Asheville North Carolina breweries, crafts & mountains

on
French Broad - Asheville - NC
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I have just come back from a visit to the States with my husband. Our journey started off in the infamous Savannah perusing it's beautiful squares, being distracted by its Southern charm and architecture, and popping into its history courtesy of the Civil Rights Museum and Prohibition Museum. We concluded our trip with a visit to Asheville to see my sister and her husband and our lovely non-stop growing 4 year old niece. This is our 4th trip and this time we had two major priorities, me to undertake some research into ceramics production and history by speaking to some of the potters in Asheville and visiting the Black Mountain College and Arts Museum, my husband to busk.

Asheville is nestled in the Blue Ridge Moutains, in Buncombe County, with the French Broad River flowing at its foot. I often refer to it as a liberal city in a very conservative State, and historically many have moved to Asheville because it is simply a nice place to live and it's extremely welcoming to outsiders. Thomas Wolfe novelist author of Look Homeward Angel was born and raised in Asheville, and it was the last resting place of Zelda Fitzgerald who tragically died in the hospital where she was institutionalised in. Historically, the land was mainly used for hunting until the mid 19th century and had belonged to the Cherokee nation. Spanish explorers brought Europeans to the area in the 16th century, depleting the indigenous population with their diseases. The town was named after Governor Samual Ashe in the 1790s, and was relatively untouched by the civil war but contributed to the confederate army.  More people were attracted to the area after the Western North Carolina Railroad was completed in the 1880s. In 1889, George Vanderbilt began work on his mansion Biltmore, as an addtional pull to the area, which is the largest private residence ever built in the United State. In the 1920s it became a resort. During the Great Depression the largest county bank collapsed which financially ruined the City Government, which refused to accept bankruptcy. Asheville finally cleared its debts in 1977. So unlike many other American cities, Asheville could not afford to implement urban renewal schemes, and many of the downtown historic buildings still exist.

Residents of Asheville old and new have been involved in regenerating the city. Attracted by its empty urban spaces, and idyllic landscape the craft brewery industry has been a roaring success, with more breweries per person than any place in the US. We tend to visit every 2 years and since our last visit 2 had opened at the top of my sister's road in the Burton Street area on the trendy Haywood Road in West Asheville. The River Arts District where the old industrial buildings by the railroad are now occupied by craftspeople, breweries and eateries, is a popular tourist stop-off. Walking tours are popular, in Asheville, reclaiming the hidden cultural past, such as the experiences of people of colour, for example, the very popular Pack Square, which is framed by some of the earliest skyscrapers in the US, was the place where slaves were bought and sold. These tours also present an alternative present, during my last visit I went on a wellbeing walking tour, which included, a herbal tea shop and a salt cave - very Asheville.

Glass Blowing - River Arts - Asheville - NC
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As a result of Asheville's renaissance, residents are having to deal with emerging issues of gentrification (there are lots of beards and tattoos in Asheville) and their experiences are not dissimilar to those in the East End of London, in particular, the rise in property prices, which impacts on the availability of housing and also the composition of communities.  My brother-in-law works for the largest foodbank in Northern Carolina Manna Food  

This is a contextual starter for you and me. I will be revisiting Asheville and North Carolina many times in this blog as it will be a major part of my research, specifically, the potters of Asheville and North Carolina and the Black Mountain College , which closed in the 50s but the museum and art space have just moved into new premises downtown Asheville. I will also use it as a comparative case study with Stoke-on-Trent, to see if there are any similarities with respect to approaches to regeneration or to see if anything can be learned from the Ashevillian approach. And did my husband busk - yes he did.

New Belgium Brewery - Asheville -NC
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My Busking Husband
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References