Qualla: Asheville City Hall

Asheville City Hall: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Teemu08, CC BY-SA 3.0. It was supposed to have a twin. When Douglas Ellington designed Asheville City Hall between 1926 and 1928, the plan called for a matching building next door - a courthouse rising from the same plaza, the two structures connected by a wing, the whole composition reading as a single Art Deco statement at the head of Court Plaza. Then politics intervened. Buncombe County's commissioners overruled Ellington and built a taller, more conservative Beaux-Arts courthouse instead. The connecting wing was never built. Asheville City Hall stands alone - octagonal, salmon-tiled, and unmistakable - the most photographed building in the city and the silhouette that anchors the city seal.

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Image: Teemu08 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Asheville City Hall: Douglas Ellington

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rollin Jewett, CC BY-SA 4.0. Ellington was born in Clayton, North Carolina, trained at Drexel Institute and the University of Pennsylvania, then won a scholarship to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He arrived in Asheville in 1926 at the height of a Florida-fueled mountain building boom and produced - in f...

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Image: Rollin Jewett | CC BY-SA 4.0

Asheville City Hall: The Pink Octagon

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Karen D. Hoffman, CC BY-SA 3.0. The terra-cotta roof tiles came from Ludowici in Ohio, fired in shades of salmon and rose that catch the late afternoon sun and turn the entire upper third of the building the color of a tropical fish. Ellington layered pink Georgia marble, buff brick, and limestone trim - colors...

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Image: Karen D. Hoffman | CC BY-SA 3.0

Asheville City Hall: The Plaza That Wasn't

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Teemu008 from Palatine, Illinois, CC BY-SA 2.0. When the county commissioners chose a more conservative courthouse, they did so partly out of expense and partly out of caution - Art Deco was new, modern, and unproven in a place that prided itself on respectability. The Buncombe County Courthouse, completed in 1928, rose sevent...

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Image: Teemu008 from Palatine, Illinois | CC BY-SA 2.0

Asheville City Hall: On the Register

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Farragutful, CC BY-SA 3.0. Asheville City Hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 as a contributing structure to the Downtown Asheville Historic District. Ellington's building has appeared on city seals, business logos, postcards, brewing labels, and tourism brochures so often th...

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Image: Farragutful | CC BY-SA 3.0

Asheville City Hall: Ellington's Legacy

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Davidhuffcreative, CC BY-SA 4.0. Ellington left Asheville in 1932 when the Depression killed the boom that had brought him here. He continued practicing - notably designing buildings at Charleston Naval Yard and at Greenfield Village in Michigan - but never again had a stage like the one Asheville gave him in th...

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Image: Davidhuffcreative | CC BY-SA 4.0