Downtown Asheville lunch counter considered for local historic landmark designation

ASHEVILLE - The F.W. Woolworth Co. Building, opened in 1939, is an iconic presence in downtown Asheville, a prominent façade along bustling Haywood Street at the heart of the city's business district, made notable by its Art Deco design and eye-grabbing red sign.

But the building's historical significance resonates beyond its architectural stylings. Its lunch counter was the site of sit-ins in the 1960s, organized by a small cohort of Black students from Stephens-Lee High School, the Asheville Student Committee on Racial Equity (ASCORE).

"I remember it plainly," Oralene Simmons told the Citizen Times. She joined ASCORE as a high school junior in 1960. “It not only affected us, but it affected our entire community. But we felt this was something that we had to do. And I am reminded of that every time I go in Woolworth’s and sit on that stool. It comes back to me.”

Asheville City Council will consider adoption July 23 of an ordinance designating the property a local historic landmark. It was unanimously recommended for approval by the Historic Resources Commission in June. Building owner Scott Sirkin applied for the designation.

What is the building's history?

The building, designed by local architect Henry Gaines, is home to Woolworth Walk, which Sirkin called the city's largest local art gallery, and a soda fountain, built to resemble the original Woolworth Luncheonette and installed in the same location in 2002. The upper level of the building, originally used for offices, employee areas and storage, was extensively remodeled in 2021 into eight short-term rentals.

The lunch counter sit-ins in Asheville followed notable protests at Woolworth’s lunch counters in Greensboro, credited with igniting the sit-in movement that renewed the Civil Rights Movement as a whole.

Of the multiple downtown Asheville businesses targeted for integration by Black high school students and activists, the Woolworth building on Haywood Street remains "the most intact and closely associated with local civil rights actions," according to the landmark designation report, authored by local preservation consultant Clay Griffith.

The building itself was constructed in 1939, a "late expression" of the Art Deco style, more restrained in color, surface texture and ornament than earlier examples in Asheville, the report said, such as the vivid 1928 City Hall, designed by Douglas Ellington — described in its own report as "flamboyantly polychromed."

The interior of the Woolworth Building was extensively remodeled in 1965 but retains a number of original features including the two open sales floors on the main and lower levels, Griffith's report said.

"It's like a stroll down memory lane for (customers)," said Woolworth Walk operations manager Meredith Mashburn. "They love to go get an egg cream or a malted ... I don't think a lot of places can say they do that anymore, so it's a little step back in time."

Woolworth opened its first store in Asheville on Patton Avenue in 1914, where it operated for 25 years before the company made plans to build a "modern store" on Haywood Street.

In October 1937, the Woolworth company secured a 35-year ground lease on the property at 25 Haywood St., then occupied by the former YMCA building, built in 1901, and home of The Asheville Citizen for 17 years — which would later merge with The Asheville Times — before the paper moved into its historic building two blocks west.

Woolworth's planned a new $125,000 store to fill its spot, the report said. The downtown store closed in 1993, and the building was sold. Family Dollar operated there for several years before Sirkin bought the building in 1997.

The sit-ins

"Woolworth’s lunch counters became an integral part of the social movement to protest segregation across the South beginning in February 1960. Four Black college students from North Carolina A&T University staged a sit-in at the Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, that ultimately led to the company discontinuing its policy of racial segregation throughout the South," the report said.

In Asheville, the activism was concentrated around ASCORE, founded in 1960 by James Ferguson, student body president at Stephens-Lee, to engage in nonviolent direct action.

Stephens-Lee, known by its alumni as the "Castle on the Hill," was for many decades the only secondary school for Black students in Western North Carolina. It had its last graduation ceremony in 1965.

Group members organized sit-ins at the Kress and Woolworth lunch counters, as well as Fain’s and Newberry’s. In response to a sit-in at the Woolworth’s store in downtown Asheville, white students painted a large Confederate flag on the sidewalk in front of the store, the report said. An attempt to conduct a sit-in at the Kenilworth Drug Store on Biltmore Avenue resulted in the owner removing all the stools from the soda counter and offering take out service only.

"The students and organizers recognized that the businesses did not want to cause any kind of disturbance to deter tourists and customers, and as a result, they were instrumental in integrating downtown Asheville businesses, restaurants, and movie theaters largely through the threat of sit-ins and focused negotiations," Griffith wrote.

It was not one day of action, but many. Simmons recalled approaching a lunch counter and overhearing a white woman ask another white person to sit next to her, because she was afraid a Black man would take the stool beside her. It was a moment Simmons said she remembers clearly — along with the expressions on the faces of the servers.

“I want people to know that this was achieved by a group of high school students that had to be very brave to stand up for human dignity," Simmons said.

Simmons is a Western North Carolina native who at 17 was the first African American student to integrate the all-white Mars Hill College, now Mars Hill University, in 1961. She is the founder and longtime organizer of the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Prayer Breakfast and the former co-chair of the Vance Monument taskforce, which voted to recommend removal of the monument to a Confederate governor in November 2020.

Simmons said on occasions when she finds herself downtown, she still stops by the soda fountain.

"Every time I go in and order something, I remember that and I can say proudly, ‘I helped to do this," she said. “When I look and see other Black people sitting on the stools, it’s like, 'yes. We did this. We made a change.'”

How many local landmarks are there?

If approved by Asheville City Council, the Woolworth building would be the city's 51st local historic landmark.

Alex Cole, the city's historic preservation planner, said as an effect of designation, landmarks are subject to design restrictions, and any proposed changes to the structures or site require design review by the Historic Resource Commission to ensure that the changes are consistent with the historic character of the landmark.

As an incentive for designation, the property will be eligible for a 50% annual property tax deferral. The current tax appraisal for the property is $4.1 million, according to the city staff report. If the property is designated a local landmark, the potential savings for the property would be $22,998 annually.

Cole said it is one of the more "iconic" buildings in Asheville's downtown. While it contributes to the "greater collection of Art Deco that Asheville is so known for," Cole was most glad to recognize its place in Asheville's civil rights history, hopeful that it would further highlight those stories.

“We don’t have many landmarks that have been designated that have history specific to our Black community, and so that’s always a win to me, when we are getting those things across the finish line,” Cole said. "What's special about that is it's an opportunity for the broader public to educate themselves ... this is just another way to formalize that recognition and honoring of that history and sharing it out."

Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@citizentimes.com or message on X, formerly Twitter, at @slhonosky. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.