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Battery Park Hotel | |
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| Title: | Battery Park Hotel |
| Alternate Title: | |
| Creator - Architect: | William Lee Stoddard |
| Creator - Architectural Firm: | E. W. Grove (Founder) |
| Building Address: | Battery Park Avenue |
| Subject - Keyword: | Asheville, NC ; city and architecture; Asheville, NC; hotels and tourism; Asheville, NC; |
| Subject - LCSH: | Asheville, (N.C.) -- Stoddard, W. L. Asheville, (N.C.) -- Grove, Edwin W.-- Grove Arcade Asheville, N.C.) -- Tourism Asheville, (N.C.) -- Coxe, Franklin Asheville, (N.C.) -- Architecture |
| Description: | The 14-story Battery Park Hotel stands as an architectural
and historic monument to Asheville's tourism and development boom of the
1920s. The hotel was erected in 1924 by Edwin W. Grove "as a capstone of
his excavation and leveling of Battery Porter Hill." The new hotel
replaced a previous Queen Anne style hotel of the same name that was
constructed in 1886 (pictured in the graphic at the top of the page).
Local folklore states that from the porch of the original Battery Park
Hotel, George Vanderbilt first gazed on the towering peaks and lands
that he resolved to purchase and make his home. The hotel designed by W. L. Stoddard of New York, was built with reinforced concrete, faced with brick, limestone and terra cotta trim with a Mission Revival style roof. The design of the Battery Park Hotel is representative of eclectic 1920s hotel architecture. Thomas Wolfe, author and native son, decried the brick hotel's accented style of Neoclassical and Spanish romanticism as "being stamped out of the same mold, as if by some gigantic biscuit-cutter of hotels that had produced a thousand others like it all over the country." Though critics missed the old hotel, the new 220-room hotel was designed to feature the very latest in modern conveniences. A roof dining area, lounge and open terraces provided breath-taking views of the city and surrounding mountain vistas. The hotel continued in operation until 1972. During the 1980s, the Asheville Housing Authority, a private developer, converted the old hotel into apartments for senior citizens. Today, Battery Park continues to stand as a sentinel over the downtown. |
| Publisher: | D. H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina Asheville, 28804 |
| Contributor: | E. M. Ball Collection, National Registry of Historic Places |
| Date Building Constructed / Ended: | 1924 |
| Date Building Destroyed: | Remaining |
| Building Type: | Hotel |
| Architectural Style: | Classical Revival/ Neo-Classical/Spanish Romanticism |
| Building Current Function: | None/Vacant. |
| Building Historic Function: | Hotel |
| Tenants: | |
| Format: | (digital) image/jpeg/text |
| Identifier: | |
| Source of Item: | SpecColl |
| Language: | eng=English |
| Related: |
E. M. Ball Photograph Collection, UNCA |
| Bibliography: | National Register of Historic Places |
| Related Images: | See:
E. M
Ball Photographic Collection Battery Park and Arcade Building. (N822) Battery Park Hill, 1923. (N1767) Battery Park Hill, removal complete, hotel in background. (N2321) Battery Park Hill, removal of, circa 1924. (N2366) Battery Park Hill, toward Patton Ave, 7-11-24. (N1788) Battery Park Hotel (see also Arcade Building and Asheville, showing Battery Park) Battery Park Hotel, early 1900's. (N2346) Battery Park Hotel, 1936. (N1540) Battery Park Hotel, front view. (N1225) Battery Park Hotel, front view. (N1606) Battery Park Hotel, lobby, 1920. (N1759) Battery Park Hotel, nearly completed (N1839) Battery Park Hotel, old hotel, aerial view. (N1588) Battery Park Hotel, old hotel, negative copyrighted Nov. 13 1920, 11-13-20. (N1539) Battery Park Hotel, old hotel, ruins after fire. (N1805) Battery Park Hotel, prior to construction of Arcade building; includes signature of Herbert Pelton. (N1212) Battery Park Hotel, removing last pile of dirt from hill. (N2101) Battery Park Hotel, showing Arcade building. (N1224) Battery Park Hotel, showing Margo Terrace. (N2056) |
| Coverage - Temporal: | after 1924 |
| Coverage - Spatial: | Asheville, NC |
| DC Record Type: | text; image |
| Rights: | Any display, publication or public use must credit
D. H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina
at Asheville. Copyright retained by the authors of certain items in the collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law. |
| Processed By: | Erica Ojermark, 2004 |
| Updated: | UNCA; Bray Creech, 10/2005 |
