The art deco styled Asheville City Hall is considered one of Douglas Ellington’s best designs. According to John Nolen’s master plan for Asheville, the City Hall was supposed to be paired with the Buncombe County Courthouse. An intense battle between the county commissioners, who preferred a neo-classical design, and the city officials, who favored Ellington’s art deco style, led to a deep rift between these two commissions and finally to two differently designed buildings.

The Buncombe County Courthouse is an impressively large municipal building reflecting the building boom of the 1920s. The Courthouse, which is still in use today, is considered one of the most extravagant in North Carolina.

The Legal Building may be a symbolic place, where in November of 1930 an enormous banking panic completely wiped out public finances, family fortunes and entire businesses.

Zebulon Vance was Confederate military officer in the American Civil War, two times Governor of North Carolina and U.S. Senator. The Vance Memorial was erected in his honor in 1896, two years after his death.

During the building boom of the 1920s, William Westall’s business prospered, as he supplied many of the building materials to the construction sites. The Westall Building is very narrow and shares an elevator with the adjacent Jackson Building. But there was also an interesting family connection.

Trying to cash in on Asheville’s building boom of the 1920s, 28 year old real estate developer L. B. Jackson commissioned architect Ronald Greene to create a unique and fascinating building on just a tiny lot. Thirteen stories high, the neo-gothic design of the Jackson Building was certainly an eye catcher back then and still stands out to this day.