Asheville Attractions

The All Souls Church was built by railroad baron George Washington Vanderbilt II in 1896 to serve as the local parish church for Biltmore Village. It is located opposite the train depot in Biltmore Village. The church was designed as a Romanesque Revival church.

The Basilica of St. Lawrence is Spanish Renaissance architecture. The basilica was designed and built in 1905 by Spanish architect. The foundation is made of massive stone and the solid brick structure was built to endure generations. The structure has no beams of wood or steel in the entire structure. All the walls, floors, ceilings and pillars are made from tile and masonry material. The roof is made of tile with a copper covering.

Central United Methodist Church was the first church in Asheville and was built in 1837 on the current site. In 1902 the current building was built on the same site. The church was built using limestone and presents a Romanesque Revival style and closely reflects the Gothic Revival style.

Today Central United Methodist Church remains Asheville's longest continuously operating church and has over 3,000 members.

The First Baptist Church was built between 1925 and 1927. It is one of Asheville's architectural treasures. The First Baptist Church is 65,000 square feet. It is a two-story, domed, polygonal brick building. A slightly bell cast dome capped by a copper cupola sits atop the octagonal main auditorium and a full height portico greets visitors at the entrance. The exterior of the church is Neoclassical. The primary exterior materials are brick and marble. There are geometric star patterns set in low relief panels accentuate the entrance doors The large, open sanctuary is richly detailed with geometric stars, stylized floral and feather motifs, diamond-shaped panels and abstract diagonal fretwork.

In 1884 the leaders of the First Presbyterian Church commission to build a new building to provide more space for the increasing growing congregation. The church was built for $8,000 and could accommodate 600 worshipers. The Gothic Revival style brick nave and tower feature deep-corbelled cornices, hood-molded windows and blind arcading at the eaves.

Over the years the church building has gone through several renovation to accommodate the growing congregation.

Zion Baptist Church, a beautiful redbrick late Victorian Gothic church, is home to one of Asheville's largest  African Americans congregations. The current Mt Zion Baptist Church was built in 1919. The church is two and one-half stories from the stone foundation and raises to a tin-shingled roof where three towers are topped by ornamental sheet-metal finials. There are many Art Glass windows that ornament the towers and walls.

St. Mary's was constructed in 1914 in a cruciform plan in an English Gothic Revival style. It is an Anglo-Catholic Episcopal parish. Both the interior and exterior elements of the building reflect the characteristics of Anglo-Catholic churches in England. The red brick church has a stone foundation and a steeply pitched gabled roof. The windows are pointed arches with leaded glass diamond panes.

St. Mary's is the only Anglo-Catholic church in North Carolina.

Tours: Tours are available by calling the church

St. Matthias Episcopal Church is located at the top of a steep hill in at the "East End" of Asheville which is known as one of the oldest neighborhoods developed by African Americans in the city. The present church was built in 1894 and was completed in 1898.