Abe's Flat Stanley in Asheville, North Carolina!!

Hey Abe, Mrs. Sturgis, and the rest of the class!
Thanks for sending Flat Stanley down to me in Asheville, North Carolina. He arrived when Abe’s cousins and I had the flu, so he had to hang out at our house for a little while before we could hit the town for some sightseeing. We got out this afternoon, and even though it was cloudy, we had a great time. Let me tell you a little about what we did: 

I am an artist in Asheville. We have a lot of artists here; it’s a very creative town and a great place to see art and listen to cool music. The first picture is Stanley sticking onto one of my paintings of ice cubes. He’s really quite a good painter and he helped me get some paintings ready to ship out. I think he enjoyed the studio.
All the rest of the photos have Abe’s cousins, Pearl (9 years old) and Vivi (5 years old) holding Stanley while we toured around town. 

 

Our first stop downtown was Malaprop’s bookstore, one of the oldest local shops in town. We love local businesses here and Malaprop’s is our favorite bookstore. 

 

Asheville is in the mountains, right near the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Smokies, and the Black Mountain Range. We’re about 2000 feet above sea level and it’s really hilly here. Here’s a photo of the girls with Stanley in front of the mountains. It was a little cloudy, so the mountains were a little bit hidden. 

 

That church behind them is the Basilica. It’s a beautiful European church that was taken apart and brought to Asheville and rebuilt here. We didn’t go inside, but if you get the chance to visit, you should check it out. It’s really cool. In the spring, there are big roses that bloom outside. 

 

After that, we went to Mast General Store, another great local business. There’s a guitar player outside the store. We have a lot of musicians who play downtown. It’s called busking. They open their instrument cases and people put a dollar or two in them to say thanks for playing such good music. 

 

We have a lot of tourists who visit to see the mountains, art, and eat good food. This is a photo of one of our many new hotels. It’s actually an old bank building that they’re re-using and turning into a hotel. It’s like recycling a building and it’s going to be really cool. 

 

An interesting thing about Asheville is that we have great Art Deco architecture. It’s a style that was really popular in the 1920s and even though a lot of downtowns changed over the years, Asheville kept a lot of its original buildings. That tall building behind Stanley and the girls is the Jackson Building. It’s actually the tallest building in the United States without an elevator. We didn’t make Stanley walk to the top; we would have been so tired! 

 

Down below the Jackson Building is the French Broad Chocolate Lounge. The French Broad River is our river that goes through the middle of Asheville. A while ago, a young family started making their own chocolate with cocoa beans from Costa Rica and they made the French Broad Chocolate Lounge. Definitely go there when you visit Asheville; the chocolate is so tasty! 

 

This photo is Pack Square and those buildings behind them are the courthouse and the city building. Pack Square is a cool park and in the summer, there are outside movies and bluegrass music on some of the weekends. 

 

The tall pointy sculpture is called an obelisk and that one is Vance Monument. It’s right in the middle of downtown, near Pack Square, and is named for a former governor of NC.

 

The building behind Stanley and the girls is the Grove Arcade. It was supposed to be a skyscraper but after they built the first two floors, they didn't have enough money to finish it so they kept it like that. Now it has cool stores, restaurants, and some offices. 

 

The girls are standing with Stanley in front of the Bee Charmer. Asheville is a Bee City; we protect pollinators because of how important they are to the environment. If you need some honey or a beeswax candle, that’s the store for you. 

 

Maybe you have heard of Wall Street in New York City, but we have a Wall Street here too. It’s where Abe’s Aunt Harli works. There’s a cool triangular building called the Flat Iron building and a cool public sculpture called the Flat Iron that are in these photos.

 

These last photos are in the River Arts District. Years ago, artists turned old warehouses by the river into studios and now there are around 200 studios there as well as restaurants and shops. It’s a fast growing area with a greenway by the river and a lot of cool stuff to see.

 

We didn't get to do everything in Asheville with Stanley. I would have loved to take him on the Blue Ridge Parkway, an amazing road through the mountains that goes from Virginia all the way to Georgia. It’s a beautiful drive with lots of good hiking and even goes over Mount Mitchell, the tallest mountain east of the Mississippi River.

Also, there’s the Biltmore house. The Vanderbilt family built it in the middle of Asheville in the 1800s and it’s the largest single family home in the US. They had their own dairy farm and still make ice cream from their cows. There’s a little part of downtown near the Biltmore house called Biltmore Village with lots of great shops and restaurants. You should definitely visit there when you come to Asheville!
If you visit in the summer, you might be able to go to a minor league baseball game and cheer for the Asheville Tourists or maybe even go to a minor league soccer game and cheer for Asheville City Soccer Club. We have a men’s team and next summer, we’ll have a women’s team too. Their games are awesome!
Asheville is a really neat town in the mountains and I hope the Stanley enjoyed his visit. We only have about 90,000 people who live here, so it’s a little bigger than Portland, but over 10 million people visit here every year! It’s a lot of visitors, but we like that they want to come and see the beautiful mountains, ride mountain bikes, hike, go tubing in the river, eat delicious food, and see all the cool artwork and sights in town. Hopefully sometime, you can come visit us too! In the meantime, thanks for letting Stanley visit! I wonder where he’s going next...