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Interesting Facts
- Asheville is North Carolina's most architecturally diverse city. Showcasing a blend of Queen Anne Victorian, Arts and Crafts, and Romanesque styles (among others), the city is best known for its Art Deco structures. In fact, Asheville has one of the largest collections of Art Deco architecture in the Southeast, outside of Miami.
- There must be something about these mountains! Many well-known writers have been influenced and inspired by the beauty and majesty of the landscape around Asheville. Thomas Wolfe's style was nurtured here, F. Scott Fitzgerald did much of his writing at the Grove Park Inn – Room 441 to be exact – and O. Henry is buried in Asheville's Riverside Cemetery.
- "Life is a highway!" There's no better way to experience the beauty of nature than by driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Circling Asheville on three sides, the easily-accessible parkway winds some 469 miles from the Great Smoky Mountains to Shenandoah National Park in northern Virginia.
- "Welcome to our humble abode!" Well, that may be stretching it a bit. America's largest home makes its home in Asheville. Built by George Washington Vanderbilt II in 1895, the 250-room French Renaissance chateau known as the Biltmore House is a must-see!
- Summer is the perfect time to visit Asheville, and it's been so for ages. In fact, the cooler temperatures that the higher elevation affords are exactly what drew the Vanderbilts, Fords, Roosevelts, and Fitzgeralds to the area in generations past.
- The beauty of Asheville has beckoned to filmmakers since the early 1900s. The films Being There and Richie Rich used the Biltmore Estate as their setting. Other films, including Bull Durham, Patch Adams, and The Fugitive, were filmed in the area as well.
- "Play me some mountain music!" The music and dances of the Southern Appalachian region have a rich heritage in Asheville. Each year, the city plays host to the Mountain Dance & Folk Festival, which celebrates these venerable traditions. Founded by Bascom Lamar Lunsford, whose recordings of Appalachian music are housed in the Smithsonian Museum, the Mountain Dance & Folk Festival was founded in 1928 and ranks as one of the first and finest of its kind.
- If you want to see another feature of the Appalachians, travel to Grandfather Mountain, where you'll feel on top of the world. Complete with a mile-high swinging bridge, this attraction is not for people freaked out by high elevations. (It's actually a mile above sea level, not above the ground below.) Try to overcome your fears, though, because the view from the highest peak in the Blue Ridge Mountains is spectacular!
- If higher elevations just aren't in the cards for you, visit Linville Caverns, another regional attraction. These natural limestone caverns feature an underground stream that's home to blind rainbow trout (no light means no vision). Be sure to bring along a sweater, however... the constant year-round temperature is 52 degrees!
- You've never seen a street festival like this! During the last weekend in July, Asheville plays host to the largest street festival in the Southeast. Sporting a charming, French-inspired name, Bele Chere (it means "beautiful living") comes complete with arts and crafts, live entertainment, and food!
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