Asheville
city and county-seat of Buncombe co., N. C., on the Southern railroad, near the French Broad river; 275 miles W. of Raleigh. It is in a tobacco-growing region; has manufactories of cotton goods, shoes, ice, tobacco, and flour; and is widely noted as a winter and summer resort, especially for invalids from the Northern States.
The city is more than 2,000 feet above the level of the sea; is surrounded by impressive mountain scenery; and has the Bingham Military Academy, Normal College and Collegiate Institute for Young Women, Home Industrial School for Girls, Asheville Farm School for Boys, Industrial School for Colored Youth, banks, electric lights, and many hotels and boarding-houses. Adjoining it is the estate of Biltmore, established by George Vanderbilt, of New York City; one of the finest botanical gardens in the world; Pisgah forest, a hunting preserve of 84,000 acres; Battery and Riverside Parks; and Mount Beaumont, 2,800 feet high. Pop. (1910) 18,762; (1920), 28,504.