Things to do / Travel Guide
There are a number of architecturally-significant cities and towns in the southern Appalachian Mountains: Harrisonburg, Staunton, and Abingdon, in Virginia; Asheville, North Carolina; and Greenville and Knoxville in Tennessee, all boast charming architecture in a varied selection of styles.
Local architecture of note is either historic or in an older style. You'll find an Elizabethan playhouse, a Renaissance Revival courthouse, rows of Victorian houses, one of the great edifices of the Gilded Age, a totally unique boulder-built building, and more.
The Appalachians and the Log Cabin
The bedrock architecture of the southern Appalachian Mountains is the log cabin. This most simple form of building can be found all over the region, from West Virginia to North Carolina, and, of course, beyond. The Appalachian log cabin is a mixture and homogenization of cultures, of all those that settled in these parts: The English, Germans, Scots-Irish, and Scandinavians all built them, and over the years the styles blended.
Log cabins weren't only used for living in; they were also built for barns, corn cribs, and stores. Their heyday was in the 19th and early-20th centuries, though many remain, forlorn and abandoned some, flourishing and lived-in others. Wherever you go in the region, the log cabins are charmingly-rustic reminders of yesteryear.
Architecture in Harrisonburg
Harrisonburg, Virginia, is on the western side of the Shenandoah Valley. It's a small city, home to two universities and much of the downtown area dates to the late 19th century. It gave its name to a particular city plan called the Harrisonburg Plan, in which the city fans out from around the city hall. The plan was duplicated in other Southern states, but the first instance is in Harrisonburg.
The city hall itself is quite a looker. It was built in 1897, when Harrisonburg was at its height as an agricultural powerhouse and railroad center. The edifice is in the Romanesque or Renaissance Revival style, with an imposing porch and bell tower. It was built by the same architectural firm that made Staunton an architectural beauty of a city.
Architecture in Staunton
Staunton, Virginia, was most built up in the 1870s, with its greatest growth coming from the architecture firm of T.J. Collins & Son. The city was one of the Shenandoah's most prosperous communities, and the downtown area is crowded with Victorian, Federal, and Beaux Arts masterpieces. Collins' firm worked in all these styles. Since the 1980s, the whole downtown area and the other historical neighborhoods have been largely renovated and refurbished, and a walk down Main Street reveals the strip to be one of the best of its kind in the U.S.
Particularly worth seeing is Staunton's Trinity Episcopal Church, a perfect specimen of the American Gothic Revival style. It was built as the third church for the congregation, in 1855. The redbrick façade, the angle-buttressed tower, the stark rose window and the stained glass windows to be appreciated inside looking out, all contribute to make the building a unique Staunton specimen.
Another interesting site is the Blackfriars Playhouse, completed in 2001. The outside building is modern in appearance, but if you go inside it's a faithful recreation of the second Blackfriars Playhouse. The balcony, the stage, the upper seats - all are as they would have been in 1608. You can come for a play, or just to look around.
Architecture in Monticello and the University of Virginia
It is unimaginable what American architecture would have been like without Thomas Jefferson's visionary approach. He was an idealist; a believer in architectural perfection as deemed by Palladio in the 16th century. His most important architectural influence was in bringing to the fore Federalist-style public buildings.
Two complexes of Jefferson's have been particularly influential: Monticello and the University of Virginia.
- Monticello was built around the turn of the 19th century, and its most prominent feature is the Greek-inspired dome. Pre-1796 work was focused on the basic Palladian aspects of the estate; post, when he returned from his European travels, he introduced elements he had seen from Greek ruins. The dome was added last, in 1809.
- Soon after he finished his own home, Jefferson moved on and planned the building of the University of Virginia. He himself was responsible for the design of what's called the Academic Village. The crowning edifice on the campus is his Rotunda, modeled after the Pantheon in Rome. What you see today is not the original; it burned to the ground in 1895, the replacement wasn't exactly built to Jefferson's plans, and in the 1970s it was remodeled to those plans.
