The Montford Area Historic District is a mainly residential neighborhood in Asheville, North Carolina that is included in the National Register of Historic Places.

History

According to the National Park Service the origin of the name Montford is unknown. In 1893 Montford was incorporated as an autonomous village to the north of Asheville. This was a tiny community of about 50 people, mainly local businessman and their families. In 1889 the Asheville Loan, Construction, and Improvement Company, began to develop the neighborhood. The firm purchased and subdivided tracts of undeveloped land north of the Battery Park and sold lots. The enterprise languished until it was taken over by George Willis Pack, a lumber tycoon from the midwest who moved to Asheville in 1885. He is best known today as a philanthropist and benefactor of the Asheville Library and principal public square. He also donated land for Montford Park on the southern end of Montford Avenue. In 1905 the village of Montford was annexed to the city, and though a few structures survived from the original village, Montford lost its autonomous identity. Today, Montford is bounded by U.S. Routes 19/23, I-240, and Broadway. Most of the district's 600 buildings—primarily residences—were constructed between 1890 and 1920 . The people who bought lots and built in the Montford area in its building prime were for the most part middle class individuals who carried out the day-to-day activities of the city—businessman, lawyers, doctors, and a few architects. Several residents found immortality in Thomas Wolfe's autobiographical '' Look Homeward, Angel''. Early city directories indicate a mixed population of working class citizens, and highly paid professionals, whites and blacks. Though predominantly single family homes, land use in Montford has been mixed since the earliest days of development. The old Highland Hospital, located off the northern end of Montford Avenue, was the scene of a deadly fire in 1948, among the victims was Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. The homes in the neighborhood represent an amalgam of architectural styles including

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

, Queen Anne,

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

, Neoclassical, and Colonial Revival. Also common are homes built to resemble castles. The neighborhood was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. In 1977, much of the Montford neighborhood was designated as a Historic District and listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In 1981 the Asheville City Council designated the Montford Historic District a local historic district, as well. Today the Montford community is home to several homes and businesses including many bed and breakfasts.

Architecture

Montford is popularly called a "

" neighborhood. While some of these architectural features do abound in Montford, the term does not do full justice to the neighborhood's complex overall character, which is that of a late and post-Victorian suburb. The architects and builders of Montford were strongly influenced by a variety of progressive styles and design ideas that were emerging nationally in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The neighborhood mirrors in subtle ways Asheville's cosmopolitan character at the turn of the century. Artistic influences in the town, including details from national architectural trendsetters like Bruce Price, Bernard Maybeck, Frank Lloyd Wright, and others exist in Montford houses, but were relatively unknown in other parts of the state. The Rankin House at 192 Elizabeth Street is Montford's oldest home, a Greek Revival style residence built around 1846 with Italianate embellishments. When Montford's development began full force in 1889, the dominant building fashion around the country was what is generally called the Queen Anne style. This was a building mode with many variations, but one generally characterized by irregular, complex massing and rooflines, corner turrets or towers, a mixture of surface textures, and a lavish use of ornamental devices. The appearance of English architect Richard Sharp Smith to Asheville in the late nineteenth century profoundly affected the city's subsequent architectural development. Best known as supervising architect for the Biltmore House, Smith opened an office afterwards and a few homes in Montford can be directly traced to him. His favorite motifs were gambrel roofs, hipped gables, pebbledash or

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

walls, heavy porch brackets and simple Colonial Revival details. The use of shingles, stone, stucco, earth colors and informal composition became an established tradition in Montford. Among the most numerous and most important houses in the district are those executed in the Shingle style. This prevalence reflects both the prosperity of the town and the presence of architects and clients acquainted with this fashionable trend. A variety of houses in Montford are in the Colonial Revival style, which became popular in the first few decades of the twentieth century. The earliest examples of this style have an informal quality, and are identified chiefly through the use of the gambrel roof and shingle wall coverings. The Montford Hills sub-division of Montford, developed in the mid to late 1920s, incorporates designs found in Montford's original homes.

