Booming City Of The Blue Ridge

Biltmore Estate, George W. Vanderbilt’s historic property in Asheville is now open to visitors.

Many of the  thousands of Floridians who head to the North Carolina mountains each year to escape the summer heat have at least a passing acquaintance with Asheville, which is an ideal jumping-off point for the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway. But how many of them linger long enough to discover that Asheville is also a worthwhile destination in its own right, both as a step back in time and as a potpourri of contemporary activities and luxuries suited to every kind of visitor? The city’s tree-shaded neighborhoods feature all styles of Victorian, Queen Anne and Arts and Craft homes from the late 1800s, and its downtown offers more examples of Art Deco architecture than any other city in the southeast except Miami Beach. 

Though it now boasts a population of 80,000, Asheville was little more than a small frontier settlement until the arrival of the railroad. But once the trains came, the city began luring the wealthy with its hospitable climate, healthy mountain air, and breath-taking vistas.

Read the entire article in the Summer 2009 issue