Asheville Audio Walking Tour

Highlights

• 
  The Omni Grove Park Inn

  Ahead of you rises the Grove Park Inn, its long stone facade clinging to the western slope of Sunset Mountain above Asheville, North Carolina. Built in the Arts and Crafts style and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the inn sprawls across 140 acres and today contains 513 guest rooms, 10 restaurants and bars, an 18-hole golf course, a subterranean spa, 42 meeting rooms, two ballrooms, two swimming pools, and nine tennis courts.

• University of North Carolina at Asheville

  Back in 1927 the University of North Carolina at Asheville began as the tuition-free Buncombe County Junior College. It is the designated liberal arts institution in the University of North Carolina system and serves as the member and headquarters of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges.

• 
  Basilica of St. Lawrence, Asheville

  Right in downtown Asheville, a Spanish Renaissance dome rises above the rooftops, marking the Minor Basilica of St. Lawrence. Designed and built in 1905 by the Spanish architect Rafael Guastavino, who is interred here, together with R. S. Smith and the Catholic community, this parish was later elevated by Pope John Paul II to the rank of minor basilica in 1993.

• 
  Overlook Castle

  Overlook Castle, or Seely Castle, was built for Fred Loring Seely atop Sunset Mountain from 1912 to 1914. Built from 1912 to 1914 for Fred Loring Seely, the son-in-law of Edwin Wiley Grove, it sits on ten acres his father-in-law gave him on top of Sunset Mountain.

• Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center

  Mary Holden Thompson founded the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center in 1993, and it occupies 120 College Street on Pack Square Park in downtown Asheville. Step closer: this exhibition and performance space and resource center is dedicated to preserving and continuing the legacy of educational and artistic innovations of Black Mountain College.

All 19 stops

• Pack Square Park (Asheville)

  This open square in Asheville, North Carolina, once held the county's old courthouse, torn down in 1903.

• Asheville Art Museum (Downtown Asheville)

  Right on Pack Square sits the Asheville Art Museum, a nonprofit accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.

• Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (Pack Square Park)

  Mary Holden Thompson founded the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center in 1993, and it occupies 120 College Street on Pack Square Park in…

• Pack Memorial Library (downtown Asheville)

  Here at 67 Haywood Street rises Pack Memorial Library, main branch of the Buncombe County Public Library System.

• Young Men's Institute Building (Downtown Asheville Historic District)

  Here rises the Young Men's Institute Building, often called the YMI Building.

• Arcade Building (Downtown Historic District)

  Look up at the Grove Arcade's two stacked blocks, its steel frame built to carry a skyscraper that never came.

• The Bon Marché Building of Asheville, North Carolina (Asheville)

  This is the Bon Marché Building, now known as the Haywood Park Hotel.

• Basilica of St. Lawrence, Asheville (Downtown Asheville Historic District)

  Right in downtown Asheville, a Spanish Renaissance dome rises above the rooftops, marking the Minor Basilica of St. Lawrence.

• Jackson Building (Pack Square)

  Look straight up: a 140 ft Neo-Gothic tower of fifteen stories climbs above Pack Square, finished in 1924.

• Asheville City Hall (Downtown Asheville Historic District)

  Douglas Ellington designed Asheville City Hall, the Art Deco brick-and-stone seat of city government on Court Plaza in Asheville, North Carolina, built from 1926 to…

• Buncombe County Courthouse (Downtown Asheville Historic District)

  Seventeen stories of brick and stone rise above you here, the Buncombe County Courthouse anchoring this corner of Asheville, North Carolina.

• Flat Iron Building (Downtown Asheville Historic District)

  Wedged into the sharp junction of Battery Park Avenue and Wall Street, a nine-story tower narrows to a blade-thin point above you.

• Battery Park Hotel (Asheville)

  Picture the spectacular Queen Anne hotel this 14-story tower replaced.

• Thomas Wolfe House (Downtown Asheville)

  Picture a boarding house at 52 North Market Street, its wraparound porch marking the Thomas Wolfe Memorial in downtown Asheville.

• Overlook Castle (Sunset Mountain)

  Overlook Castle, or Seely Castle, was built for Fred Loring Seely atop Sunset Mountain from 1912 to 1914.

• The Omni Grove Park Inn (Sunset Mountain)

  Ahead of you rises the Grove Park Inn, its long stone facade clinging to the western slope of Sunset Mountain above Asheville, North Carolina.

• Smith-McDowell House (Asheville)

  Asheville's first mansion, the Smith-McDowell House, dates to about 1840.

• Botanical Gardens at Asheville (UNC Asheville)

  Ten acres along W. T. Weaver Boulevard welcome your visit to Asheville's free 'people's garden.

• University of North Carolina at Asheville (Asheville)

  Back in 1927 the University of North Carolina at Asheville began as the tuition-free Buncombe County Junior College.

How it works