Epic Travel → North America → The South → North Carolina → Asheville

Asheville is a great town with a rather interesting history. Today it’s known for its lovely historic architecture and vibrant arts scene (and for Biltmore Estate). Oddly enough, we owe the preservation of so many historic buildings to economic distress. Asheville flourished in the 1910’s and 20’s, leading to the construction of many beautiful buildings and homes, particularly in the downtown area. But then Asheville was hit hard by the depression (partly because of the boom in the previous years during which people and businesses incurred a lot debt), and its economic recovery was slow all the way through the 1980’s. As a result, people couldn’t afford to update or replace buildings, and by the time economic recovery did happen, the buildings were no longer old and out-dated, they were historic. Everyone realized they had an amazing collection of pristine, unaltered Art Deco buildings that needed to be preserved and maintained, and Asheville has since done a great job with it. Other than strolling the downtown arts district and admiring the historic architecture, you can also hop on the Blue Ridge Parkway and enjoy some of the area’s scenery, or drive over to Biltmore Estate for the ultimate gilded age binge.

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Epic Travel → North America → The South → North Carolina → Asheville