The Jackson Building is a 140 ft (43m) 15-story building in Asheville, North Carolina And is owned by the Blaney Estate such was completed in 1924 in Pack Square downtown. It was the first skyscraper in western North Carolina.

History

The site chosen by developer Lynwood B. Jackson for western North Carolina's first skyscraper was previously that of the tombstone business operated by

Thomas Wolfe Thomas Clayton Wolfe (October 3, 1900 – September 15, 1938) was an American novelist of the early 20th century. Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels as well as many short stories, dramatic works, and novellas. He is known for mixing highly origin ...

's father. It was only 27 by 60 feet and believed to be too small for a skyscraper, but it now holds the record for tallest building on the smallest lot. Jackson hired architect Ronald Greene. Jackson built the city's first skyscraper because he believed in Asheville's real estate market. The

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

building was fully occupied when it opened in 1924. The observation tower had a 400x

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observ ...

and an 18 million

candlepower Candlepower (abbreviated as cp or CP) is a unit of measurement for luminous intensity. It expresses levels of light intensity relative to the light emitted by a candle of specific size and constituents. The historical candlepower is equal to 0.981 ...

searchlight A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular direc ...

intended to attract tourists. The

grotesques Since at least the 18th century (in French and German as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus ...

on each corner are not functional; there are small holes in the mouths to let water escape and not freeze in the terracotta. Next to the Jackson Building was the 8-story Westall Building, also designed by Greene which was not large enough for its own elevator. For this reason, the two buildings have the same elevator system. Pack Square Investors LLC and others bought the Jackson Building and other properties for $15 million in 2004 and sold them to Pack Square Property (Wicker Park Capital Management of

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the British colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later t ...

) for $28.3 million in 2017.

References

* {{coord, 35.5949, -82.5505, region:US-NC_type:landmark, display=title Buildings and structures in Asheville, North Carolina Tourist attractions in Asheville, North Carolina Skyscrapers in Asheville, North Carolina Skyscraper office buildings in North Carolina Office buildings completed in 1924