Black Mountain NC and Swannanoa NC events Fall 2011
Monday, September 26th, 2011
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Black Mountain-Swannanoa Chamber of Commerce • 201 East State Street • Black Mountain • NC • 28711
Archive for the 'Index; Relocating to Asheville NC and the Western North Carolina Mountains' Category
Asheville NC Small Town Fever
Friday, October 22nd, 2010Falling for small towns
By Paul Clark, Asheville Citizen Times • October 21, 2010
Thirteen years ago, when Gretchen Kull and her family moved from Baton Rouge, La., population 213,000, to Weaverville, population 2,566, they weren’t sure what to expect.
But they couldn’t be happier.
“You can feel safe letting your kids hang out,” Kull said. “You get to know even the merchants.”
She likes the schools. She loves the hills that roll up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. She likes the whole northern end of Buncombe County with its communities of Jupiter, Red Oak, Dillingham and Barnardsville.
“It’s just nice having a small-town atmosphere but also being close enough to Asheville,” she said.
North Buncombe charm
For those who rarely venture north of North Asheville, there’s a lot of country up there.
Merrimon Avenue, which follows the old trolley route from Asheville to Weaverville, ascends into Woodfin, skirting ritzy Reynolds Mountain, cruising past far humbler neighborhoods, climbing the hills to Weaverville beside old motor courts that remind the observant that, back in the day, Merrimon was the big road north.
An even quicker route (now that the summer’s bridge construction is over) is Interstate 26, also known as U.S. 19-23. Without the highway, it would be nearly impossible for north-end residents to work in Asheville. Because of it, it’s less than 30 minutes into town for people who prefer north Buncombe’s wide open spaces to Asheville’s jigsaw puzzle neighborhoods.
Small-town living close to big-city convenience is why people like Jacob Lions live in North Buncombe. He lives in Weaverville.
“The thing that attracted me was the small-town feel,” he said. “It’s safe and family-oriented. Minimal or no crime.”
Lions, who has lived in several states, moved to Weaverville in 2005 to buy the Secret Garden Inn & Spa. He’s now a real estate broker working in town.
“As soon as I saw Weaverville, it was clear to me,” he said of why he chose it over Asheville. “It had a lot of character, both in the town and in the people. I was meeting interesting people from all over the United States.
“There are friendly people everywhere, but especially here, there’s a concentration of friendly people. People passing you in the street say ‘hi,’ even if they don’t know you.”
From Asheville to Woodfin
On either side of the line between Asheville and Woodfin are the houses of Jacob Rodriguez and the Stolzes, Bob and Pat. Both homes are new, but the style of one is new and the style of the other harkens to an older era. Guess which is which.
Rodriguez’s house on the Woodfin side is ultra modern, a corrugated metal, shipping container-like structure. The Stolzes’ house on the other side has Arts & Crafts features, an architectural style common in Asheville’s older neighborhoods, as well as its newer developments.
Rodriguez, who plays baritone sax in pop crooner Michael Bublé’s big band, built his house out of structural insulated panels, as easy to assemble as they are efficient in retaining heat, according to Jeramy Stauffer, construction project manager on both houses. The Stolzes condition their house with a geothermal heating and cooling system.
Right on the dividing line, between UNC Asheville and Woodfin’s river district, the two houses embody the progress that Buncombe’s north end has made in adapting modern home technologies to old-fashioned neighborliness.
“It was the people,” Bob Stolz said of what convinced him and his wife to move here from Florida. “They talk to you.”
Woodfin, old and new
There’s a lot of affordable housing along Merrimon for someone willing to put in some sweat equity. Long the alternative punch line to jokes that ended in “Worst Asheville,” Woodfin is seeing the same rise in fortunes that West Asheville experienced more than a decade ago. Lying on both sides of I-26 just north of Asheville, Woodfin has natural beauty (the river) and convenience (minutes from UNC Asheville and downtown). It also has Reynolds Mountain, an upscale community of luxury homes, condos and townhouses.
On a cool morning last month, Roy and Lucille Bassett were sitting on the front porch of their old home on Martel Lane in the old part of town. Lucille had just handed son Charles Bassett a big container of spinach salad for lunch. Charles was raised in an old white house that the family used to live in, a stone’s throw from his parents’ current home.
The Bassetts (“not the furniture Bassetts; more like the hound,” Lucille said) live in the village built long ago by Martel Mills, which housed workers in large duplexes — one family on the bottom, one on the top. Most of the houses, with their distinctive roofline, are still occupied, Charles said.
Most of the neighbors have lived there 30, maybe 40 years, he said.
“How long have we been here?” his father asked his mother.
“About 30 years,” Lucille Bassett said.
“That long, huh?” her husband said.
The Bassetts, who live in a small single-story house, love sitting on the porch and talking to people who walk and drive by. Happens quite a bit, said Roy Bassett, who knows many of the Woodfin police officers by name.
“Everybody knows each other’s business here,” Lucille Bassett said.
“That’s bad,” her husband cracked.
Further north is Woodland Hills, a subdivision that Weaverville annexed a year ago. A community of squat ranchers and split levels on large lots, it was created decades ago when land was cheap and housing costs relatively low.
A little north still is Stoney Knob, which if a continually full parking lot is an indication of success, is the locale of the Stoney Knob Café. Its diner décor riffs on Elvis, and its menu (and delightful wine list) draw people from Asheville, with its rich array of restaurants.
Though it is home to Internet commuters, Weaverville has retained the charm of an old mountain town. First Baptist Church and Weaverville United Methodist Church share the same side of North Main Street, and small, solid brick homes line side streets whose sidewalks can get crowded with walkers (and dog-walkers).
Walking around Weaverville
Some are on their way to Blue Mountain Pizza, in what is reputed to be the oldest building in Western North Carolina to continually house a working business. Live music every night (and a delicious Portobello mushroom panini) draw people to its funky interior and its funkier front porch.
Just down the street is the well-received Well-Bred Bakery & Café, unusual in the sense that despite its free WiFi, it inspires more conversation than the clicking of keyboards. Strong coffee fuels the talk, broken often by the laughter of friends enjoying each other’s company.
“They’ve always called Weaverville the bedroom community of Asheville,” said Jonathan England, a lifelong Weaverville resident whose barber shop is across the street from the bakery. “People want to live here and work in Asheville.
“But that’s changing now,” he said, noting the businesses that have started in town. Weaverville Yoga and de la terre landscape design on Florida Avenue are good examples of new businesses that are rounding out Weaverville’s business offerings. So are Appalachian Animal Hospital and Maggie B’s Wine Bar and Specialty Shop on North Main Street.
In many ways, the area north of Asheville was ripe for an increase in goods and services. When Judy Glicken and her husband moved to Weaverville 12 years ago, she marveled that they had to go to Asheville to see a movie and get a good cup of coffee. The upper end of Buncombe County didn’t offer much of the world she came from – a large bakery she’d had and sold in New York prior to moving here.
So, much as she thought she was done with the bakery business, she sensed opportunity. She envisioned a small bakery, but when the large Weaverville drug store building on Main Street became available, the bakery got bigger than she’d planned.
“When I think ‘little,’ things tend to turn ridiculously large,” she said.
Well-Bred Bakery & Café now attracts not only a large part of Weaverville but also people from Asheville, Waynesville and Tennessee.
It’s drawing people to Weaverville and providing lunch and a launching point for points all around in the north Buncombe area.
All about Weaverville NC
Friday, October 22nd, 2010Weaverville’s finding fewer reasons to go into town
By Paul Clark, Asheville Citizen Times • October 21, 2010
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