History of the Glen Rock Hotel & Depot Street

Around the turn of the century, the Southern Railway Depot station was located across the street from the Glen Rock Hotel. The Depot was once the main entry point into Asheville for all rail passengers. Passengers arriving in Asheville could catch a trolley in front of the station which was routed by way of Livingston Street to Biltmore Avenue and north on Biltmore Avenue to downtown Asheville. The Depot was demolished in the early 70’s by Southern Railway due to passenger rail services being eliminated to Asheville.

Illustration of original 1880's Glen Rock Hotel, inserts-photos of present Glen Rock Hotel as designed by Asheville architect Henry Irven Gaines

 

Originally built in 1890 and rebuilt in 1930 by John Hudson Lange Sr., the Glen Rock Hotel remained in the Lange family until 1969 when the Lange family sold it to Ralph Cannon and his brother Clarence, The Cannon brothers operated Cannon-Pack Enterprises, Inc., a food manufacturing and canning business, in the Glen Rock Hotel until 2006. It was then sold to Mountain Housing Opportunities, Inc. (MHO). MHO purchased the property in order to redevelop it as a mixed use residential, business, and community service facility. The 1930’s Glen Rock Hotel was designed by architect Henry Irven Gaines, a prominent local architect who also designed the Woolworth Building in downtown Asheville.

From the mid-1930s through the mid-1940s, businesses in the Glen Rock Hotel’s first floor storefronts included: Mills Café, Davis Dry Goods, Finley Depot Dry Goods, Finley Drug, Atlantic Quick Lunch, The Watch Shop, Glen Rock Barber, the Pullman Company, and Glen Rock Billiard Parlor. In the early 1960s, the hotel became run down and suffered a negative reputation.

History of the Neighborhood

Sanborn historical maps from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s show many businesses on Depot Street, Ralph Street, and Livingston Street (formerly Southside Avenue.) Among these businesses were numerous hotels, grocery stores, florists, banks, restaurants and drug stores. In the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s the neighborhood began to evolve into an African American business and residential community. Some of the hotels became hotels specifically for African Americans during segregation.

During the 1960s and 1970s, federal Urban Renewal programs began impacting the Southside and East Riverside neighborhoods adjacent to the Glen Rock Hotel.

From Encyclopedia.com: “ Arising from more than a half-century of slum clearance and urban housing reform campaigns, “Urban Renewal” was a federally sponsored and largely federally financed program that altered the physical landscapes of many American cities between the mid-1950s and the early 1970s. Proponents promised to provide cities with funds and legal powers to tear down slums, sell the land to private developers at reduced cost, relocate slum-dwellers in decent, safe housing, stimulate large-scale private construction of new housing, revitalize decaying urban downtowns by eliminating “blight” (economically unprofitable districts), and add new property-tax revenues to shrinking city budgets. Urban renewal, proponents argued, would also slow the departure of middle- and upper-income whites for the suburbs. “

Urban Renewal in Asheville, as in other cities, affected large portions of city neighborhoods primarily occupied by African American residents and business owners. Many of the areas and parcels affected by Urban Renewal in Asheville were in the vicinity of the Glen Rock Hotel and the Glen Rock Depot. Many homeowners were relocated to public housing at this time and many businesses were demolished and never reopened. The entire area around the Glen Rock Hotel was cleared and graded. After being cleared, the City constructed the fire station, the public housing communities, and the park.

For more information about the history of the River Arts District:

• Images of America: Asheville’s River Arts District by Rob Neufeld and Henry Neufeld
• River District Artists website
• History of the Glen Rock Hotel (PDF)

Urban Renewal

A young boy stands in front of his home at 33 Fagg Street

http://www.unca.edu/news/releases/2007/renewal.html

Mountain Housing Opportunities was instrumental in uncovering Urban Renewal records and files and partnering with UNC-Asheville’s Ramsey Library’s Special Collections. The materials, which have been named the Urban Renewal Files, contain detailed information and photographs of some 800 homes and businesses before they were demolished or refurbished. The files also contain home appraisals, newspaper clippings and homeowners' letters to City officials protesting the eminent domain ruling that ultimately razed parts of the neighborhood.

Southside site clearing during Urban Renewal in Depot Street area-Glen Rock Hotel in background

 

For more information about Urban Renewal in Asheville:

Mountain Housing Opportunities with support of Reed Fornoff, uncovered historic Urban Renewal records

The Spring 2010 issue of the North Carolina Humanities Council publication includes a large section, "Crossroads" about Urban Renewal in Asheville.

UNC-Asheville Ramsey Library Special Collections holds 130 boxes of documents and images, many of which are available online.

 

History