The Jackson Building is a 140 ft (43m) 15-story building in downtown

Asheville, North Carolina Asheville ( ) is a city in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. Located at the confluence of the French Broad River, French Broad and Swannanoa River, Swannanoa rivers, it is the county seat of Buncombe County. It is the most populou ...

, which was completed in 1924 in Pack Square. It was the first

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

western North Carolina Western North Carolina (often abbreviated as WNC) is the region of North Carolina which includes the Appalachian Mountains; it is often known geographically as the state's Mountain Region. It contains the highest mountains in the Eastern United S ...

History

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

tombstone A gravestone or tombstone is a marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. A marker set at the head of the grave may be called a headstone. An especially old or elaborate stone slab may be called a funeral stele, stela, or slab. The us ...

business operated by

Thomas Wolfe Thomas Clayton Wolfe (October 3, 1900 – September 15, 1938) was an American novelist and short story writer. He is known largely for his first novel, '' Look Homeward, Angel'' (1929), and for the short fiction that appeared during the last ye ...

'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 foundation had to be dug deeper than usual and Jackson and his brother Winston stayed there for three nights making sure it did not cave in. Jackson put his office on the top floor and his sister Alberta claimed he kept a rope to climb down in case of fire. The

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

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 (electromagnetic radiation), absorption, or Reflection (physics), reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally, it was an optical instrument using len ...

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 luminosity, 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 part ...

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 (U.S. state), Georgia and the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Brita ...

) 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