Highest and best use of Asheville’s Urban Trail at the Flat Iron sculpture


— photo by William Wescott

After years of effort, the Urban Trail is almost complete, says chair William Wescott. “The pigs and turkeys are back. We’re just waiting for the little girl at the fountain to be put back in place.”

That statue and one final station, of the trail’s 31 total, are the remaining challenges. “Station number one still needs to be designed and completed,” Wescott says. “Its theme will be an overview of all the Urban Trail’s stations and be situated outside Pack Place’s main entrance.”

The photo above is of station number eight: A giant flat iron, a replica of one used by a local laundry, reflects the nearby Flat Iron Building. Battery Park Avenue was the gateway to the original Battery Park Hotel (1886), located on what was once a hill overlooking the city. In 1923, Edwin Wiley Grove built a major department store, now the Haywood Park Hotel, opposite this corner. The Flat Iron Building (1926) and others quickly followed.

The Asheville Urban Trail is a walking tour of downtown Asheville, which highlights the unique architecture, people and historic events of this unique city. It’s divided into five eras; each era has a symbol (frontier period, the guilded age, the times of Thomas Wolfe, the era of civic pride, and the age of diversity).

“Use the Urban Trail; it’s yours,” says Wescott, who wrote the headline for the photo: “The highest and best use of the Urban Trail at the Flat Iron sculpture.”

 

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5 thoughts on “Highest and best use of Asheville’s Urban Trail at the Flat Iron sculpture

  1. hauntedheadnc

    [i]“The pigs and turkeys are back. We’re just waiting for the little girl at the fountain to be put back in place.”[/i]

    What about the monument that stood in front of the Jackson Building honoring Thomas Wolfe’s father’s tombstone shop? I haven’t been downtown in a few days… Did they get that one back in place too? Last I’d looked they hadn’t.

  2. hauntedheadnc

    [i]This town knows how to waste some money. [/i]

    There is nothing this town could spend money on that you would support. You just like to bitch, so why is it any of your concern?

  3. Mysterylogger

    Its my Tax payer money thats why its my concern, and its also might right.

    Got anything else bright-boy?

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