Architecture in Asheville
Most classical styles are represented in Asheville, the largest city in western North Carolina. The city is a wonder for all lovers of culture, as well as lovers of classical to early-modern architecture. There's Federal, Gothic, Beaux Arts, Victorian, Arts and Crafts, Art Deco, and more. Brick is the primary building material. It's enough to just stroll the streets at some points, though some neighborhoods are farther away and more self-contained.
Your first stop should be the Downtown Asheville Historic District, centered around Pack Square. To the east of the square are two Asheville civic buildings, Buncombe County Courthouse and City Hall. These brick buildings were both built in the 1920s, with similar aims, but by different architects.
- The County Courthouse is square in overall shape and 17 stories tall; it's characterized by two setbacks, and overlaid by ornamentation in the Neo-Classical Revival style. The inside lobby is breathtaking, with a sweeping stairway, coffered ceiling, and a mosaic floor. The design strayed significantly from the practice of making city halls plain layerings of brick.
- City Hall was even more innovative, a striking example of Art Deco in the South. This is another square building, but the levels leading to the pinnacled roof are octagonal. The building materials were all taken from Southern sources, and the architect claimed the design was inspired by the mountainous terrain of western North Carolina.
Churches in Asheville are also pretty epic. These are mostly brick beauties, dating from the turn of the 20th century until the 1920s. Check ‘em out:
- First Baptist Church - The same person who designed City Hall, named Douglas Ellington, designed this innovative church. It can be found just north of Pack Square. The design can be called a mixture of Beaux Arts and Art Deco, but the thrust is to mimic the space of an ancient pre-Middle Ages church.
- Church of St. Lawrence - This downtown Catholic church, located west of Broadway, was built in a distinctive Spanish style. It's truly a remarkable building, built purely of small tiles and masonry according to an old Catalan method - no wood or steel is used anywhere. The central dome is reputed to be the one of the largest freestanding elliptical domes in all North America.
- Masonic Temple - OK, this isn't a church but a temple. This is a really cool and imposing building, commanding respect. There's a tall elevated portico with twinned Ionic columns on either side. It's on Broadway.
- All Souls Church and Parish Hall - Southwest of the city, in the community called Biltmore, this Romanesque Revival church bears a sneaking similarity to Frank Lloyd Wright's Unitarian Church in Shorewood Hills, Wisconsin. Coincidence? All Souls of course was built a full 50 years prior, but its acutely-angled triangular façades are definitely reminiscent of Wright's works.
Two neighborhoods stand out for those who want to witness beautiful architecture in an historical district. These are Montford and Chestnut Hill. Both feature Victorian and Queen Anne-style houses, such as Montford's O.B. Wright house and Chestnut Hill's Belvedere. Montford contains some interesting castle-like residences, as well. You'll find some stunning mausoleums and monuments to the dead in Montford's Riverside Cemetery.
Biltmore Estate
Biltmore Estate is one of Asheville's prime tourist attractions. It was built in the late 19th century by one of the sons of the Gilded Age, George Washington Vanderbilt II. This Vanderbilt had the will and the means to make one of the very grandest estates in the history of the U.S. The ground area of the house itself covers four acres, while the estate all told covers many hundreds more.
The estate was largely modeled after those found in France's celebrated Loire Valley. The turrets, the gargoyles, the steep gables - all bring you back to 16th- and 17th-century France. The architect was Richard Morris Hunt, who had also designed the houses of some of Biltmore's siblings. In charge of landscaping, a huge job considering the vastness of the estate, was none other than Frederick Law Olmsted. That's the same person who designed Central Park in Manhattan, Boston's Emerald Necklace, Jackson Park in Chicago, and many college campuses. If you want to see the best of the best of 19th century architecture, landscaping, and household technology, Biltmore Estate cannot be bested.
Linn Cove Viaduct
And now for something a bit more modern: The last stage of the creation of the Blue Ridge Parkway was the building of the Linn Cove Viaduct, the parkway bridge that skirts the slope of Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina. The bridge is an engineering marvel; the designers wanted to make sure they wouldn't mar the mountain itself, so they built the two-mile-long bridge in segments at the mountain's base and lifted the segments up one by one. As it is, your car parallels the mountain all the way around, but you never actually drive on its surface. Pretty cool!
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