Blue Ridge Country July/August 2022 - 14

THE GOOD WALK
ART, HISTORY AND MORE
Asheville
Downtown Walk
The 1.7-mile loop celebrates some of the best of the North
Carolina city's history, luminaries and rewarding stops.
Text by LEONARD M. ADKINS | Photos by LEONARD M. & LAURIE ADKINS
T
he Asheville Urban Trail is an experience of a
different kind. Most city walking tours are designed
to deliver visitors to architecturally significant
buildings or draw attention to particular
historical sites. Ashville's trail is a 1.7-mile
circular route with more than two dozen stations
displaying informational plaques and objects
of public art.
Taking more than 10 years in the planning and execution,
the trail interprets and highlights the city's arts
and culture, with a bit of history thrown in for good
measure.
The exploration begins in Pack Square with bronze
pigs and turkeys winding their way along a pathway,
suggesting the city's early days when livestock was
driven from the mountains to markets on the coast. It
was here that Laurie and I learned that the town was
originally known as Morristown. Nearby, Childhood-a
young girl drinking from a bronze fountain-represents
both the potential of a young life as well as past times
when children played in downtown squares.
Placed inconspicuously on a bench (which prompted
Laurie to declare that we were really on a scavenger hunt)
are a bronze top hat, cane and gloves that symbolize the
patrons of the past that were attracted to the various
theaters and Grand Opera House that once presented
live performances downtown. Not so easily overlooked
are the series of abstract sculptures of different emotions
depicted in the Asheville Community Theatre's many
productions as well as the huge black iron (patterned
after one used in a local laundry) that sits close to the
1926 Flat Iron Building.
A caduceus, metal bench and bust honors Elizabeth
14 BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
CLOCKWISE FROM
IMMEDIATE RIGHT:
The Grove Arcade, dating to
1926, offers shopping and dining.
Gary Aslum's " Appalchian
Stage " is one of many
downtown sculptures.
Livestock sculptures are part of
the lure of Pack Square.
The Thomas Wolfe Memorial
immortalizes the author's
childhood home.
Wall art adorns the outside of
Asheville Community Theatre.
Blackwell, America's first woman to earn a medical degree,
while bronze replicas of Thomas Wolfe's size 13
shoes are placed in front of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial,
once the boarding house operated by his mother
and depicted as " Dixieland " in his novel, " Look Homeward,
Angel. "
My favorite spot, without a doubt, is Appalachian
Stage, five life-size sculptures depicting musicians and
dancers exuberantly enjoying the strains of some Appalachian
Mountain music. I thought it appropriate that
people were lined up behind the sculptures waiting to
purchase tickets to a performance of " Riverdance " in the
adjoining Thomas Wolfe Auditorium.
I had consulted several travel review websites before
coming to Asheville and numerous people had given the
urban trail five stars, but one person truly captured the
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Blue Ridge Country July/August 2022

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