...

. By 1920, the ''

Asheville Citizen The ''Asheville Citizen-Times'' is an American, English language daily newspaper of Asheville, North Carolina. It was formed in 1991 as a result of a merger of the morning ''Asheville Citizen'' and the afternoon ''Asheville Times''. It is owned ...

'' reported the Battery Park had changed management three times. Edwin Wiley Grove bought the Battery Park in 1921. In 1922 he announced that it would remain a resort hotel for winter and summer, while he would add a second year-round hotel nearby. Plans changed later, however. People hated to see the old Battery Park Hotel torn down, but Grove, known also for the

Grove Park Inn The Omni Grove Park is a historical resort hotel on the western-facing slope of Sunset Mountain within the Blue Ridge Mountains, in Asheville, North Carolina. It has been visited by various presidents of the United States and many other notable ...

, built a fine hotel in the same location. Despite its architectural value, which Grove acknowledged, the old building was "rapidly outgrowing its period of usefulness". Some sources say it was damaged by a fire before being torn down, but newspapers do not appear to support this. The new hotel would be first-class, for industry, and not a resort. Architect

William Lee Stoddart William Lee Stoddart (1868–1940) was an architect who designed urban hotels in the Eastern United States. Although he was born in Tenafly, New Jersey, most of his commissions were in the South. He maintained offices in Atlanta and New York ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

designed the 220-room Battery Park Hotel that stands today. The modern building was built of

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

with

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

, and

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

, with a

Mission Revival The Mission Revival style was part of an architectural movement, beginning in the late 19th century, for the revival and reinterpretation of American colonial styles. Mission Revival drew inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century ...

roof that offered a dining area. The architectural style was a mix of Neoclassical and "Spanish romanticism". Helen Clevenger, a 19 year-old college student, was found dead in Room 224 on July 17, 1936, having died the night before. She had been shot in the chest, and slashed in the face with a sharp instrument. A hall boy at the hotel, 22 year-old Martin Moore, confessed to the murder, and was executed on December 11 of the same year. On September 4, 1943 a U.S. Government Official, Clifton Alheit, jumped to his death off the roof of the Battery Park Hotel in an apparent suicide. The hotel closed October 30, 1972 and Billy Shadrick of Housing Projects, Inc. took it over in 1979, keeping the historic exterior with the help of preservation

tax credit A tax credit is a tax incentive which allows certain taxpayers to subtract the amount of the credit they have accrued from the total they owe the state. It may also be a credit granted in recognition of taxes already paid or a form of state "disc ...

s, and converting the building into apartments for senior citizens. Today it is owned by National Church Residences, and businesses operate on the first floor. It is located in the

Downtown Asheville Historic District Downtown Asheville Historic District is a national historic district located at Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina. The district encompasses about 279 contributing buildings and one contributing object in the central business district ...

References

External links

*
National Church Residences Battery Park
{{National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina Hotels in Asheville, North Carolina Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina Neoclassical architecture in North Carolina Hotel buildings completed in 1924 William Lee Stoddart buildings Hotels established in 1924 Buildings and structures in Asheville, North Carolina Skyscrapers in Asheville, North Carolina Skyscraper hotels in North Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Buncombe County, North Carolina Historic district contributing properties in North Carolina