Wedged into the sharp junction of Battery Park Avenue and Wall Street, a nine-story tower narrows to a blade-thin point above you. Announced in 1925 and taking its first tenants in January 1926, this wedge-shaped tower was designed by New York architect Albert C. Wirth and developed by L. B. Jackson as part of Edwin W. Grove’s Battery Park Hill redevelopment that also included the Grove Arcade. As a contributing building to the Downtown Asheville Historic District, it carried decades of city life within its walls.
In its early years it housed dozens of businesses and WWNC, Asheville’s oldest radio station; from the 8th-floor studio Jimmie Rodgers made his first broadcast performance, a moment that linked this building to the birth of a musical legacy. For roughly its first fifty years the Flat Iron was largely occupied by business professionals, physicians, and dentists. As Asheville slowly recovered from the post–Great Depression slump, its tenant mix shifted toward creatives, therapists, and small tech start-ups, especially during the 2000s.
In 1997 local artist Reed Todd added an 8-foot tall cast-iron sculpture of an antique flat iron. Count the nine stories rising above you, then look toward the Grove Arcade nearby.