Look straight up: a 140 ft Neo-Gothic tower of fifteen stories climbs above Pack Square, finished in 1924. It was the first skyscraper in western North Carolina, and it rose on a site once occupied by the tombstone business operated by Thomas Wolfe's father. The lot is only 27 by 60 feet—long deemed too small for a tower—and yet it holds the record for the tallest building on the smallest lot.
Developer Lynwood B. Jackson hired architect Ronald Greene because Jackson believed in Asheville's real estate market. To secure that confidence the foundation had to be dug deeper than usual, and Jackson and his brother Winston actually stayed in the pit for three nights making sure it did not cave in. Jackson put his office on the top floor, and his sister Alberta claimed he kept a rope to climb down in case of fire.
When it opened in 1924 the Neo-Gothic building was fully occupied; its observation tower boasted a 400x telescope and an 18 million candlepower searchlight intended to attract tourists. The grotesques on each corner are not functional; there are small holes in the mouths to let water... Notice the grotesques perched on each corner, small holes drilled in their mouths, crowning a lot just 27 by 60 feet.