Asheville African American Heritage Architectural Survey Submitted by: Owen & Eastlake LLC P.O. Box 10774 Columbus, Ohio 43201 Table of Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. 3 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 9 Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 10 Historic Overview ......................................................................................................................... 12 Asheville, 1800–1860 ............................................................................................................... 12 Asheville 1865–1898 ................................................................................................................ 14 Jim Crow and Segregation ........................................................................................................ 20 The African American Community Responds .......................................................................... 26 The Boom Ends and the Great Depression ............................................................................... 32 World War II 1940-1945 .......................................................................................................... 37 Post-War, 1945–1965 ............................................................................................................... 39 Fighting for Public Accommodations and Jobs .................................................................... 47 School Desegregation ........................................................................................................... 52 Highway Construction and Urban Renewal—An Overview .................................................... 58 Asheville since Urban Renewal ................................................................................................ 61 Neighborhood Histories and Descriptions .................................................................................... 63 East End-Valley Street .............................................................................................................. 65 Southside/French Broad ................................................................................................................ 83 Clayton Hill/South Asheville/St. John ‘A’ Baptist ................................................................. 112 Stumptown .............................................................................................................................. 119 Hill Street ............................................................................................................................ 124 Asheville Loan & Construction Company/Magnolia Park ..................................................... 133 Inventoried Properties ............................................................................................................. 137 Chestnut Hill/Heart of Chestnut.............................................................................................. 138 Park View/Burton Street ......................................................................................................... 144 Brooklyn/Shiloh ...................................................................................................................... 153 1 National Register Study List ....................................................................................................... 175 Wilson Building, 13 Eagle Street............................................................................................ 175 Rabbit’s Motel, 110 McDowell Street .................................................................................... 175 Walton Pool, 570 Oakland Road ............................................................................................ 175 Priorities for Future African American Heritage Surveys .......................................................... 176 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 182 Books and Book Chapters ....................................................................................................... 182 Journals ................................................................................................................................... 185 Theses and Dissertations ......................................................................................................... 186 Newspapers & Magazines....................................................................................................... 186 Government Documents ......................................................................................................... 187 Archival Collections ............................................................................................................... 188 Inventoried Properties ................................................................................................................. 189 2 List of Figures Figure 1. 1939 WPA Race of Household Map and Asheville neighborhoods. (Works Progress Administration). .............................................................................................................................. 8 Figure 2. Model of Pack Square in 1924 showing 1915 racial restrictions. African Americans were restricted to the benches in the bottom square, whites to the top (Rory Krupp, model, Pack Memorial Library). ....................................................................................................................... 23 Figure 3. Burton Street resident E. W. Pearson in his United Negro Improvement Association uniform, ca. 1922. ......................................................................................................................... 28 Figure 4. An advertisement from the United Negro Improvement Association newspaper Negro World accusing Pearson of corruption. ......................................................................................... 29 Figure 5. Teenagers attend a reading at the Y.M.I. library. (Pack Memorial Library, North Carolina Room Collection). .......................................................................................................... 31 Figure 6. Asheville 1937 Home Owners Loan Corporation residential security map. ................. 35 Figure 7. West Asheville resident Hattie Love (fifth from left) at NAACP national convention in late 1940s (Ramsey Library Special Collections UNC Asheville). .............................................. 38 Figure 8. East End and Southside housing in 1946. Photos 1 and 4 were on Poplar Street, Photograph 2 was on Asheland Ave. Number 3 was on McDowell St. (© Asheville Citizen- Times) ........................................................................................................................................... 39 Figure 9. Asheville Colored Hospital, later the Jesse Ray Funeral Home (Photo: Amy Ridenour). ....................................................................................................................................................... 41 Figure 10. Asheville jeweler and ASCORE advisor William Roland. (D. H. Ramsey Special Collections, UNCA). ..................................................................................................................... 50 Figure 11. Marvin Chambers became the first African American to work in American Enka’s engineering department in 1963 (© Asheville Citizen-Times). ..................................................... 51 Figure 12. Asheville student leader Leo Gaines in 1972 (© Ashville Citizen-Times). ................. 53 Figure 13. Asheville High School 1969 rebellion advisor Preston Dobbins (left) burns a Confederate flag at a UNC, Chapel Hill, white fraternity after Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death (Daily Tarheel). ................................................................................................................... 54 Figure 14. Asheville high school students walk out while Principal Clark Pennell (foreground) watches (©rogerball). ................................................................................................................... 55 Figure 15. New residents at Klondyke Homes in 1975 (Ramsey Library Special Collections, UNC Asheville). ........................................................................................................................... 60 Figure 16. The Erskine barricade is a relic from the war on drugs of the 1990s. ......................... 61 Figure 17. East End/Valley Street in 1939 (Works Progress Administration). ............................ 64 Figure 18. Stephens-Lee Annual 1952-1953 with shop class house under construction. ............. 68 3 Figure 19. Pine Street house constructed by the 1952-53 Stephens-Lee shop class (Rory Krupp). ....................................................................................................................................................... 69 Figure 20. Stephens-Lee High School band and music teacher Madison Lennon. ...................... 70 Figure 21. 1953 Architect’s rendering of the Allen School Dormitory (© Asheville Citizen- Times). ..........................................................................................................................................