Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
The Miami Herald discovers Asheville’s River Arts District, and 12 Bones:
ASHEVILLE, N.C. —
The neighborhood has that wrong-side-of-the-tracks feel about it, and sure enough, the railroad runs right through the middle and sometimes backs up traffic. Great hulking warehouses look slightly shabby; from a distance, the barbecue joint across the narrow road looks like ptomaine central.
But appearances are deceiving. The ramshackle warehouses and factories comprise Asheville’s up-and-coming River Arts District, and the ‘cue shack is the famous 12 Bones Smokehouse that earned top honors in Good Morning America‘s ”Best Bites” competition last fall.
It’s not that the arts are a new thing in this edgy mountain city. Since early railroad days, Asheville has drawn people with wealth, talent and style.
In the 1890s, George W. Vanderbilt purchased 125,000 acres and built his palatial Biltmore Estate here. In the 1900s, the great Art Deco architects created an extraordinary collection of flashy Art Deco buildings. In the 1930s, F. Scott Fitzgerald used the clubby Grove Park Inn as his base. For decades, the area has been known for its crafts; the Southern Highland Craft Guild’s Folk Art Center is just outside of town, on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
But the hard times that hit much of America after the 1929 stock market crash lingered here, and it’s only in the past 10-15 years that the downtown has filled with antique shops, funky boutiques, gourmet restaurants and a dozen galleries showcasing contemporary painting, glass, pottery, quilts and jewelry. Though a surprising number of homeless hang out on the streets, in summer they’re pushed aside by bustling cafés and outdoor performances like the weekly summer drumming circle.
