An historic building at 19 Zillicoa St. in Asheville’s Montford neighborhood recently sold for $2 million, according to property records. The buyer is a local family of investors, Northwind Investment Partners Inc. The group’s registered agent is listed as David Brown.
The stone building, which resembles a small English manor, is known as Homewood and has quite a history. Today the building is a well-known event venue. But the structure was originally built in 1927 as the private home to a nationally renown psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Carroll, who came to the mountains to treat the rich and famous. He opened “Dr. Carroll’s Sanitarium” just down the street, a center that was later renamed Highland Hospital. One of Carroll’s most famous patients was Zelda Fitzgerald.
Features of Carroll’s home included a piano room and a stone turret. Carroll’s wife, Grace Potter Carroll, was a world-renowned concert pianist. The couple brought composer Bela Bartok to Asheville and gave private concerts to the likes of the Fitzgeralds, the Vanderbilts and others. Grace Potter Carroll is also said to have taught piano lessons to Nina Simone at Homewood.