The Montford Area Historic District is a mainly residential neighborhood in

Asheville 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 ci ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

that is included in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

History

According to the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

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 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 autobiographical ''

Look Homeward, Angel ''Look Homeward, Angel: A Story of the Buried Life'' is a 1929 novel by Thomas Wolfe. It is Wolfe's first novel, and is considered a highly autobiographical American coming-of-age story. The character of Eugene Gant is generally believed to be ...

''. 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 Zelda Fitzgerald (; July 24, 1900 – March 10, 1948) was an American novelist, painter, dancer, and socialite. Born in Montgomery, Alabama, she was noted for her beauty and high spirits, and was dubbed by her husband F. Scott Fitzgerald ...

, wife of

F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...

. The homes in the neighborhood represent an amalgam of architectural styles including Victorian, Queen Anne, Arts and Crafts, Neoclassical, and

Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archit ...

. 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

. 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 Bed and breakfast (typically shortened to B&B or BnB) is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast. Bed and breakfasts are often private family homes and typically have between four and eleven rooms, wit ...

Architecture

Montford is popularly called a " Victorian" 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 Bruce Price (December 12, 1845 – May 29, 1903) was an American architect and an innovator in the Shingle Style. The stark geometry and compact massing of his cottages in Tuxedo Park, New York, influenced Modernist architects, including ...

Bernard Maybeck Bernard Ralph Maybeck (February 7, 1862 – October 3, 1957) was an American architect in the Arts and Crafts Movement of the early 20th century. He was an instructor at University of California, Berkeley. Most of his major buildings were in ...

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

, 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 The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

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 Richard Sharp Smith (July 7, 1853 – February 8, 1924) was an English-born American architect, associated with Biltmore Estate and Asheville, North Carolina. Clay Griffith with the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office says, "The inf ...

to Asheville in the late nineteenth century profoundly affected the city's subsequent architectural development. Best known as supervising architect for the

Biltmore House 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 an ...

, 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 Roughcast or pebbledash is a coarse plaster surface used on outside walls that consists of lime and sometimes cement mixed with sand, small gravel and often pebbles or shells. The materials are mixed into a slurry and are then thrown at the wo ...

or stucco walls, heavy porch brackets and simple

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

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 Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), known professionally as Nina Simone (), was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blu ...

studied piano with Carroll's wife. In 1939, Carroll gave the hospital to Duke University's Neuropsychiatric Department. The hospital is best known for a 1948 fire in which

died along with eight other patients. Duke sold the property in the 1980s, and it was the home office for Genova Diagnostics 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.

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

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 M ...

(better known by his pseudonym O. Henry); former North Carolina governor and Senator

Zebulon Baird Vance Zebulon Baird Vance (May 13, 1830 – April 14, 1894) was the 37th and 43rd governor of North Carolina, a U.S. Senator from North Carolina, and a Confederate officer during the American Civil War. A prolific writer and noted public speake ...

; Senator Jeter Connelly Pritchard; Governor Locke Craig;

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 ...

generals Robert B. Vance, James Green Martin and

Thomas Lanier Clingman Thomas Lanier Clingman (July 27, 1812November 3, 1897), known as the "Prince of Politicians," was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from 1843 to 1845 and from 1847 to 1858, and U.S. senator from the state of Nort ...

;

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 St ...

, first woman elected to the North Carolina state legislature; and

George Masa George Masa (c. 1881 – June 21, 1933), born Masahara Izuka, in Osaka, Japan, was a businessman and professional large-format photographer. He lived and worked in the United States. Creating a new life in America Masa arrived in the United Sta ...

, a photographer known for documenting the

Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a Physiographic regions of the world, physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsy ...

. 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