City of Asheville Donates Urban Renewal Files to UNC Asheville

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Unidentified youth on 33 Fagg Street, (now the approximate location of Bartlett Arms and Overlook Apartments). Part of the East Riverside Urban Renewal Project.

Documents Record Dramatic Changes in Historic African American Neighborhoods

Staff reports

When UNC Asheville junior Reed Fornoff started his internship at Moun-tain Housing Opportunities, he was hoping for a job that would match his interest in urban planning. Little did he know that his first task for the organization, a local nonprofit which provides affordable housing to low-income residents, would become an intriguing exploration into Asheville’s past.

In his first week of work, Fornoff was charged with conducting neighborhood research using files that detailed the redevelopment of the East Riverside neighborhood during the late 1960s. He began by locating and retrieving the documents that had been stored away for over 40 years.

“One cold January day Reed and I headed to the basement
of the old Altamont Hotel on the corner of Market and Woodfin Streets,
and with the help of several City employees, moved all the files to the
downtown Economic Development Office,” said Cindy Visnich Weeks,
Mountain Housing Opportunities Community Investments Manager. “This was
one of the most exciting days of my 30-year career in community
development because I knew this history could have easily been
forgotten, discarded or destroyed. I knew that we were doing something
great by bringing it back,” concluded Weeks.


When Fornoff started to look through the boxes – all 50 of them – he
found a treasure trove of materials relating to the relocation of
families out of Asheville’s East Riverside neighborhood to make way for
new, more upscale commercial development. The materials, which have
been named the “Urban Renewal Files,” contain detailed information and
photographs of some 800 homes and businesses before they were
demolished or refurbished. The files also contain home appraisals,
newspaper clippings and homeowners’ letters to City officials
protesting the eminent domain ruling that ultimately razed parts of the
neighborhood.


Fornoff spent 30 hours a week from January through May of this year
going through many of the boxes. As he examined the mountain of papers,
Fornoff was most fascinated with the photos he came across that
included people. A majority of the photos were taken by Kent Washburn
who worked for the City from 1963 to 1970.

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Children sitting on the front porch of a property located at 479 Depot Street – also part of the Urban Renewal project.

“Many mornings I would come to work and find a single photograph or a
copy of a letter on my chair,” said Weeks. “Reed had a great eye for
finding the important things in the boxes. The first photo he brought
to me was of an African-American boy and girl – about seven or eight
years old – who were standing in front of their house holding up the
number assigned to their home for demolition.”

For his final internship project, Fornoff scanned the photographs and
had them professionally enlarged, mounted and framed. Mountain Housing
Opportunities exhibited 45 of the images at the Glen Rock Hotel for two
days this past June. The first day a few people came; by the second day
word had spread and more than 500 people visited the exhibit.
“Church vanloads of people just kept showing up all day,” Fornoff said.
“Many visitors were former residents of the neighborhood who were
anxious to see the images of their homes and show them to their
children and grandchildren. It was an incredible experience.”


Mountain Housing Opportunities realized that the files were truly
valuable historic documents and began the process to donate them to UNC
Asheville’s Ramsey Library Special Collections for archiving. Asheville
City Council passed a resolution to transfer the files to UNC
Asheville, along with $10,000 to cover the cost of processing and
cataloging all the material.


“The urban renewal of the East Riverside neighborhood was a significant
and painful historical event for the African-American community and for
the whole city. I’m so glad that the City and Mountain Housing
Opportunities staff members were able to work together to find and
reclaim these files. The file contents – especially the photos –
represent the memories of so many people in our community. And because
UNC Asheville is able to house the files as part of their historical
collection, we have an opportunity to learn from the past,” said
Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy.


UNC Asheville Special Collections Librarian Helen Wykle said the
pictures are a welcome addition to the University’s archives, which
features a unique collection of materials on urban Appalachia and an
extensive body of material about Western North Carolina’s
African-American communities.


The East Riverside Renewal Project and the Civic Redevelopment Project
comprise most of the material in the donation. These two major projects
detail two key actions of urban redevelopment, total clearance and
relocation, but also conservation and rehabilitation of existing
properties, Wykle noted.


“The Urban Renewal Files are a very significant addition to UNC
Asheville’s Special Collections,” said Wykle. “This is a wonderful
example of a collaborative effort between the City, a local non-profit
organization and the University. We are grateful for these important
historic documents and I believe they will serve as a valuable tool for
faculty and student research projects as well as a bridge to the
Asheville community.”