Highland Hospital

In addition to residential buildings, the historic Highland Hospital was located in Montford. Originally named 'Dr. Carroll's Sanitorium' after Asheville psychiatrist Robert S. Carroll, was located in Montford in 1909 and renamed Highland Hospital in 1912. The campus included Dr. Carroll's home, where jazz singer Nina Simone studied piano with Carroll's wife. In 1939, Carroll gave the hospital to

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

's Neuropsychiatric Department. The hospital is best known for a 1948 fire in which Zelda Fitzgerald died along with eight other patients. Duke sold the property in the 1980s, and it was the home office for

Genova Diagnostics Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of t ...

until the corporate offices moved to Nettlewood in 2013. Highland Hall (as it is now called) is currently a stop on the

Asheville Historic Trolley Tours 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 ...

Riverside Cemetery

The district also includes the Riverside Cemetery, established in 1885. Thirteen thousand people are buried in the cemetery. The cemetery is the final resting place of a wide cross-section of prominent Carolinians: authors Thomas Wolfe and

William Sydney Porter William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910), better known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American writer known primarily for his short stories, though he also wrote poetry and non-fiction. His works include " The Gift of the ...

(better known by his pseudonym

O. Henry William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910), better known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American writer known primarily for his short stories, though he also wrote poetry and non-fiction. His works include "The Gift of the M ...

); former North Carolina governor and Senator Zebulon Baird Vance; Senator

Jeter Connelly Pritchard Jeter Connelly Pritchard (July 12, 1857 – April 10, 1921) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and of the United States Circuit Courts for the Fourth Circuit and previously was an assoc ...

; Governor

Locke Craig Locke Craig (August 16, 1860 – June 9, 1924), an American lawyer and Democratic politician, was the 53rd governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina, serving from 1913 until 1917. Early and family life Craig was born near Windsor, Bertie C ...

; Confederate generals Robert B. Vance,

James Green Martin James Green Martin (February 14, 1819 – October 4, 1878) was a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Early life Martin was born in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, the son of Dr. William D. Martin an ...

and Thomas Lanier Clingman;

Lillian Exum Clement Lillian Exum Clement (1894–1925), later known as Lillian Stafford, was an American politician who was the first woman elected to the North Carolina General Assembly and the first woman to serve in any state legislature in the Southern United S ...

, first woman elected to the North Carolina state legislature; and George Masa, a photographer known for documenting the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Asheville Cemetery Company established the cemetery not only for that purpose but also to serve as a park. The city took it over in 1952.

Montford Area Historic District Gallery

File:Acupuncture Clinic, Montford Ave., Montord Are.JPG, Acupuncture Clinic, 2014 File:The Black Walnut B & B, Montford Ave., Montford Area.JPG, The Black Walnut B&B, 2014 File:The Lion & The Rose B & B, Montford Ave., Montford Area.JPG, The Lion & The Rose B&B, 2014 File:9 Pearson Drive.jpg, 9 Pearson Drive, 2021 File:10 Watauga Street.jpg, 10 Watauga Street, 2021 File:26 Cumberland Circle.jpg, 26 Cumberland Circle, 2021 File:28 Blake Street.jpg, 28 Blake Street, 2021 File:36 Cumberland Circle.jpg, 36 Cumberland Circle, 2021 File:48 Courtland Avenue.jpg, 48 Courtland Avenue, 2021 File:76 Starnes Avenue.jpg, 76 Starnes Avenue, 2021 File:140 Montford Ave.jpg, 140 Montford Ave., 2021 File:Ambassador Apartments - Asheville, NC.jpg, Ambassador Apartments, 2021 File:Gay Green House.jpg, Gay Green House, 2021 File:Gudger House.jpg, Gudger House, 2021 File:Rumbough House.jpg, Rumbough House, 2021

Riverside Cemetery Gallery

File:RiversideCemetery.jpg, Riverside Cemetery Sign, 2009 File:Riverside Cemetery, Asheville, NC.jpg, 2015 File:Zebulon Vance Grave.jpg, Zebulon Vance Grave, 2015 File:O. Henry Grave.jpg, O. Henry Grave, 2015 File:Thomas Wolfe Grave.jpg, Thomas Wolfe Grave, 2015

References

External links

*
Asheville, North Carolina: A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary—Montford Area Historic District
{{National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina Queen Anne architecture in North Carolina Shingle Style architecture in North Carolina Houses completed in 1848 Culture of Asheville, North Carolina Tourist attractions in Asheville, North Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Buncombe County, North Carolina Houses in Buncombe County, North Carolina