This is the Bon Marché Building, now known as the Haywood Park Hotel. Built in 1923 by E.W. Grove for the store’s owner, Solomon Lipinsky, this building was designed by hotel architect W.L. Stoddart, the same architect behind the Battery Park Hotel and the Vanderbilt Hotel. For nearly a century this address carried the Bon Marché name: the store began as Lipinsky and Ellick when it was founded in downtown Asheville in the 1890s, and from the 1890s to 1978 — nearly 90 years — it became Asheville’s longest running department store.
The name itself, Bon Marché, comes from Le Bon Marché in Paris, meaning “the good deal” or “the good market. Solomon Lipinsky was a prominent Jewish businessman and community leader, and this new, larger building replaced earlier quarters to house his growing enterprise. The building today is the Haywood Park Hotel and is a member of Historic Hotels of America, carrying forward that long commercial and civic story.
In 1938 author Thomas Wolfe wrote to Lipinsky’s son, Lewis, in preparation for the store’s 50th anniversary — a reminder of how closely tied this place is to Asheville’s memory. Notice the façade rising above you, and beyond it, the Grove Arcade waiting nearby.