Historic Biltmore Village church to rebuild after first-time flooding

Biltmore Village is no stranger to flooding. But during major inundations in 2004, 1940 and 1916, water never entered the church that George Vanderbilt built, The Cathedral of All Souls. That changed Sept. 27.

“We got 4 feet of water in all our spaces, which had never happened before. Nobody expected it. It’s unreal,” says the church’s dean, the Very Rev. Sarah Hurlbert. Previously, water had only lapped the top of the sanctuary’s steps during the most severe flooding, she says.

Despite the inundation, both the parish hall and sanctuary, which were built in the 1890s, fared relatively well and have already been cleared of mud and mold by remediation teams. But other buildings had to be gutted, and the church’s electrical and HVAC systems were destroyed, leaving the 130-year-old buildings without temperature control going into winter, displacing its congregation.

The church’s office, which sits on lower ground across the street, was greatly damaged when floodwaters reached the ceiling of the first floor, leaving Hurlbert unsure of how to rebuild the church office.

“Honestly, there’s a lot of questions. Do we build back in this space? Do we find another space if we build back? Do we need to have a first story of parking, and then build up the office? And there’s not a business [owner in Biltmore Village] that’s not thinking the same things,” Hurlbert says.

As one of the oldest buildings in Biltmore Village and the last surviving church designed by famed Biltmore Estate architect Richard Morris Hunt, All Souls’ recovery will be key to the village’s rebuild, notes village property owner and preservation architect Robert Griffin.

Griffin, who some call the “heartbeat of Biltmore Village,” serves on the church’s new rebuilding committee and is determined to help the church rebound.

He points out that All Souls is not only the spiritual and symbolic center of the village but the architectural one as well. The village was designed as a fan, with streets running out diagonally from a hinge — All Souls Cathedral.

Property owners look to the church’s leadership in rebuilding to guide their own processes after the most devastating storm to strike an area that has seen a lot of damage from storms, Griffin notes.

“The church started immediately on restoration, so they set an example and a pace for the rest of the village to keep up. We’ve got work to do.”

Quick to act

Some of the first images anyone saw of Asheville after the rain dissipated on Sept. 27, at least those with internet service, were of the incredible flooding in Biltmore Village.

Once Hurlbert got an idea of the scale of the disaster, she went with her wife, Dee, to stay with friends in Greensboro so they could access internet and cell service to contact the Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina and All Souls’ congregation.

“We sent an email survey to everybody to check in. We were calling people. We were, you know, just doing everything we could to get to hear from our parishioners,” she says. It took nearly a month for them to hear from everyone because of cell service or people traveling, but thankfully, Hurlbert says, everyone is safe.

Quickly, the church jumped into remediation mode. Hurlbert solicited the help of BMS Cat, a remediation company with regional offices in Charlotte and Atlanta, to begin cleaning out the church and surveying damage.

Hurlbert acknowledges the church is lucky to have flood insurance and a congregation willing to jump in and help bring it back online, but considering the scale of the flooding, she wanted to enlist the help of professionals to keep volunteers safe.

One worry was the safety of the church’s archives on the second floor of the office, containing documents, books, binders and ledgers dating back more than 100 years.

“With the standing water in the first floor of the building and no power, just like everywhere else, it was essential that it be removed quickly before any mold growth took hold,” says Nancy Rosebrock, director of conservation and collections at Biltmore Estate.

Even though the Biltmore Estate hasn’t provided direct financial support to the church other than an occasional grant, it sometimes provides staff to help decorate or with restoration projects.

“In the days following the storm, Biltmore’s executive committee wanted to identify community members or community organizations that we might be able to assist, and All Souls was at the top of that list, just given the historic connection,” Rosebrock says.

The estate came to the rescue to save the church’s archives. But perhaps the estate’s most important role was in saving the church’s 46 quarter-sawn oak pews, Hurlbert says.

From shelter to sheltered

During the 1916 flood, so many homes were washed away that many displaced in the area came to All Souls, the highest point in the village, to sleep on those pews, says Martha Fullington, a church vestry member and retired architectural historian.

In 2024, those same pews, complete with the original cushions that were used as beds in 1916, “got tossed around like dollhouse furniture,” Fullington says.

With the sanctuary full of mud, Hurlbert worried the pews would swell and mold from the moisture and lack of temperature control if they were left there, so she called the estate for help.

Rosebrock says workers found space for the 46 pews and other assorted kneelers and chairs and hauled five or six truckloads worth out of the muck to a safe, dry location formerly used as an event space.

Staff used warm water, dish detergent, soft-bristle brushes and sponges to clean them up, and Rosebrock says they will hold the pews until the church gets temperature control and power back.

A resilient congregation 

As cleanup work began, All Souls kept meeting, beginning at Trinity Episcopal Church in downtown Asheville on Oct. 13 and then at St. George’s Episcopal Church in West Asheville starting Dec. 8.

“I’m so grateful for that, and even though it is heartbreaking to be put out of the church, we are able to come together to pray, to worship and to grieve together,” Hurlbert says.

Immediately after the storm, Hurlbert says, it was incredibly important to maintain the connection with other members.

“It was such a joy to be able to see people and just hug your people and know that you’re safe, that we’re going to get through it. And the church is the church, wherever we are. You know, we love our buildings, but the church is not the building. The church is the people,” she says.

In a way, Hurlbert says this event has really made the about 300-person congregation more tight-knit since members are meeting in one service now instead of being spread out over 10 or so services across the week. Plus, inevitable comparisons with COVID-era shutdowns have Hurlbert reflecting that this disaster has people relying on each other, rather than fearing each other.

“So instead of driving us apart, it’s really bringing the community together, and that’s been wonderful to see.”

Going forward, there is no doubt All Souls will renovate and rebuild what is necessary, Hurlbert says. She hopes to use this as an opportunity to renovate the kitchen to become commercial-grade, allowing All Souls to serve as a host for food-related nonprofits, for example. She says she expects to be back in the sanctuary by Christmas 2025.

“We want to build back better and more resilient. So we’re trying to take this as an opportunity to invest in future generations here,” Hurlbert says.

Part of that resiliency is moving the electrical system out of the basement, she notes.

For Griffin, All Souls’ rebuild is important to the health and sustainability of Biltmore Village as a whole, and he has no doubt about either.

“Historically, it has always been a church for everybody, and I think of it as something that is a gift to the street. It’s a gift to the public. And every time people drive by, it’s so beautiful, and it affects their perception of where they are,” Griffin says.