David Mallett was a pioneer of the downtown Asheville revitalization, opening the Weinhaus at 86 Patton Avenue in 1977. It is Asheville’s oldest beer and wine store. In 1985, after 8 years of operating the Weinhaus, David Mallett spoke to the Pen & Plate Club of Asheville, of which he was a member, about the
A packed house in Lord Auditorium was the scene for the fourth program in the library’s series on Asheville in the 1980s. Sponsored by the Friends of the North Carolina Room, the July 27 event was a lively retrospective on the vibrant art world in 1980s Asheville. Phyllis Lang, former editor of The Arts Journal,
But first some history. E. W. Grove built the new Bon Marche department store for Solomon Lipinsky; architect/designer was W. L. Stoddart, an architect from New York City. Lipinsky had founded the store in Asheville in 1889. The Bon Marche later moved into a new building across the street at 33 Haywood in 1936 (now the
The North Carolina Room has always had a visibility problem, even when it was on the main floor across from what used to be the Reference Desk. Staff and Board members of the Friends of the North Carolina Room decided to put a window wrap on the front corner of Pack Memorial Library at street level on
ASHEVILLE SYMPHONY MATURES IN 1980s The Asheville Symphony Orchestra began in Asheville in 1927 under the direction of the famous flutist Lamar Stringfield. He was a former member of the New York Philharmonic and founder of the North Carolina Symphony. Their first performance was a program of classical favorites at the old Plaza Theater. In August
THEATRE – If you look in a thick enough dictionary, you’ll find the fifth or sixth definition is “A place of action.” Theatre is not just the staging of dramatic works or the place where plays, music, dance, and movies are presented. There also is the theatre of war, where battles are staged, and in
In 2016 we think the arts activity in Asheville is in the River Arts District or in downtown. But at the beginning of the 1980s Highwater Center opened an exhibit space on the OTHER river—the Swannanoa. Several years before the exhibit space opened, however, fourteen artists in the mid-1970s established an artists’ co-operative in an
On Sunday morning July 16, 1916 Edith Vanderbilt was notified of the rising water and the dangerous conditions at Biltmore Village. “Without warning at 4:00 the Swannanoa River overflowed the village. Men plunged into the stream carrying their wives and children. Horses turned loose plunged madly through the flooded streets in the darkness. In an
Left to right: Ellen Clarke, Co-Director ABCCM to bring adult education opportunities to inmates in jail, founder Women at Risk, Executive Director at Western Carolinians for Criminal Justice. Jim Barrett, Executive Director of Pisgah Legal Services, and on staff for more than 30 years. Deborah Miles, Director of Center for Diversity, a founder Stone